Snow blankets US East

A fast-moving snowstorm barreled through the U.S. mid-Atlantic on Tuesday, cancelling flights, snarling roadways, and shutting schools and government offices while winds kept the mid-section of the country in an icy grip.

The East Coast's first significant snowfall of the season was expected to dump up to 8 inches on northern Virginia, across Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and into southern New England, Brian Korty, meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS) said in a forecast.
By midday the storm had blown through Washington, D.C., where federal government offices were shut for the day, the Office of Personnel Management said. In neighboring Delaware, Governor Jack Markell announced state offices were shut and urged residents to stay off dangerously slick roads.

Snowflakes falling on Times Square in New York City thrilled tourists, including Janet Major, 57, visiting from England.

"It's like 'Miracle on 34th Street.' It's added to the holiday atmosphere," said Major, referring to the classic Christmas movie.
Alberto Rodriguez, 45, an auto repair mechanic from Orlando, Florida, agreed.
"I'm so happy. In the four years I've been coming here I've never seen the snow. And this is my last day in the city," Rodriguez said.

The city declared a snow alert and readied 365 salt spreaders, 282 front-end snow loaders and 1,800 plows, said Belinda Mager, spokeswoman for the city Sanitation Department.

http://news.yahoo.com/cold-ice-grip-u-more-snow-blanket-east-010050461--finance.html

More than 2000 flights canceled due to weather

A series of snowy and icy storms swept through the southern and northeastern United States over the weekend, leaving at least five people dead and causing the cancellation of thousands of flights -- including more than 1,000 just at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Sunday. 

Some parts of north Texas received as much as four inches of sleet and ice -- a treacherous situation for drivers and travelers.

At least three storm-related deaths were reported in the Dallas area Saturday and Sunday, according to police reports reviewed by the Dallas Morning News. A 26-year-old man died after his car hit an icy patch and slammed into a tree; a 75-year-old woman died after slipping on some ice in her yard; and a woman in her mid-40s was found dead in a parking lot, possibly due to exposure to the cold, police said.

In Wisconsin, where some areas were expected to get six inches of snow  Sunday, at least two drivers died on snowy roads, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

At least three storm-related deaths were reported in the Dallas area Saturday and Sunday, according to police reports reviewed by the Dallas Morning News. A 26-year-old man died after his car hit an icy patch and slammed into a tree; a 75-year-old woman died after slipping on some ice in her yard; and a woman in her mid-40s was found dead in a parking lot, possibly due to exposure to the cold, police said.

In Wisconsin, where some areas were expected to get six inches of snow  Sunday, at least two drivers died on snowy roads, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-icy-weather-20131208,0,3791938.story#axzz2n6M3P7Ir

2 adult and 4 children missing in Nevada snow

(CNN) -- Frigid weather gripping much of the United States led to a frenzied search in northwest Nevada, where rescue teams are scouring a mountainous area for two adults and four children who went to play in the snow and never returned.

James Glanton, 34, and Christina MacIntee, 25, are missing, along with Glanton's two children and MacIntee's niece and nephew. The children range from 3 to 10 years old, the Pershing County Sheriff's Office said.

The group set out Sunday for Seven Troughs mountain range and haven't been seen since.

Fears intensified as the temperature plummeted to below zero.

More snow and ice

The pre-winter wintry weather isn't over yet. Temperatures in storm-stricken parts of the country are expected to stay about 10 to 20 degrees below normal for the rest of the week, the National Weather Service said.

Federal offices in Washington are closed Tuesday as more sleet, snow and freezing rain are expected. And a swath of 2 to 6 inches of snow is expected to fall Tuesday from Virginia to the New England coast, forecasters said.

Philadelphia can expect to get 3 to 5 inches of snow on Tuesday; New York, a little less than that.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/10/us/winter-weather/

Black Friday Weather

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/cold-air-to-greet-black-friday/20424663

After a cold Thanksgiving in Chicago, those venturing out for Black Friday shopping won't catch much of a reprieve.
Temperatures will climb into the mid-30s Friday with partly sunny skies. The low will drop into the upper 20s.
Those planning to wait outdoors for the best deals should dress appropriately for winter conditions. Extended periods in the cold can result in hypothermia.

Despite cloudy skies, Saturday will be the warmest remaining day of the week as the mercury pushes into the low 40s.
The weather will continue to cooperate through the end of the weekend, as travelers make the trek home. The precipitation that snarled travel plans for many Wednesday will be long gone, making for smoother travel Sunday, the second busiest travel day of the year.
Times of clouds and sun will punctuate the day, as highs push into the upper 30s.

Iran Earthquake Strikes Near Nuclear Power Plant

http://www.weather.com/news/iran-earthquake-nuclear-power-plant-20131128

TEHRAN, Iran -- An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 struck a town Thursday in southern Iran, killing seven people while causing no damage at the country's only nuclear power plant, state television reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor struck some 8.7 miles northeast of Borazjan. It hit some 38 miles north of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is near the port city of the same name.

The website for state television carried a statement from the plant's operators saying it sustained no damage in the quake.
Bushehr province Gov. Fereidoun Hasanvand told state television that 45 people were injured.
Many people fled their homes during the earthquake, fearful the buildings would crash down on them, local media reported. Those living in neighboring provinces also felt the quake.
In April, a 6.1-magnitude earthquake killed at least 37 people and injured hundreds in a town near Bushehr. The nuclear plant wasn't damaged then.

Iran is located in a zone of tectonic compression where the Arabian plate is moving into the Eurasian plate, leaving more than 90 percent of the country crisscrossed by seismic fault lines.
Nine quakes that hit Iran in the last decades were more than magnitude 6, including a 2003 temblor that killed at least 26,000 people in the city of Bam. Scientists say more fault lines likely will be discovered in the country and more major quakes are only a matter of time.

Weather walloping East Coast

Damaging winds gusting up to 60 mph were expected to rip through Boston and other coastal areas. Those winds could prevent the giant balloons from taking flight this year at the Macy’s parade. Safety rules that specify wind speeds were enacted in New York after a spectator was killed in 1997 in an accident involving an out-of-control balloon.
Flight cancellations piled up at East Coast hubs. Flightstats.com is reporting as many as 628 flights cancelled and almost 6,000 delays at about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday evening. But that was a fraction of the nearly 32,000 flights that were scheduled to, from or within the U.S. on Wednesday. And the weather in many places was improving as the day wore on. Most of the cancellations involved Newark, N.J., Philadelphia and New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
The storm system, which developed in the West, has been blamed for at least 11 deaths, half of them in Texas. It limped across Arkansas with a smattering of snow, sleet and freezing rain that didn’t meet expectations.

 

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/stormy-weather-creates-thanksgiving-travel-nightmare-article-1.1530790

Typhoon in Phillipines

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dymfSWsVbIM

BBC news talks about the Typhoon Utor in the Phillipines.

Halloween Storm of 2003

    Left: This spooky looking aurora was seen near Nome, Alaska in October of 2003, just days before Halloween. Credit: Spaceweather.com
  Right: The 2003 Halloween solar storms were so powerful that auroras were seen as far south as Texas and Florida. This aurora image was taken near Houston Texas. Credit: Spaceweather.com
 
Called the "Halloween Storms of 2003," these energetic storms began, surprisingly, a full two to three years after solar maximum, when solar activity was on the decline. During this usually "quiet" time, when few sunspots are visible, an outbreak of 17 major flares erupted on the sun.

Space weather from these enormous solar storms slammed into Earth’s magnetic field from October 19 through November 7. “The effects of these storms were ghoulish enough that [aircraft controllers] had to re-route aircraft, it affected satellite systems and communications, and it also caused a power outage in Sweden for about an hour,” said Dr. Holly Gilbert, a solar scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
 
During the height of the solar activity, more than half of the deep space and near-Earth space science missions experienced the effects of the Halloween storms of 2003. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite, a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), failed temporarily. NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite experienced damage, and instruments aboard many spacecraft had to be shut down temporarily.

Another effect of these storms was an increase in the colorful dancing lights seen at Earth’s north and south poles, called aurora. “The aurora are normally limited to the higher latitudes, and these storms were so powerful they created aurora that could be seen as far south as Florida,” said Gilbert.



http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/halloween_storms.html 

halloween storm

A massive Halloween storm will unleash torrential rain, heavy thunderstorms and howling winds in a corridor from Texas to the Midwest and Northeast. The storm may force travelers and trick-or-treaters to delay or cancel their plans.
Gusty, slow-moving thunderstorms will threaten areas from St. Louis to Memphis, Tenn., to Little Rock, Ark., and Houston late Thursday morning and into the afternoon. Locally damaging winds could bring down trees and power lines, and isolated tornadoes cannot be ruled out.

http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/10/28/massive-halloween-storm-texas-to-midwest-northeast/

Man Struck by Lightning ... Twice

The odds of being struck by lightning in a lifetime are about 1 in 6,250, according to the National Weather Service. By being struck twice, 31-year-old Casey Wagner beat far greater odds.
The man, who was at an off-road competition in North Texas over the weekend, was standing under a tree when he was hit by lightning twice in close succession, he told KTVT-TV.
“What I remember is just a loud boom and it dropped me to my knees and then it hit me again,” Wagner told the station. “When I got hit, it was just two big ol’ flashes and then sparks went everywhere.”
A nurse at the event took care of him until he was taken to a hospital, where doctors monitored him until his heartbeat returned to normal. The plastic poncho he was wearing may have attracted the lightning, hospital personnel told him.

http://news.discovery.com/adventure/survival/man-struck-by-lightning-twice-131028.htm

downburst or tornado?

Friday night there were numerous warnings for severe thunderstorms, but the only major damage was from a storm that produced a powerful "downburst" that did some terrible damage in the Bladensburg area
Three weeks ago, on June 1, there was an equal number of warnings for tornadoes during a dangerous afternoon and evening, and there were a number of small, short lived tornadoes later confirmed by the National Weather Service. 
But here in the Washington area, severe thunderstorms, downbursts and straight line winds have done more damage over the years than any tornado.  Terrific advances in radar meteorology over the last 20 years (now with dual-pol)  have allowed us to see storm structure in small detail.  But while Doppler can "see" rotation in storms and even very small whirlwinds in the air above us, which technically might produce a small tornado and trigger a TORNADO WARNING and result in some minor damage, downbursts can produce winds of 100mph or higher and cause major damage.
http://www.wjla.com/blogs/weather/2012/06/downburst-or-tornado-what-happened-last-evening-around-bladensburg--15942.html

Cyclon Phailin

Cyclone Phailin, categorised as "very severe" by weather forecasters, is expected to hit Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states on Saturday evening.
The Meteorological Department has predicted the storm will bring winds of up to 220km/h (136mph).
A super-cyclone in 1999 killed more than 10,000 people in Orissa.
But officials say this time they are better prepared, the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Orissa reports.

Officials said Cyclone Phailin would bring a storm surge of at least 3m (10ft) that was likely to cause "extensive damage" to mud houses on the coast.
"No-one will be allowed to stay in mud and thatched houses in the coastal areas,'' said Orissa's Disaster Management Minister Surya Narayan Patra.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-24487130

Cyclone hit India

NEW DELHI — A powerful cyclone came ashore along the eastern coast of India about 9 p.m. Saturday, flooding homes throughout the region and leading to the evacuations of more than 800,000 people, one of the largest such evacuations in India’s history.


The storm’s maximum sustained winds were about 124 miles per hour with gusts reaching 150 m.p.h., according to Indian officials. At least five people were killed in the coastal city of Gopalpur because of heavy rain and high winds before the storm made landfall, officials said. The storm was expected to drop up to 10 inches of rain over the next two days in some areas. 





http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/world/asia/india-cyclone.html?_r=0

6+ inches of rain within 24 hrs

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/06/louisville-flash-flooding/2933353/



LOUISVILLE -- Hundreds of Louisville residents were affected by flash flooding late Saturday and early Sunday after more than 6 inches of rain fell in 24 hours in parts of the Louisville area, prompting more than 1,000 calls to police, 84 evacuations, hundreds of assists and 12 rescues by firefighters.
No one was reported hurt, but dozens of roads were closed and many homes and cars damaged. The Red Cross on Monday will begin estimating how many people were displaced and may be in need, said Janine Brown, the disaster director for the Red Cross in Louisville.
Joseph Baker returned home Sunday to grapple with insurance and temporary housing as he prepared to replace walls, carpets, furniture and appliances lost as fast-rising flood waters forced their way into his home.

Originally the weather service forecast called for less than 2 inches of rain to fall late Saturday into Sunday. But by 8 p.m. 3 inches had fallen, and forecasters issued the first of several flash flood warnings shortly after 10 p.m.

48 inches of snow

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/snow-plains-rockies-fall-winte/18325976


Blizzard conditions blasted through Wyoming, western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska on Friday through Saturday morning, shutting down travel. In some areas, the snow fell at a rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour.
As of midday Saturday, a trained spotter reported 48 inches of snow near Deadwood, S.D.


A storm responsible for bringing record rainfall to parts of the Northwest last weekend blasted areas from the Rockies to the Plains and Midwest with snow, wind, rain, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes through early Saturday. Another round of severe storms is expected later on Saturday from Chicago to Little Rock.

Hundreds of Lives Saved by Cleaner Air

More than 800 lives are saved every year because New York City’s air is the cleanest it’s been in half a century, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday at a news conference during Climate Week NYC. Following the statement, Bloomberg spoke at The Weather Company’s special Climate Conversation event.
“You’ve got to make saving people’s lives a priority,” Bloomberg said during the news conference, noting that when it comes to the health of the city’s residents, he considers bettering the air second only to the campaign around smoking cessation. “Our objective was to give New York the cleanest air of any big American city,” he added during the Climate Conversation. “We jumped from seventh to third in just three years’ time.”
Part of that success came from getting 2,700 of the biggest-polluting buildings to switch the type of heating fuel they burn, from a pair of oils that emit significant amounts of dangerous pollutants to cleaner fuels. That’s more than one-quarter of the 10,000 buildings targeted, with 2,500 more actively pursuing conversions.



http://www.weather.com/news/science/environment/hundreds-lives-saved-cleaner-air-new-york-city-mayor-bloomberg-says-20130927

Landslide in Mexico village

http://www.weather.com/news/weather-hurricanes/manuel-landslide-mexico-20130920

ACAPULCO, Mexico -- Days usually start long before sunrise in La Pintada, where able-bodied men and the women without young children leave home before 6 a.m. to work the coffee fields around the tiny village deep in the rugged green mountains of southern Mexico.
But Monday was a holiday, and rain fell all day because of the tropical storm off the coast, so far more people than usual stayed home, napping under warm blankets or cooking for the Independence Day celebration in La Pintada's little cobblestone square.
Families gossiped. Children played at their parents' feet. Then, suddenly, the earth trembled.

For a split second everyone thought it was one of the region's regular earthquakes. But then a tidal wave of dirt, rocks and trees exploded off the hill above the village, sweeping through the center of town, burying families in their homes and sweeping wooden houses into the bed of the swollen river that winds past La Pintada on its way to the Pacific.

Kelvin Helmholtz instability clouds

Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds resemble waves breaking in the ocean. These clouds are formed between two layers of air with different densities and traveling at different speeds. If a warm, less dense layer of air exists over a layer of colder, denser air, and the wind shear across the two layers is strong enough, eddies will develop along the boundary. Evaporation and condensation of the eddies render them visible as wave shaped clouds.
The cloud is named after Lord Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz who studied the dynamics of two fluids of different densities when a small disturbance, such as a wave, was introduced at the boundary connecting the fluids. The Kelvin–Helmholtz instability occurs not only in clouds but also in the ocean, Saturn's bands, Jupiter's Red Spot, and the sun's corona.

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/07/kelvin-helmholtz-clouds.html
 

four watersprouts

http://www.examiner.com/article/pictures-waterspouts-reported-off-the-mississippi-alabama-coasts

There have been numerous reports of waterspouts off the Mississippi and Alabama coasts.
The waterspout reports began coming into the National Weather Service (NWS) late Wednesday morning as a line of strong thunderstorms moved south into the coastal waters from near Pascagoula to Mobile.
NWS issued special marine warnings for the development of waterspouts as the storms moved through the area. No damage has been reported.
A waterspout is an intense columnar vortex (usually appearing as a funnel-shaped cloud) that occurs over a body of water and is connected to a cumuliform cloud.
Waterspouts are typically small and weak, but still can be quite dangerous. Waterspouts have had an history of overturning small boats, damaging ships and doing significant damage when making contact with coastal areas and inland areas as a tornado.

twin watersprouts

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Twin water spouts put on a spectacular show over Lake Michigan, near the Wisconsin shore.
The water spouts were sighted a couple of miles off shore about 1:30 p.m. Thursday after a funnel cloud was sighted in the Wisconsin town of Kenosha.
Sgt. Bill Beth of the Kenosha County sheriff's office says the two water spouts merged into one large one, then split.
Beth says it was a "beautiful day" when the water spouts "just popped out of nowhere."
National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Townsend says water spouts generally occur between August and October.


http://www.newstimes.com/news/us/article/Water-spouts-spin-over-Lake-Michigan-near-Wis-4809806.php