Springs Last Cold Blast

Northeast: 

- Windy and unseasonably cold temperatures across the region.

- There will be snow showers for western New York, northwest Pennsylvania and the mountains of eastern West Virginia.

- 1-3" are possible in the snow belts of western NY and northwest PA.

- Snow showers will also occur in the mountains of northern New England.

- Temperatures will cool down on brisk winds.

- Monday night lows will drop into the teens in northern New England to the 30s in Virginia Monday night.

- Tuesday's highs will be 5 to 20 degrees below average with near 30s in New England and low 50s in VA. 

South: 

- Showers and thunderstorms will linger into the evening across FL.

- A few thunderstorms may be severe producing damaging wind gusts and hail.

- A storm system will take shape in northwest TX and OK later in the day and at night producing some showers and thunderstorms. A few storms could bring gusty winds and hail.

- The system will then take its time and bring rain and a few storms from TX and OK across the gulf coast states and into the southeast from Monday night through Friday.

- Rain amounts will generally be 1-2" but some spots could see up to 4" through the work week.

- Much colder temperatures move in Monday night and Tuesday with highs only in the 40s and 50s from northern Texas and Oklahoma to Tennessee and North Carolina Tuesday afternoon.

- Temperatures will be in the 70s and lower 80s along the Gulf Coast for Highs Tuesday. 

Midwest: 

- Cold northerly winds will lead to chilly conditions across the region.

- Temperatures are forecast to be 5 to 20 degrees below average over the region through Tuesday.

- The majority of the region will be dry, although lake-effect snow showers are likely across northern and western Michigan.

- Accumulations of 1 to 4 inches are possible in northern and western Michigan by Tuesday morning. 

West:

- The next cross-country storm continues to impact parts of the region with rain and mountain snow showers.

- Rain showers and a few thunderstorms are expected from central and northern California and southern Oregon through the valleys of western and central Colorado.

- Snow showers should be confined to the higher mountains of northern/central California, northeast Nevada, Utah and central Colorado.

- Snow accumulations of 2 to 8 inches are possible in the Utah and central Colorado mountains through Tuesday.

- The remainder of the region will be dry.

- Temperatures will be 5 to 15 degrees above average except in the shower zone where they should be close to average.

- Highs mostly in the 60s and 70s in the Northwest, California and Intermountain West.

- Highs in the 70s and 80s from southeast California through southern Arizona to central and southern New Mexico.

- Chillier 30s and 40s in the mountains from southern Oregon and California to Wyoming and Colorado.

 http://www.weather.com/newscenter/nationalforecast/

Jet stream and uk cold snap

As Britain leaves behind what looks to have been the coldest March for more than 50 years, forecasters are warning it will stay cold for another week at least. Meteorologists are blaming the bad weather on the position of the jet stream, a narrow band of very strong winds which tends to move from west to east across the Atlantic, bringing our weather systems with it. Sky News weather presenter Isobel Lang said: "The jet stream is currently displaced well to the south of its usual position across the north Atlantic and Europe, located across the Azores, Spain and the Mediterranean. "So the UK will remain stuck in the cold air to the north and it's set to stay cold for at least another week. The position of a jet stream varies within the natural fluctuations of the environment. They are caused by the temperature difference between tropical air masses around the equator and and polar air masses. Experts argue about why the jet stream is out of position, but it could be caused by a combination of the reduction in Arctic sea ice over the last few decades, climate change, solar activity and natural variability within the climate.

Link to full text ! http://news.sky.com/story/1072350/weather-jet-stream-blamed-for-uk-cold-snap

An Unusual Weather Turn Even for the Midwest: 8 Degrees Quickly Becomes 74

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — T. J. Abogado huffed and puffed, his buzz cut and face sprinkled with sweat. He was wearing short navy blue shorts, but his red T-shirt was now in his hand.

Ed Zurga for The New York Times

Catherine Pajor studying outside the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on Monday in Kansas City, Mo., where the high was 74.

“It got too hot,” Mr. Abogado, 27, said on Monday afternoon after jogging a few miles on a sunny day that felt a lot more like June than January.

Was this athletic dedication on display last week?

“No, not at all,” he said. “I was in the house hibernating.”

Last week the temperature here dropped to 8 degrees, a low for the month. On Monday, the mercury topped out at 74, breaking a 96-year-old record high for the date.

“It’s like, ‘Jesus, thank you for this wonderful weather,’ ” Larry Newell, 58, said as he sat shirtless on a swiveling exercise chair in a park.

Winter around here has had all the ups and downs of a choppy ocean.

One day, the air coming from people’s shivering nostrils is visible as they shimmy through the streets (or, perhaps more aptly, race from their cars to the nearest building) in puffy down coats. The next day, as was the case on Monday, they shed layers, don tank tops and short shorts, and kick back at restaurant patios to let the sun soak their faces. The temperature changes have been so sudden and extreme that even weather nerds could get caught in the sun with a few too many layers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/us/temperature-swings-not-uncommon-in-kansas-city-missouri.html?_r=0

Weird Weather Sweeps U.S.

by Gordon J. Gianninoto

As many of you know, Janet and I live on a hill top. It is a mountain, but known as a hill, locally. We do get some wind up here. Well last Sunday night it started to rain and the wind picked up. But what was interesting was the amount of rain, the amount of wind, and the amount of temperature.

On Sunday the temperature was 44 degrees F and it kept increasing. Around midnight, the temperature reached 51 degrees F. Ok, you say, it was a little warm for the middle of December? But that was not all. The cold snap that enveloped the southeastern US brought freezing temperatures to the outskirts of Miami, which was 32 degrees. Cuba was 34 degrees! So when was the last time that in the middle of December, Maine was warmer than Miami, Florida by 19 degrees or Havana, Cuba, by 17 degrees?

I have lived in Maine for 25 and one half years, and two Aprils ago, we had my first Maine 9" rain, but on Sunday and Monday, we got our second on the Blue Hill peninsula. We had already had frost in the ground as deep as 12 inches in some places, but this 9 inch rain defrosted all of it. Of course, the temperature and the wind helped with that.

When we moved up here in the summer of 2000, that winter, in December or January, we had a blast of wind from the SE that I estimate at 165 mph which lifted up our house and pushed it back about 6 inches. We have no plumbing and the house is a slab sitting on sand. At about 1 in the morning, I heard a 'bang' and the south side of the house lifted up about a foot and the whole thing moved back, north, enough to leave a smooth strip of sand on the south side, and a 6 inch pile of sand on the north side. That interested me in getting an anemometer. After about 5 years, the cups broke off of it, but in that time I learned that we get 90+ mph four times a year, and 74+ probably two dozen times a year. Up until last March, we had not crossed over into the 100 mph or above area in a normal storm, but last March, I estimated that we got winds of 112 mph. Usually the wind is from the SE and we feel the gusts, having fields to the SE and the wind hits the trees on the NW of the house after it goes by us.

http://www.ufodigest.com/article/weird-weather-sweeps-us

Chicago Weather: Unseasonable Temperatures In the 60s Expected Tuesday

You call this winter?

Though one year ago the Chicago area was preparing for one of the largest snowstorms in the city's history -- which dumped over 20 inches of snow over a matter of just a few days -- the extremely unusual forecast Tuesday called for temperatures exceeding 60 degrees.

As the Chicago Sun-Times reports, the record high for the day in Chicago is 65 degrees, which was the mark the mercury hit on Jan. 31, 1989. Tuesday's warm, sunny weather will not fall far short -- and may even surpass -- that record.

As of the early morning commute, CBS Chicago reported that temperatures were already climbing into the mid- to upper 40s in the area, foreshadowing unseasonable conditions that will likely only be dampened when a cold front enters the area in the afternoon, likely bringing some rain along with it.

Temperatures, however, are expected to remain in the 40s through the rest of the work week, CBS reports.

Monday's 53 degree high fell only two degrees short of the all-time record in Chicago and was the ninth time a daytime reading has exceeded 50 degrees this winter, according to Tom Skilling's blog on the Chicago Weather Center. Only two other winters in the city's history have produced a higher number of 50-degree or higher days.

Meanwhile, Skilling continues, Tuesday's high is about 22 degrees warmer than normal and on par with the normal high temperature of April 2.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/chicago-weather-unseasona_n_1244179.html

5 tornado ghost towns

When it comes to ghost towns, images of the Wild West, not tornado destruction, probably come to mind first. However, for a handful of towns devastated by tornadoes in the central United States, this term is appropriate.

Our Severe Weather Expert Dr. Greg Forbes has compiled a list of so-called "tornado ghost towns" that no longer exist because of extreme tornado damage. For our first ghost town, we don't have to go far back in the history books According to the 2000 census, the town only had a population of 109 before the tornado wiped out just about everything it its path. Afterwards, Manchester was never rebuilt and in 2007 a monument was dedicated in the former town.On the evening of June 24, 2003, the town of Manchester, S.D. was leveled by a powerful F4 tornado. The tornado that moved through the small town was around a half mile wide! Amazingly, no fatalities were reported.

The Manchester tornado was the strongest of 95 tornadoes that struck parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wyoming and Iowa in the outbreak. An incredible 66 tornadoes touched downed in South Dakota alone in eight hours.

http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-central/tornado-ghost-towns-20130321

March 2013 Tornadoes: Fewest in Decades

The persistent, stubborn March cold in the Plains, South and East has had at least one benefit.  

March 2013 is poised to be one of the least tornadic Marches in the U.S. in decades.

In preliminary data through March 31, only 15 tornadoes have been tallied across the nation in March 2013, according to Severe Weather Expert, Dr. Greg Forbes

If this preliminary total holds up, this would be thelowest March U.S. tornado count in 35 years, since only 17 tornadoes were counted in March 1978.  The last March with a lower U.S. tornado tally was 1969, with only 8 U.S. tornadoes. 

March 2012 couldn't have been more different, nearly doubling the monthly average with 154 tornadoes, punctuated by the Mar. 2-3 outbreak, heavily damaging the towns of W. Liberty, Ky, and Henryville, Ind

http://www.weather.com/news/tornado-central/march-tornadoes-fewest-20130330