New Zealand Local Weather Forum
Weather Discussion => International => Topic started by: Mark on January 10, 2022, 10:15:13 PM
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Nearly 100 million people were under weather warnings and advisories Thursday night, as two polar storm systems
Snow started falling 9:30PM Thurs just outside Washington, D.C. — the area’s second major winter storm in just three days. Flakes were expected to hit city limits overnight, with the potential to drop more than an inch every hour after midnight.
In Buffalo, New York, the city crushed its single-day snowfall record — a lake effect system brought 15 inches to the area, more than double the previous January one-day record set back in 1974 (solar minimum of cycle 20). At points, snow was falling at rates of three inches per hour, according to the National Weather Service, taking residents by surprise.
https://electroverse.net/record-snow-from-wa-to-ny-japans-frigid-lows-record-snows-vancouver-island/
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https://www.sott.net/image/s31/633345/full/ee66d6667a0b379ec9e0387075e897.jpg
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The City and Borough of Yakutat declared a local disaster emergency on Tuesday, citing the imminent threat of roof collapse caused by dangerous snow loads accumulating throughout the Southeast Alaska city.
Borough Manager Jon Erickson said Yakutat has gotten about 6 feet of snow over the past few weeks, causing intermittent power outages, damage to buildings and school closures. The city normally keeps four snow shovelers on retainer, but Erickson said the team is too small to keep up with the accumulating snow.
"We've been shoveling off, but right now we just don't have enough shovelers," he said. "So we contacted emergency management, and they're probably going to be sending a team of 10 shovelers down here."
Several buildings in Yakutat have partially collapsed roofs, flooding, & cracked walls from heavy snowfall that's turned into ice after a day of rain
The Head Start (pics), Clinic, & Senior Center have all been severely damaged
Yakutat has requested aid from the National Guard pic.twitter.com/FUurYWu3q6
— CeeJay Yellow Hawk (@AdriftAlchemist) January 11, 2022
https://www.sott.net/article/463123-Yakutat-in-Alaska-declares-disaster-emergency-citing-an-imminent-threat-of-roofs-collapsing-due-to-heavy-snow-loads
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In an overview ahead of its full report, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has said that 2021 ranked as the third costliest on record for “climate disasters”, totaling $145 billion.
Weather also claimed the lives of 688 people (or 0.0002% of the population), according to the overview — odds that are pretty darn good given that we’re supposedly in the midst of a “climate crisis”. If you’re left-handed, you actually had more chance of dying from using a right-handed product (approx. 700 left-handed Americans are killed each year from using equipment meant for right-handers).
But that ‘688’ death-toll figure has already been called into question.
Using excess mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), researchers were able to ascertain that 702 people died in Texas’ big freeze alone, far more than the state’s official tally of 151, and making it by far the year’s deadliest climatic event.
https://electroverse.net/winter-storms-deadliest-climate-disasters-shasta-record-cold-wa-green-ideals-caused-europes-crisis/
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A winter storm is forecast to dive southward across the Rocky Mountains early this week, riding on the back of a weak and wavy meridional jet stream flow.
“A stationary front extending southward from southwestern Canada will bring rounds of snow to the northern and central Rockies Monday night into Tuesday night,” said AccuWeather Meteorologist Alyssa Smithmyer. For reference, a stationary front occurs when the forward motion of a cold front slows and stalls.
The storm will begin crossing the Canadian border on Monday, bringing snow to places like Calgary, Alberta, before then hitting the likes of Billings and Missoula, Montana, and Rapid City, South Dakota.
As dawn approaches, the snow is expected to continue traveling southward into locales such as Casper and Cheyenne, Wyoming.
“The higher elevations of the Colorado Rockies are expected to record snowfall amounts of 3-6 inches,” Smithmyer said.
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As the snow continues to settle in the Kansas City area, NWS data confirms KC busted a century-old record on Feb 17.
An official total of 7 inches had accumulated in the City on Thursday, a reading that broke the previous daily snowfall record of 6 inches set way back in 1893 during the Centennial Minimum.
As reported by local news outlets, the heavy snow led to the closures of schools, businesses and religious services, with multiple school districts canceling classes Friday, too, after the metro area received as much as 10 inches.
https://electroverse.net/kansas-city-snow-record-denver-snowiest-year-historic-accumulations-continue-in-japan/
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NWS Boulder
@NWSBoulder
Yesterday, the max temp in Denver was 8 degrees which set a new record low max for the day. The previous record was 13 degrees back in 1913.
The low this morning was -7 degrees which set a new record low for the day. The previous record was -4 degrees way back in 1899. #cowx
https://electroverse.net/record-us-cold-snow-falls-in-california-up-buried-under-historic-snow-bering-sea-ice/
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Even according to the data-fudging folks at NOAA –who have admitted they “guess” Earth’s temperature due to poor ground station coverage– it was an unusually cold month of February across the United States.
The 48 contiguous States finished with an average temperature of 33.8F which is -1.89F below the multidecadal baseline:
February 2022 Mean Temperature Departures from Average map
This comes off the back of a chilly Jan, too — the United State’s chillest month of January since 2014, again according to NOAA data. February’s freeze also chimes with what the satellites saw, with the UAH registering a below avg month for the U.S., which also continues the overall global cooling trend witnessed since 2016’s peak:
https://electroverse.net/u-s-suffered-a-cold-february-1-89f-below-average-manam-erupts-to-50000-feet/
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An invasive species of spider the size of a child's hand is expected to "colonize" the entire East Coast this spring by parachuting down from the sky, researchers at the University of Georgia announced last week.
Why it matters: Large Joro spiders — millions of them — are expected to begin "ballooning" up and down the East Coast as early as May. Researchers have determined that the spiders can tolerate cold weather, but are harmless to humans as their fangs are too small to break human skin.
The Joro spider is native to Japan but began infiltrating the U.S. in 2013, concentrating in the southeast and specifically Georgia, according to NPR. They fanned out across the state using their webs as tiny, terrifying parachutes to travel with the wind.
Threat level: Andy Davis, author of the study and a researcher at Georgia's Odum School of Ecology, tells Axios that it isn't certain how far north the spiders will travel, but they may make it as far north as D.C. or even Delaware.
"It looks like the Joro could probably survive throughout most of the Eastern Seaboard here, which is pretty sobering," says Davis.
Other terrifying things to know about the Joro spider:
They are bright yellow, black, blue, and red and can grow up to 3 inches.
They likely traveled across the globe on shipping containers, similar to the Bubonic plague.
Their life cycle begins in early spring, but they get big in June and are often seen in July and August.
They're named for Jorōgumo, a creature of Japanese folklore that can shapeshift into a woman or spider before killing its prey.
Our thought bubble: Researchers say there's nothing we can do. They're coming and they're harmless. I say let's pool our resources now and build a dome around Georgia and keep them there.
https://www.sott.net/article/465276-Giant-spiders-expected-to-drop-from-sky-across-the-East-Coast-this-spring
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A sharp southward shift in the jet stream is making itself known in New York City as well as across much of the rest of the Eastern United States. The unseasonable chill is breaking record-low temperatures for the month of March, and is feeling like a replay of winter for many.
Arctic air descending down from Canada is sending a wave of freezing winds over the East, with temperatures dipping into the single digits (Fahrenheit) for in the Northeast–with the conditions expected to persist until Thursday.
Bone-chilling lows in New York City began Sunday night with temps tumbling below 30F, according to the National Weather Service. Monday went on to prove a record cold day for many: Binghamton, Plattsburgh and New York all busted record low-maxes–with NYC’s dating back to 1893; while Hartford, CT and Allentown, PA were among the other Northeast locales to bust records–from 1966 and 1996, respectively.
The snow in NY has also proved impressive of late…
…as it has across the Northeast.
The below video shows a banged-up Dodge Charger sitting in the lanes of Interstate 81 in Schuylkill County, PA.
That section of I-81, at mile marker 116, was under a snow squall warning at the time of Monday’s crash, which Pennsylvania State Police confirmed involved up to 60 vehicles, multiple injuries and at least three deaths.
Nearby New Jersey has also been setting its own snow and low temperature records this week.
NWS data shows that both Trenton and Atlantic City set new records for their lowest-high temps ever logged on March 28, while nearby Newark tied its record: Trenton Mercer Airport’s highest reading of the day was 32F, which is 3F lower than the previous record set way back in 1919; Atlantic City International Airport climbed no higher than 38F on Monday, breaking the record previously held by 1996, 1959 and 1956; while Newark Liberty International Airport’s 35F tied its old record set in 1937.
In fact, the Eastern U.S. has felled hundreds of low temperature benchmarks over the past 24 hours —comfortably out-stripping the West’s heat— and there’s much more in the way of cold as the week progresses.
https://electroverse.net/new-york-suffers-record-march-cold-toronto-breaks-century-old-low-uk-forecast-coldest-start-to-april-in-100-years/
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Most of the Portland metro region awoke Monday to a blanket of more than an inch of snow — the latest date the city has suffered wintry showers in at least 82 years.
It’s the first measurable April snow at the Portland International Airport [PDX] since records began in 1940, reports oregonlive.com: “In 82 years of record-keeping, PDX had never recorded more than a trace of snow in April. That ended today,” said the National Weather Service (NWS).
Portland received 1.6 inches of snow Monday morning, with the city’s higher elevations copping much more: Rocky Butte saw 3.5 inches; nearby Washougal, Washington logged 11 inches; while Hood River noted 9 inches.
Many residents were keen to document the unprecedented late-season snow covering their cars, backyards and gardens:
The peak of the rare spring snow fell from about 3 to 7 AM Monday. The conditions brought about the closure Portland area schools as well the region’s main highway, and the storm also knocked out the power to at least 100,000 homes.
https://electroverse.net/portland-sees-first-april-snow-historic-blizzard-to-pound-northern-u-s-sunspots-fade/
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An April nor’easter has dropped a foot and a half of snow on parts of New York and Pennsylvania, leading to more than 300,000 customers losing power Tuesday morning (with 160,000 still without as of early Wednesday morning, according to poweroutage.us).
The most snow –18 inches– fell in New York’s southern Cortland County town of Virgil; in second place, with 16.3 inches, was another Central New York spot: the village of Erieville, in Madison County; Piseco, in upstate New York, had received 14 inches by Tuesday morning, with snow still coming down; while Broome County to the south saw a foot and implemented a travel ban — all record totals for the time of year.
In Syracuse, the rapid snowfall –falling at a rate of 1 to 2 inches an hour– prompted numerous school and business closures.
In total, some 40 million Americans were under frost and freeze alerts Tuesday morning stretching from the central Plains to the mid-Atlantic as historically low solar activity continues to weaken the jet stream, reverting its usual tight ZONAL flow to a wavy MERIDIONAL one:
https://electroverse.net/april-noreaster-hit-as-record-flurries-and-freezes-threaten-north-americas-crops/
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Firefighters working to keep more homes from burning on the edge of a mountain town in northern Arizona were treated to scattered showers and cooler temperatures early on Friday, but the favorable weather was not expected to last as more ferocious winds were forecast to batter parts of Arizona and all of New Mexico through the weekend.
The combination of high winds, warmer temperatures and extremely dry conditions will make for an atmosphere that's "pretty much on steroids", said Scott Overpeck, with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
"This is not typical," he said, looking ahead to what could be explosive fire growth on Friday. "This is really one of those days we need to be on our toes and we need to be ready."
https://www.sott.net/article/467039-This-is-not-typical-Arizona-wildfire-fighters-brace-for-threat-on-steroids
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Minnesota’s ‘year with out a spring’ has resulted in some of the latest ice-out dates on record (ice-out: the disappearance of ice from the surface of a body of water, such as a lake, as a result of thawing).
According to Minnesota DNR, and as reported by mprnews.org, ice-out on many northern MN lakes has neared/broken records.
White Iron lake, for example, is reporting an ice-out date of May 10 — the latest in record books dating to 2003; while at Sawbill Lake, ice-out was reported as May 14 — just a day shy of the latest ice-out date in books extending back to 1990.
https://electroverse.net/minnesotas-latest-ice-outs-cold-to-blast-southern-africa-fierce-freezes-grip-south-america/
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This pattern continued over the weekend just gone. And while a slither of the East Coast enjoyed a taste of summer-like warmth, the majority of the CONUS was contending with record-breaking, yield-reducing COLD:
Hundreds of low temperature records were either broken, tied of neared over the weekend, including a 30-year record that fell in Half Moon Bay, California: the 38F observed on Sunday busted the previous record low set in 1993.
The snow has been equally impressive, most notably in Colorado.
According to the NWS, deep accumulations as of Saturday morning were found in Cripple Creek (20 inches); Woodland Park (16 inches); and Whiskey Park (15 inches). The out-of-season snow also left more than 100,000 Coloradans without electricity, per PowerOutageUS.
This torrid wintry weather engulfed America’s key corn growing state of Iowa, too, contributing to what has already been a disastrous spring planting season. As reported by the Des Moines Register, this year is about as unusual as Indianola farmer Blake Reynolds can recall: Snow, rain and cold meant he started planting corn and soybeans this year in mid-May, about when he finished planting his crop last year, and the year before.
The late start isn’t the only challenge: while Iowa farmers have waited to get into the fields, the cost of seed, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides that farmers need to grow crops have skyrocketed — that’s if growers can get hold of these inputs at all.
According to a Purdue University survey, 30% of farmers are struggling to get herbicides; 27%, farm machinery parts; 26%, fertilizers; and 17%, insecticides, with the prices and shortages mounting with each passing week.
“Going back to the 1970s, there’s only been a couple of times when producers had any kind of input availability issues,” said James Mintert, a Purdue agricultural economist who leads the Purdue/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer, a monthly survey weighing farmer sentiment.
“But this is more widespread,” Mintert said. “This is a radically different year. This is uncharted territory for farmers.”
In a nutshell, China has cut-off the West by locking down its manufacturing/export hubs. This act of war, combined with the West’s sanctioning of Russian which has reduced the world’s fertilizer supply by some 20%, are the two major straws breaking the camels back. But there are a myriad of smaller issues, too, including the culling of millions of poultry due to ‘bird flu’ and energy shortages due to a chronic understatement in an out-of-favor fossil fuel industry.
Reynolds said he was unable to buy Roundup, America’s most widely used weed-killer, even at five times the price he paid last year. And while I personally consider Roundup a poison and wouldn’t let it anywhere near my own crops, this product is essential for our modern, mono-cropping Big Ag ways. Basically, without inputs the yield greatly suffers. This is where we’re at. And the silos are quickly depleting (more on that later).
https://electroverse.net/cold-records-tumble-in-us-exceptional-chill-in-botswana-may-frosts-turkey-aussie-growers-10-weeks-of-wheat-left/
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Denali National Park, Alaska is still melting out from its snowiest winter season in 99 years of record keeping, and the unusually heavy, lingering snow is reportedly affecting park wildlife.
Summer operations may have resumed on May 20, but there were still 33 inches of snow on the ground at Park headquarters — by far the most on record so late in the season.
“It definitely looks like winter when you’re out at about mile 10 and you’re looking into the tundra. I mean, it’s still very snow-covered,” said park public affairs officer Sharon Stiteler. “I’m 5 foot tall, and some of those drifts are higher than me,” she added.
The Park Service headquarters received 176 inches of snow this winter season, besting the all-time record of 174 inches set in 1970-71. Moreover, this season’s totals are also the highest in weather books dating back to 1913 (the Centennial Minimum).
Stiteler says the heavy snowpack is stressing wildlife, resulting in more animals on the Park Road this spring.
“Bears are using the road, as are moose,” she said. “Last week we did have a moose on the Park Road who gave birth to twins.” Unfortunately, the two calves died, with Stiteler explaining that moose become very weak in deep snow.
“We’re anticipating more carcasses coming through as the snow melts, and we’re keeping a close eye on it — especially if some of those carcasses are along the Park Road or in areas we know visitors are going to frequent,” said Stiteler.
https://electroverse.net/denalis-snowiest-winter-brits-face-another-shock-south-americas-freezes-china-buys-up-corn/
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Snow clearing crews at Glacier National Park have only just gotten through Logan’s Pass. And much to the chagrin of visitors, Going-to-the-Sun Road won’t be cleared anytime soon, even as the calendar approaches July.
Since records began, Going-to-the-Sun has experienced only five openings in the month of July: these were July 1, 2007 and July 2, 2008 (solar minimum of cycle 23), July 10, 1943 (solar min of cycle 17) , July 13, 2011 (the very start of the space-age-record-weak solar cycle 24), and July 15, 1933 (solar min of cycle 16)–that last one, however -July 15, 1933- was the date of the road’s official opening and so wasn’t necessarily due to a large snowpack.
Only three factors have ever delayed the iconic alpine highway’s opening later than the Fourth of July: World War II, a global pandemic, and a deep, lingering mountain snowpack. This year is suffering the latter, of course; and given the truly historic snowpack of 2022, the year has a shot at breaking the current record for the road’s latest opening — July 13 set back in 2011.
https://electroverse.net/glacier-national-park-snowpack-sunshine-village-summer-skiing-antarctica-5-1c-below-avg-biofuels-cap/
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This week, daytime highs across the U.S. state of Texas have been struggling.
On Monday, a new record low-max was set in Midland, according to the city’s NWS Twitter account (shown below).
At Midland International Airport, a high of just 79F (26.1C) was achieved, a reading which comfortably usurped the previous record of 81F (27.2C) set back in 1965 (solar minimum of cycle 19).
NWS Midland
@NWSMidland
We set a record cold high for the day at Midland Intl. with 79°F. This breaks the old record of 81°F last set in 1965. We will continue to enjoy below average temperatures for the next few days! #txwx https://t.co/7V4taDGuWq
11:51 AM · Aug 23, 2022
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Similarly in Amarillo, the chill and accompanying rains have been regarded as something of a God send by locals.
NWS Amarillo
@NWSAmarillo
As of 11:30 AM CDT, Amarillo has a current temperature of 64°F. Quite a cool day for August. In fact, the record "coldest" high temperature on this date is 71° back in 2012. If Amarillo does not reach 71° for a high temperature, we may break this record by a few deg. #phwx #TXwx
4:33 AM · Aug 22, 2022
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Additionally, the state’s unseasonal conditions weren’t just confined to Midland’s and Amarillo, though, as “A little taste of Fall” gripped much of the Texas Panhandle during the first half of the week, according to NWS Amarillo on Twitter:
NWS Amarillo
@NWSAmarillo
A little taste of Fall this morning across the Texas Panhandle #phwx https://t.co/IfSdOGH7HV
5:10 AM · Aug 24, 2022
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Looking ahead, the South-Central’s early “Autumn-like temps” are forecast to persist–for the most part.
GFS 2m Temperature Anomalies (C) Aug 21 – Sept 4 [tropicaltidbits.com]
That could be your summer done with Texas — time to start preparing for that “chilly” winter:
https://electroverse.co/record-aug-chills-balkans-antarctica-112f-summer-snow-china-texas-breaks-low-temperature-records/
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Massive hail falls on southern & eastern Utah
https://youtu.be/10jdwAUwjF4
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record-setting cold dominates, from Colorado to New York.
Descending Arctic air triggered frosts as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, and within that mass of air, a myriad of remarkable temperature values were observed, including the 21F at Des Moines, Iowa, which busted its previous Oct 18 record from 1972.
Record lows of 10F were logged in Le Mars and Sheldon, Iowa; Omaha, Nebraska suffered its earliest 16F in recorded history; Springfield, Missouri registered its earliest-ever 21F; Montgomery, Alabama saw 32F, its earliest frost on record; Augusta, Georgia noted its earliest 30F; while Tulsa, Oklahoma clocked its earliest 26F ever recorded — to name just a handful.
https://electroverse.co/low-temp-snow-records-fall-across-eastern-u-s-cold-wave-grips-east-asia/
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An early-season Arctic Outbreak is sending temperatures crashing to January-like levels across the US — a staggering 25-35 degrees Fahrenheit below the average.
Residents from Minneapolis to Chicago, St. Louis and Oklahoma City are among those in the firing line as a shot of polar air, colder than what is considered “normal” for mid-January, engulfs the majority of the CONUS.
Freezing lows and substantial snows have already felled many benchmarks this week (with hundreds toppled last month), but meteorologists, including those at AccuWeather, are warning that the coldest conditions are yet to come.
“Many places in the Plains and Midwest will experience high temperatures 10F-or-more below what a typical mid-January day would be,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Joe Lundberg said, who provides the below graphic:
[AccuWeather]
And by Friday, the latest GFS run (shown below) has that pocket of “warm air” also being pushed out:
https://electroverse.co/record-freeze-united-states-snow-above-average-greenland-norms/
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New Yorkers in the western part of the state are still being slammed with a massive snowstorm that has shut down roads, triggered driving bans and canceled flights the weekend before the Thanksgiving holiday.
By Friday evening, 5.5 feet of snow had covered streets in the town of Orchard Park, New York, near Buffalo in hard-hit Erie County, according to the National Weather Service. As the snowfall intensified, two county residents died from cardiac complications related to shoveling and attempting to clear the grounds, said County Executive Mark Poloncarz.
"We send our deepest sympathies and remind all that this snow is very heavy and dangerous," Poloncarz said.
https://www.sott.net/article/474420-Western-New-York-state-slammed-with-more-than-5-feet-of-snow-triggering-road-closures-and-flight-cancellations
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Midwest weather and climate events of 2022
https://youtu.be/ySOQRUWLTwA
https://www.mprnews.org/weather-live