Winter In The USA 2012-2013.

[Mark]

The temperature plunged to a record minus 24 in Ely early Monday, blowing away the old mark of minus 17 set in 2007.
 
A few other lows early Monday:
 •-21 Winnemucca
 •-19 Truckee, Calif.
 •-12 Elko
 •-12 Lovelock
 •-11 South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
 
See entire article:
 http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/jan/14/nv-cold-nevada/

[Mark]

San Joaquim Valley growers head for 5th cold night of freezing temps. Mandarin and lettuce crops threatened.
 
Downtown Los Angeles dipped to 35 degrees early Monday, breaking the previous daily record of 36 degrees set on Jan. 14, 2007.
 
Elsewhere Monday, it was 13 degrees in high desert Lancaster at 6 a.m., 25 degrees in Fresno, 27 in Temecula, 33 in Redondo Beach and Sacramento, 36 in Van Nuys and Palm Springs and 40 in San Francisco.
 
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/14/16506675-los-angeles-sees-record-low-as-cold-front-maintains-grip

[Mark]

Plus, winter storm watches for parts of Illinois, including Chicago, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa.
 
The National Weather Service warned of snow-covered roads  in affected areas.
 
Rain, sleet and snow will also hit the Plains and Midwest over the weekend, with the potential for a up to 0.5 inch of ice for Omaha, Des Moines, St. Louis and Chicago, said meteorologist Michael Palmer of The Weather Channel.
 
“The icy mixture will affect Detroit, Pittsburgh and Buffalo going into Monday,” he added.
 
Palmer warned of “significant travel issues with very slick roadways” and also said some affected areas could see power outages Saturday night through Sunday.
 
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/26/16710398-storm-warnings-issued-as-big-chill-bites?lite=

[Mark]

Bitter temperatures stretch into a fourth day across several states. Four deaths so far.
 
The “cold snap” arrived Saturday night as waves of Arctic air swept south from Canada, pushing temperatures to dangerous lows and leaving a section of the country well-versed in winter’s pains reeling.
 
In International Falls, Minnesota , the temperature dropped to minus 30F on Tuesday morning. The so-called “Nation’s Icebox” climbed to a balmy 3 below zero F for a high.
 
Among the coldest temperatures recorded Tuesday was 35 below at Crane Lake, Minn., a National Weather Service forecaster said early Wednesday.
 
The coldest location in the lower 48 states Monday was Embarrass, Minn., at 36 below. On Sunday it was Babbitt, Minn., at 29 below, according to the National Weather Service.
 
The bitter conditions were expected to persist into the weekend in the Midwest through the eastern half of the U.S.
 
See entire article:
 http://news.yahoo.com/midwest-remains-locked-deep-freeze-083737259.html

[Rwood]

US record highs greatly outnumbering record lows as usual, on all timescales:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/records/

[ato2]

Gosh, I like that site!

[Mark]

A winter storm heading for the Northeast could bring major snowfall to upstate New York and New England on Friday and into the weekend, according to Weather Channel meteorologist Kevin Roth.
 
However, there is uncertainty as to exactly where the snow will fall.
 
The whole region could see significant snow with up to 2 feet dumped on Massachusetts – including Boston – and southern Maine overnight Friday.
 
That level of snow is “potentially life-threatening,” the Weather Channel’s Chris Warren warned.
 
The last time Boston had one foot of snow was in January 2011.
 
Other forecasts call for the snow to fall further east, meaning that northern New England could see heavy snow, but cities such as Boston could receive as little as 2 inches.
 
Meanwhile, another clipper will bring more snow from the northern plains into the Great Lakes Wednesday night into Thursday. Forecasts call for 1 to 4 inches of snow from northeast North Dakota to northern Wisconsin.
 
See entire articles:
 http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/06/16864934-snowstorm-alert-northeast-braces-for-possible-winter-blockbuster?lite
 
http://www.weather.com/newscenter/nationalforecast/

[Mark]

February 8, 2013 – BOSTON, MA – A crippling and potentially historic winter storm barreled toward the Northeast on Thursday, threatening tens of millions of people with 2 feet of snow. Boston canceled school and braced for one of its worst blizzards of all time. Airlines encouraged fliers to change their plans and get out of the way. There were already delays of more than two hours at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, where tangles can snarl air traffic across the country, and hundreds of flights were canceled. The culprits were a so-called clipper system moving through the Upper Midwest and a low-pressure system headed for the waters off New England. When they converge, probably late Friday, they are expected to sock the region with its heaviest snow in at least two years, and perhaps much longer. “When this hits, it’s going to come down very hard,” said Tom Niziol, a meteorologist for The Weather Channel. “This is something we haven’t seen in a while, particularly in New England.” The National Weather Service put the New York City area and Long Island under a blizzard warning and said those areas could get more than a foot of snow. Earlier in the day, the weather service warned that travel in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island could become nearly impossible. Forecasts called for as much as 9 inches of snow across central Michigan, a foot and a half in the Hudson Valley region of New York, and 2 feet or more across coastal New England. Possible hurricane-force winds off Massachusetts and Rhode Island also made flooding a threat. In Boston, the storm had the potential to take out century-old records. The city’s biggest snowstorms since 1892 were a 27.5-inch blast in February 2003 and a 27.1-inch dumping exactly 35 years ago, in 1978. Mayor Thomas Menino closed city schools for Friday and pleaded for common sense. Millions of Americans brace for a massive storm that threatens to pummel the Northeast and dump more than 2 feet of snow on parts of New England. TODAY’s Al Roker shows which areas of the North and Northeast will be hit by snow, wind gusts and coastal flooding.  Stay off the streets of our city,” he said. “Basically, stay home.” for survivors of Hurricane Sandy, including thousands of people still displaced and many more with disrupted lives, it was more serious. A much smaller snowstorm followed Sandy in late October. “People were just miserable, unhappy, and it started to get cold,” Annie Petraro of Long Island told NBC New York. “Things just weren’t good. And now it’s freezing, it’s gonna snow.” The Long Island Power Authority, which was strongly criticized for a slow response to the hurricane, said that it was planning for this one and making sure it had enough people working and enough supplies. More than 130 flights into and out of O’Hare were canceled Thursday, and more than 70 were already canceled for Friday, according to FlightAware.com. More than 400 flights into and out of Newark Liberty International Airport were canceled for Friday, as were 100 for Boston Logan. -NBC

[Mark]

Total accumulations of 18 to 24 inches are expected for southeast Maine, eastern and southeast Massachusetts (including the Boston metro area), northern Connecticut and all of Rhode Island. Further south across eastern New York to Northern New Jersey, total accumulations of 8 to 15 inches are expected, including the New York City metro and Long Island. Light snow will develop by Friday morning, becoming heavy late in the day into the evening commute. The heaviest snowfall, particularly along the Interstate 95 corridor, will fall Friday night into Saturday. North-northeast winds gusting up to 60 mph will lead to blizzard and white-out conditions, creating life-threatening travel conditions. Damage to trees and structures with scattered power outages are anticipated.
 
In addition, moderate to major coastal flooding is expected from Portland, Maine to the east facing coastline of Massachusetts.
 
============================================================
 
Take a look at HPC’s Day 1-2 QPF. Although all eyes are on New England with the impending major winter storm, the East Coast is expected to get a good amount of rainfall over the next day or two. To see more information about this, visit our QPF page: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/qpf/day1-2.shtml
 

[gabba]

..and a link to a satellite pic. That's a monster of a storm

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/02/new-england-snow-storm-from-space/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29

[Mark]

February 10, 2013 – BOSTON, MASS - The Northeast started digging itself out after a blizzard dumped up to 40 inches of snow with hurricane force winds, killing at least nine people and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. By early Sunday, utility companies were reporting roughly 350,000 customers still without electricity across a nine-state region after the wet, heavy snow brought down tree branches and power lines. About half a million had been down as of late Saturday. Air traffic began to return to normal Sunday after some 5,800 flights were canceled Friday and Saturday, according to Flightaware, a flight tracking service. Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, and Long Island MacArthur Airport reopened on Sunday morning. Both were closed on Saturday. Boston’s Logan International Airport reopened late on Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Rare travel bans in Connecticut and Massachusetts were lifted but roads throughout the region remained treacherous, according to state transportation departments. As the region recovered, another large winter storm building across the Northern Plains was expected to leave a foot of snow and bring high winds from Colorado to central Minnesota into Monday, the National Weather Service said. South Dakota was expected to be hardest hit, with winds reaching 50 miles per hour, creating white-out conditions. The storm was expected to reach parts of Nebraska, North Dakota, Wyoming and Wisconsin. Friday and Saturday’s mammoth storm stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic and covered several spots in the Northeast with more than 3 feet of snow. Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts took the brunt of the blizzard. Hamden, Connecticut, had 40 inches and nearby Milford 38 inches, the National Weather Service said. Amtrak said it planned to run a limited service between New York and Boston on Sunday and a regular Sunday schedule from New York to the state capital in Albany. However, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority and Connecticut Transit said service would remain suspended Sunday. Stratford, Connecticut, Mayor John Harkins told WTNH television on Saturday snow had fallen at a rate of 6 inches an hour and even plows were getting stuck. The storm dropped 31.9 inches of snow on Portland, Maine, breaking a 1979 record, the weather service said. Winds gusted to 83 miles per hour (134 km per hour) at Cuttyhunk, New York, and brought down trees across the region. The storm contributed to at least five deaths in Connecticut and two each in New York state and Boston, authorities said. A motorist in New Hampshire also died when he went off a road but authorities said his health may have been a factor in the crash. The two deaths in Boston were separate incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning in cars, an 11-year-old boy and a man in his early 20s. The boy had climbed into the family car to keep warm while his father cleared snow. The engine was running but the exhaust was blocked, said authorities. –Reuters

[Mark]

One of the great winter storms in New England history clobbered much of the region Friday night and into Saturday, making travel nearly impossible across the area.
 
Some locations across southern Connecticut saw upwards of three feet of snowfall and at least 650,000 lost power.
 
Just how much snow fell across your area? Accuweather listed the highest amounts by state.
 
Note: this list was current as of late Saturday morning.
 
Maine:
 Portland – 31.9 inches (All-Time Record)
 Westbrook – 30.0 inches
 Kennebunk – 26.0 inches
 Lewiston – 25.5 inches
 Cumberland – 23.0 inches
 Gray – 26,4 inches
 
Massachusetts:
 Spencer – 31.0 inches
 Framingham – 30.5 inches
 Southwick – 28.3 inches
 Worcester – 28.7 inches (3rd Highest Storm Total)
 Northboro – 28.0 inches
 Shrewsbury – 27.0 inches
 Belmont – 27.0 inches
 Melrose – 26.5 inches
 Wrentham – 26.0 inches
 Waltham – 25.0 inches
 West Bridgewater – 22.0 inches
 Logan Airport (Boston) – 24.9 inches (5th Highest Storm Total)
 
Rhode Island
 West Glocester – 27.6 inches
 Burrillville – 25.0 inches
 Woonsocket – 24.4 inches
 Cumberland – 24.1 inches
 Smithfield – 24.0 inches
 Providence – 19.5 inches
 West Warwick – 21.5 inches
 Charlestown – 19.0 inches
 
Connecticut
 Milford – 38.0 inches
 Oxford – 36.2 inches
 Hamden – 40.0 inches
 East Haddam – 35.5 inches
 Yalesville – 35.0 inches
 New Haven – 34.3 inches
 Manchester – 32.0 inches
 Clintonville – 37.0 inches
 Gilford – 33.0 inches
 
New York
 Medford – 33.5 inches
 Upton – 30.9 inches
 Central Islip – 30.7 inches
 Commack – 29.1 inches
 Huntington – 29.0 inches
 Islip Airport – 27.8 inches
 Port Chester – 23.3 inches
 Yonkers – 23.0 inches
 Ardsley – 23.0 inches
 Scarsdale – 22.5 inches
 Washingtonville – 20.7 inches
 Plainview – 18.0 inches
 Middle Village – 15.0 inches
 Flushing – 11.0 inches
 La Guardia Airport – 12.1 inches
 Central Park – 11.4 inches
 Upper West Side – 10.9 inches
 
New Jersey
 Rivervale – 16.8 inches
 Hillsdale – 14.0 inches
 Paramus – 14.0 inches
 Verona – 14.0 inches
 Chatham – 14.0 inches
 West Milford – 13.2 inches
 Oakland – 12.5 inches
 East Rutherford – 11.5 inches
 West Orange – 10.2 inches
 Newark Airport – 10.0 inches
 Point Pleasant – 9.0 inches
 
New Hampshire
 Goffstown – 28.0 inches
 Nashua – 24.0 inches
 Pelham – 24.0 inches
 New Boston – 30.4 inches
 Concord – 20.3 inches
 Peterborough – 19.0 inches
 Hudson – 15.8 inches
 East Alstead – 14.0 inches
 
Vermont
 Springfield – 16.0 inches
 Chester – 14.0 inches
 Waterbury – 14.0 inches
 Barnet – 11.5 inches
 Cornwall – 10.0 inches
 
Pennsylvania
 Lake Harmony – 7.5 inches
 Pocono Lake – 8.0 inches
 Allentown – 5.7 inches
 Portland – 7.0 inches
 Plainfield – 6.0 inches
 Somerton – 4.7 inches
 
See also the peak wind gusts during the blizzard as of late Saturday morning:
 http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/stats-snow-totals-from-the-new/5868232

[Mark]

Stranded in their homes by Friday’s blizzard, frustrated residents on New York’s Long Island spent Monday begging for plows to dig them out.

In Centereach, neighbors took matters into their own hands, using shovels and snowblowers to clear the streets on their own.
 
Walter Doroski said, “It’s been horrible. This is the worst it’s ever been, we haven’t seen a plow truck at all.”
 
Suffolk communities like Setauket and Ronkonkoma are still buried under nearly 3 feet of snow.
 
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/12/16933269-long-island-residents-beg-for-snow-plo ws-days-after-northeast-storm
 
See amazing photo:
 http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/11/16923813-northeast-returns-to-normal-as-power-comes-on-roads-reopen-flights-resume?lite

[Mark]

National Summary Information – January 2013
 
Contiguous U.S. warmer and wetter than average for January
 
Drought persists for central U.S.; above-average January snow cover extent for Lower 48

The average temperature for the contiguous U.S. during January was 32.0°F, 1.6°F above the 20th century average, tying with 1958 as the 39th warmest January on record.
 
The January nationally-averaged precipitation total of 2.36 inches was 0.14 inch above the long-term average. The January precipitation average masked both wet and dry extremes across nation. Drought conditions remained entrenched across the Southeast, Great Plains, and the mountainous West.
 



Significant climate events for January 2013.
 Click image to enlarge, or click here for the National Overview.
 
Note: The January Monthly Climate Report for the United States has several pages of supplemental information and data regarding some of the weather/climate events from the month.
Source: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/

[Mark]

A MAJOR winter storm is expected to bring a foot or more of snow to mountainous areas of California on Tuesday before turning inland and striking as far northeast as Chicago and the Midwest, the National Weather Service said.
 
Mountainous parts of Los Angeles, San Diego and Ventura counties in California were under winter storm warnings, and snow could present a danger on mountain highways, including I-15, the weather service said.
 
The storm is expected to dump widespread snowfall across the mountains of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and parts of Arizona on Wednesday and Thursday, Weather.com reported.
 
Weather Channel meteorologist Nick Wiltgen said the storm could bring snowfalls of up to an inch an hour for several hours, and produce double-digit snowfalls along the I-80 corridor.
 
Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri are in the crosshairs, and some computer models suggest that Chicago will get heavy snow late in the week.
 
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/19/17014410-winter-storm-to-hit-us-from-calif-to-midwest?lite=

[Mark]

A major winter storm — possibly the region’s biggest in two years — could bring more than 10 inches of snow
 
to northern Missouri and significant ice accumulations over central Missouri,” says The Kansas City Star.
 
A Winter Storm Watch has been issued for the Kansas City region.
 
The watch covers Atchison, Miami, Linn, Leavenworth, Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas and Buchanan, Clinton, Caldwell, Platte, Clay, Ray, Jackson, Lafayette, Cass, Johnson, Bates and Henry counties in Missouri.
 
That includes the cities of Leavenworth, Overland Park, Olathe, St. Joseph, Parkville, Platte City, Weston, Liberty, Kansas City, Harrisonville and Pleasant Hill.
 
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/02/19/4074304/biggest-winter-storm-in-2-years.html 

[Mark]

30 million people in its path.
 
A massive winter storm promises to dump up to 18 inches of snow – or more – on Kansas.
 
The biggest threat of heavy snow lies in parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri, with the possibility of whiteout conditions in some places, said CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller.
 
The National Weather Service was predicting as much as 18 inches of snow in Kansas, while parts of Nebraska could see more than a foot of snow. Drifts could make some roads impassable.
 
Meanwhile, Chicago could receive its largest single snowfall of the year — 4 inches, said Miller. The city usually gets up to 4 feet of snow a year. So far this year, only about a foot has fallen, he said.
 
Snowy, dangerously icy conditions are also possible in parts of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri, Miller added.
 
Tuesday night, the same storm forced closure of stretches of highway northeast of Los Angeles, stranding some motorists until highway crews and police were able to battle through the snow and clear the backlog.
 
“The snow came in hard and heavy,” said Officer Ed Smith of the California Highway Patrol.
 In all, parts of 18 states were under some form of watch or warning on Wednesday related to the storm.
http://fox6now.com/2013/02/20/30-million-in-path-of-winter-storm-moving-into-central-plains/

[Mark]

Winter storm pummels central US – As much as 3 inches of snow per hour – More than a dozen more states to be affected in coming days.
 
By the time the storm ended, said KOMO radio, the storm had dumped 14.2 inches (36 cm) of snow on Wichita, Kansas, Wichita’s 2nd biggest snowfall on record.
 
The Weather Channel forecast up to a foot of snow for Omaha, Neb., 3 to 6 inches of snow and sleet for St. Louis, 8 to 12 inches of snow for Kansas City, Mo., and 3 to 6 inches of snow for Chicago.
 
Kansas and Missouri declared states of emergency, while airlines canceled flights and Kansas City International Airport closed altogether.
 
Along the Kansas-Nebraska state line, up to 1½ feet (45 cm) of snow was expected.
 
Advisories for snow, ice, wind or rain were posted as far south as the Texas Panhandle, as far north as Minnesota and Wisconsin and as far east as the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
 
Earlier this week, the same storm closed roads and stranded cars in California and snowfall delayed a golf tournament in southern Arizona.
 
The storm was expected to move toward Chicago and Minneapolis on Friday, then dump snow on New England for the third weekend in a row, and douse a stretch of Georgia and the Florida Panhandle with 7 inches of rain and leave a wintry mix of snow and ice on the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains, including parts of Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina, the Weather Channel reported.
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/21/17042480-winter-storm-pummels-central-us-most-snow-in-wichita-in-a-generation?lite

[Mark]

February 23, 2013 – GEORGIA – It will be a messy weekend in the Northeast and the Deep South as the massive weather system that walloped 20 states with a snowstorm rolls off towards the Atlantic Ocean. A winter storm is expected to deposit up to 10 inches of snow in isolated pockets of western Massachusetts, and 6 inches to a foot in parts of southern Vermont and New Hampshire, and central Maine. This is not the same storm that blanketed the Great Plains, said CNN Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri, although it is part of the same overall system that spans the country from north to south. It will be much less intense, he said, and it should not affect the places hardest hit by the blizzard that plastered the Northeast two weeks ago, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers. Boston will likely see a slushy mix of rain and snow that could lead to downed branches and power lines, Javaheri said. Rain will continue to soak the eastern United States from Washington, D.C., on down, especially Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. “Across the Southeast, some of the rainfall totals are going to be staggering,” said CNN Meteorologist Karen McGinnis. Parts of the central Southeast should get 4 — 6 inches of rainfall. The outgoing system will have made its mark on virtually the entire country from the southwest corner of California to central Maine, leaving its deepest imprint on Kansas. Wichita saw its second-highest storm snowfall total on record with 14.2 inches over two days, the National Weather Service said. The town of Russell in the state’s middle lay under a 22 inch layer of white by the time the storm roared by. Missouri was not far behind, with accumulations of around a foot in some places. The snow set a record at Kansas City International Airport, with 9 inches falling in a single day. The old record was 5.1 inches set in 2010. Some businesses and universities shut down Thursday as state officials urged residents to stay off the roads. The white blanket emptied the streets of Kansas City. –CNN

[Mark]

A powerful storm system ejected out of the southern Rockies and into the plains on February 21st and brought some of the highest snowfall amounts this area has seen in decades.
 
As of 7 pm on February 21st the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport has measured a storm total snowfall of 14.2 inches which makes this storm the 2nd worst on record!  The highest storm total snowfall for Wichita occurred back in 1962 when a storm dumped 15 inches.
 
One of the more unique aspects of this storm was the amount of thundersnow that took place during the early morning hours of February 21st.  Below is video taken from a security camera at the National Weather Service in Wichita showing the lightning associated with the thundersnow.
 
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=ict&storyid=92760&source=0