Tag Archives: Weather

Nor’easter could bring 8 inches of snow to parts of New England

A weekend Nor’easter could hit parts of northern New England with up to 8 inches of snow before Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service warned on Friday morning.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch for northern parts of New Hampshire and Maine, saying a low pressure system off the Atlantic Coast could produce heavy snow in the area. The service said snow was expected to begin falling later tonight and continue through Saturday afternoon, and between 4 and 8 inches were expected to accumulate in those regions.

The National Weather Service also said there was a chance for freezing rain, sleet and rain elsewhere in New England, but had yet to issue any specific warnings as of early Friday. Temperatures in southern New England were expected to remain above the freezing point.

A large storm was bringing rain to the southeastern United States on Friday, and the National Weather Service said it was expected to intensify as it made its way toward New England. But the storm wasn’t expected to bring significant rainfall — forecasts called for a high of about 2 inches in coastal parts of South Carolina. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for those regions.

Separately, the National Weather Service issued winter storm watches for parts of Washington, Oregon and California, as more snow was expected to arrive on Saturday. Snowfall totals were expected to reach 1 to 2 feet on Mount Rainier, according to the National Weather Service, while other mountainous areas of Washington were expected to receive between 6 and 10 inches.

Totals were expected to be lighter in Washington’s valleys, Oregon and California, but still significant. Forecasts were calling for anywhere between 3 and 6 inches of snow in watch areas.

The National Weather Service encouraged people that may be affected by the storm to keep an eye on updated local forecasts.

Alex gusts into first January hurricane in 78 years

TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) – Hurricane Alex blasted into the record books on Thursday as the first Atlantic hurricane to form during the month of January in more than three-quarters of a century, U.S. weather forecasters said.

The storm, with wind gusts up to 85 miles an hour, was expected to bear down on the Azores islands off the coast of Portugal on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. It did not pose a threat to the United States.

Local authorities issued a hurricane warning for five islands in the central Azores, which could see flash flooding, mudslides and storm surge, said NHC spokesman Dennis Feltgen.

Alex was rated a “Category 1” hurricane, which is the lowest rating on the five-tier Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.

Only two other hurricanes have appeared in January since forecasters began keeping records in 1851, Feltgen said. Hurricane Alice started in December and carried into January in 1955. The last time a hurricane formed in January was 1938.

Still, the early hurricane does not necessarily portend an unusually active storm period during the Atlantic hurricane season from June through November, Feltgen said. That forecast will be determined by weather conditions not yet seen.

“The good news is that even though we have got a hurricane in January, that is not a harbinger of what the 2016 hurricane season will be like,” he said. “It is no reflection.”

(Reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by Alan Crosby)

New York hit by stretch of lake effect storms, forecasts call for heavy snow

The latest in a stretch of powerful lake effect snowstorms was pummeling upstate New York on Tuesday, with forecasts calling for significant amounts of additional snow in the next two days.

The National Weather Service issued lake effect snow warnings for several counties in western New York, warning that some regions that border Lake Erie and Lake Ontario could see two more feet of snow fall between 10 a.m. Tuesday and 1 p.m. Thursday. Totals were expected to be much lighter further inland, though some communities were expecting about 6 inches of snow.

The latest snow comes on the heels of a lake effect storm that ripped through upstate New York on Monday and dumped 38 inches of snow in Lorraine, a small town about an hour north of Syracuse, according to the National Weather Service. That was the service’s most extreme report of snowfall, though two communities in Erie County reported they received more than foot.

Officials banned all travel in five communities near Buffalo, according to a news release from Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office, as the service called for whiteout conditions this afternoon. Officials also barred unnecessary trips in Erie County and Genesee County, both near lakes.

According to Cuomo’s office, the state Department of Transportation and state Thruway Authority have a combined 793 snow plows, 1,793 employees and more than 188,000 tons of salt available to clear roads. But officials urged motorists to avoid the roads if possible.

While New York was experiencing the most severe storms, it wasn’t the only place impacted by winter weather.

Northern Maine was under a winter storm warning, with the National Weather Service warning that 4 to 8 inches of snow was expected to fall before 10 a.m. Wednesday. Western Michigan was also under a separate winter storm warning with up to 4 inches of snow in Tuesday’s forecast.

The National Weather Service also issued winter weather advisories in parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan as lighter snow fell across those states.

Another storm in the Pacific Northwest triggered some winter storm warnings and advisories, and National Weather Service forecasts indicated some parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and California could see up to a foot of snow before Thursday evening.

New Forecast Provides Glimpse Into El Niño’s Potential U.S. Impacts

A new forecast provides an in-depth look at the weather conditions that a particularly powerful El Niño is expected to bring to the continental United States over the next three months.

The predictions were recently released by WSI, which has corporate connections to The Weather Channel. The channel analyzed the three-month outlook on its website on Monday.

El Niño is a weather pattern that occurs when part of the Pacific Ocean is warmer than usual, bringing atypical and sometimes extreme weather across the world. Many scientists, including those with NASA and World Meteorological Organization, have publicly said this year’s El Niño is shaping up to be one of the strongest instances of the pattern in the past 65 years, with NASA saying last week it may exceed the strength of the 1997-98 pattern billed as the worst on record.

According to The Weather Channel, the southern United States is generally expected to see temperatures below those typical for this time of year, while the northern states should see hotter-than-usual temperatures. The forecast indicates there may be exceptions to these tendencies, including a stretch this month where temperatures may see a more East-West divide.

El Niño is also known to impact precipitation totals.

Citing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which researches El Niño and issues its own predictions, The Weather Channel reported states on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as well as large chunks of the Great Plains and Southwest, should see above-average precipitation totals this winter. On the other hand, the report indicates states in the Great Lakes and Pacific Northwest, as well as those bordering Canada, may see less rain and snow than usual.

NASA warned last week that the United States likely has yet to see the full brunt of this El Niño, which has already been blamed for several extreme storms across the globe. El Niños also generate droughts in some parts and floods in others, disrupting economies and food supplies.

The forecast analyzed by The Weather Channel focused on general trends, not specific storms.

The NOAA is expected to release its next El Niño update on January 14.

Threat of Major Flooding Shifts Down Mississippi River

Several communities in the central United States were coping with major flooding on Monday morning as the same deadly floodwaters that devastated parts of Missouri moved downstream.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings all along the lower Ohio, Mississippi and Arkansas rivers as rising waters threatened countless homes and businesses. In certain communities, waters were expected to continue to climb throughout the month before cresting.

One week after a powerful winter storm dumped 6 to 12 inches of rain across much of the region, waters had yet to fully recede from some of the communities they impacted most.

In greater St. Louis, where often-historic flooding forced evacuations and shut down a bustling stretch of Interstate 44, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said minor flooding was still occurring along parts of the Meramec and Mississippi rivers. Water levels had receded from their record heights in the Missouri communities of Valley Park and Arnold, according to the NOAA, though the flooding had yet to fully stop as of Monday. It could be Saturday before the Meramec finally dropped below flood stage in Arnold., the NOAA said.

Over the weekend, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s announced the federal government approved his request to expedite relief efforts after “fast-rising flood water inundated several thousands homes and business and left behind a trail of destruction, debris and refuse” in greater St. Louis, according to a news release. The governor, who had declared a state of emergency and mobilized the National Guard, said the federal aid would help facilitate the cleanup and recovery process.

As some communities began to clean up, others remained partially underwater.

The NOAA reported there was major flooding occurring at 25 river gauges on Monday morning, while another 197 were experiencing minor or moderate flooding. Almost all of them were in the Mississippi River watershed, with downstream communities at risk of water levels rising further.

Major flooding was already occurring in Cape Girardeau, Missouri and the Illinois communities of Thebes and Chester, the NOAA said, and it could be several days before the flooding reduces in severity. According to Cape Girardeau’s official blog, about 25 homes in the city were either flooded or rendered inaccessible by floodwaters that had closed several of the city’s roads.

As the waters left Missouri, they were expected to arrive in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana.

In Natchez, Mississippi, some 580 miles south of St. Louis, the NOAA reported the Mississippi River was already at 49.4 feet, causing minor flooding. The river was expected to rise at least 10 more feet before peaking at 60 feet on January 17, which would spur major flooding issues.

Other areas at risk of major flooding include the Mississippi communities of Vicksburg and Greenville and Arkansas City, Arkansas, according to NOAA projections. The governor of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, preemptively declared a state of emergency amid the threat of floods.

“We are told this flood will be just below the historic record flood of 2011,” Bryant said in a news release. “Our citizens have time to prepare and should begin taking actions now.”

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s office said the governor has already declared 38 of the state’s 75 counties disaster areas as a result of storm and flooding damage, and noted the governor could add more counties to the list if the damage calls for the list to be expanded.

The Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness has said it would monitor levels of the Red and Mississippi rivers and assist any affected communities.

Death Toll Rises as Floodwaters Continue to Plague Missouri, Other States

Large portions of the central United States remained under flood warnings on Thursday morning as high waters continued to wreak havoc on dozens of riverside communities.

The National Weather Service issued the warnings for significant swaths of Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, where floodwaters reached historic levels following a powerful winter storm, but also issued isolated flood warnings throughout the southeast. The service also issued flash flooding watches in large portions of Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.

While floodwaters began to recede in many locations, particularly around hard-hit greater St. Louis, they remained at critically high levels. The National Weather Service warned that towns and cities further south along the Mississippi River could experience “significant river flooding” into mid-January as the massive amounts of water flowed downstream, according to its website.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that 365 river gauges remained at flood stages on Thursday, 44 of which were at “major flooding” levels. The river gauges don’t always consider lakes, creeks or streams, many of which also breached their banks.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, who declared a state of emergency and mobilized the National Guard in the wake of the flooding, said the floods are responsible for killing 14 people in the state, according to a news release from his office. The Missouri Department of Transportation said at least 200 roads were submerged statewide early Thursday, according to a news release.

A busy 21-mile stretch of Interstate 44 remained closed near St.Louis, and the statement from Nixon’s office indicated it was the first time floodwaters shut down the road since 1982.

The Meramec River in Valley Park, Missouri, near St. Louis, crested at a record level of 44.11 feet early Thursday, according to the NOAA, which was more than four feet above a 33-year-old record and only the second time the river reached 38 feet in the past century. The river receded slightly to 43.57 feet later Thursday, the NOAA said, but that was still 27 feet above flood stage.

The community ordered those in low-lying areas to evacuate as the waters surged toward historic heights, according to a posting on its Facebook page. The city is protected by a levee, the posting indicates, but there was still “significant flooding” in several portions of the city.

The Meramec River flooding also damaged “hundreds of homes and businesses” in Pacific, Missouri, according to the governor’s office. The city, located upstream from Valley Park, crested just shy of its all-time record, the NOAA said, but that was still 18 feet above flood stage.

As the waters departed Valley Park and Pacific, they arrived further downstream.

NOAA data indicates the Meramec River in Arnold climbed to an all-time high of 47.22 feet on Thursday morning, nearly two feet above the record and roughly 23 feet above flood stage. The city recommended people evacuate because of the danger to residences, according to its website.

The Meramec flows into the Mississippi River, and communities downstream were expected to see waters rise further. In Chester, Illinois, the NOAA said waters were already at 44.26 feet on Thursday, 17 feet above flood stage and its second-highest level ever, and forecasts called for another 3-foot rise this week. Several roads in the city were already closed, its website indicates.

“This historic flooding event will continue to cause significant hazards and disruptions – from Missourians being forced from their homes, to businesses temporarily closing, to traffic congestion and impacts on interstate commerce due to the closure of a major trucking corridor,” Nixon said in a statement. “I thank the many Missourians who are assisting their neighbors by providing rooms in their homes, helping with sandbagging efforts and countless other acts of kindness.”

Missouri wasn’t the only state affected by the extreme weather.

The storm dumped snow, ice and rain throughout Oklahoma, prompting Governor Mary Fallin to extend a state of emergency. The state Department of Emergency Management reported Wednesday evening that five people lost their lives and another 104 were injured in the storm.

Earlier this week, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner said “significant issues related to flooding” had occurred in seven counties and he issued a disaster proclamation for those areas, according to a news release from his office.

Historic Floods Continue to Devastate Missouri, United States

Significant portions of the United States remained under flood warnings on Wednesday morning as the fallout from a powerful storm system left their communities waterlogged.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings in at least 18 states in the Gulf Coast, Atlantic Coast and Ohio Valley. Most of the warnings were concentrated in Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma, three of the states that received the highest rainfall totals during the recent storm.

According to the National Weather Service, the storm dropped six to 12 inches of rain across those three states and northwest Arkansas, where additional flood warnings were in effect.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said 379 river gauges across the country were in flood stage Wednesday morning, including 48 that reported “major flooding.” Those were down from Tuesday’s respective totals of 438 and 53, but that decline likely provided little relief to the regions that were still underwater, or where floodwaters were expected to rise.

Those river gauges don’t necessarily include lakes or other smaller bodies of water, like creeks or streams, that were also flooding. The rivers alone reached historic levels in several communities.

According to the NOAA, the Meramec River, which runs just south of Saint Louis, had already surpassed its record crests in two different locations on Wednesday morning. That included a whopping 45.33-foot total near Eureka, which was about 2.5 feet above a 33-year-old record and more than 25 feet above the threshold for what the NOAA considers to be major flooding. The waters were expected to continue to rise, reaching an all-time high of 46.2 feet later Wednesday.

Those rising waters were also forcing some mandatory evacuations and road closures.

City officials in Valley Park, Missouri, ordered residents to leave their homes and seek higher ground as the Meramec River reached 40 feet, according to the city’s Facebook page. The Missouri Department of Transportation shut down a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 44 near St. Louis because of flooding, according to a news release. That road is expected to be closed several days.

The National Weather Service reported that Union, Missouri, received more than a foot of rain in the storm. According to the NOAA, the Bourbeuse River reached a historic height of 34.31 feet on Tuesday before receding to 29.3 feet on Wednesday morning. Still, that was three feet above the threshold for major flooding in the city, located some 55 miles southwest of Saint Louis.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard, according to a news release from his office. The National Guard will assist evacuation efforts, as well as ensure traffic stays away from the numerous closed roads. Floods have killed 13 people in the state alone, according to the governor’s office, 12 of whom died when rushing waters swept vehicles off roads. St. Louis County officials also declared a countywide state of emergency, writing in a news release that the waters trapped people in businesses and homes.

Some locations along the Mississippi River were also expected to see record flooding, according to the NOAA. But even in areas where records weren’t broken, the waters were still very high.

The NOAA indicated there was major flooding along several rivers in Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Minor or moderate flooding was occurring in parts of the southeast.

Destructive Winter Storm Reaches New England

A powerful and deadly winter storm that brought heavy snow and widespread flooding to the United States continued to travel east on Tuesday morning, leaving more destruction in its path.

The National Weather Service issued winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings in parts of Pennsylvania, New York and New England as the storm was poised to finally exit the country. But the storm’s fury was still being felt across the nation, particularly in the Great Plains and Ohio and Mississippi valleys, where numerous flood warnings remained in effect.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said 438 river gauges across the nation were in flood stage on Tuesday morning, 53 of which were experiencing “major flooding.” Most of them were clustered in the central United States, though a few were in the southeast. In many locations, floodwaters had already reached or were threatening to surpass historic levels.

Fueled by 10 inches of rainfall in the vicinity, the Illinois River near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, reached an all-time high crest of 30.69 feet on Monday, more than 2.5 feet above the previous record that was set 65 years ago, the NOAA reported. The floodwaters had receded to about 21 feet there on Tuesday morning, though that was still more than three feet above the threshold for what is considered major flooding. The NOAA said parts of Texas, Arkansas and Missouri also saw 10 or more inches of rain, including a storm-high 12.25 inches near Union, Missouri. The storm also packed a powerful punch in Illinois, dumping 9.98 inches of rain near Roxana.

Rising waters prompted the mayor of St. Louis to declare a city emergency. Just south of the city in Arnold, the NOAA reported Meramec River was already experiencing major flooding, and was expected to surpass its all-time high level of 45.3 feet later this week. That water flows into the Mississippi River, and the NOAA projected that the further-south riverside communities of Chester, Illinois, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, were also expected to tie or break local crest records.

That’s just a sampling of the storm’s flooding, and the 438 river gauges do not necessarily cover the lakes or other water bodies causing floods. In southern Missouri, for example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported that waters at Table Rock Lake rose approximately 17 feet between Monday and Tuesday, fueling a massive release of water into flood-prone Lake Taneycomo. The United States Geological Survey reported that waters at Ozark Beach Dam in Forsyth, some 20 miles away from Table Rock Lake, rose three feet between Monday and Tuesday.

The storm brought more than just flooding and heavy rains.

More than three inches of sleet fell in Iowa and Illinois, the NOAA reported. But an inch was enough to snarl traffic at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, one of the world’s busiest.

Flight monitoring website FlightAware.com reported that 1,366 flights to or from the airport were cancelled on Monday, more than half of the airport’s scheduled traffic. Another 303 flights involving Chicago Midway International Airport were also cancelled, according to FlightAware, and lingering effects of the storm caused an additional 236 cancellations at O’Hare on Tuesday.

According to NOAA data, no place came close to receiving the 41 inches of snow the storm dumped on Bonito Lake, located in a mountain range in New Mexico. But the storm did produce more than nine inches of snow in Oklahoma, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Texas.

The storm knocked out power to tens of thousands in Oklahoma, according to utility companies.

While the storm appears seems to have weakened considerably, it’s still packing a punch. According to the National Weather Service, parts of Maine could receive up to a foot of snow.

Chance of Imminent Tornado Outbreak Rises, Meteorologists Warn

Meteorologists warn that “an outbreak of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes” could imminently impact the Ohio, Tennessee and Mississippi valleys.

The National Weather Service issued a severe weather outlook on Wednesday afternoon, warning that a dangerous storm system capable of producing hurricane-force winds, several tornadoes and sizeable hail was trending across the central United States.

The National Weather Service issued tornado watches for parts of ten states: Louisiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, Alabama and Indiana.

Meteorologists said the outbreak is expected to occur this afternoon and last into tonight. The areas most at risk for “long-tracked tornadoes” are western Tennessee, northern Mississippi and eastern Arkansas.

The news comes on one of the busiest travel days of the year. AAA projects a record 100.5 million Americans would be traveling in the 12-day period that began this morning, more than 90 percent of them driving.

The Weather Channel uses its own index, called TOR:CON, to calculate the risk of a tornado occurring at any given time in a specified area. Initially, meteorologists said the areas most at risk only had a 50 percent chance of seeing a tornado, but that rose significantly Wednesday.

Meteorologists now warn northern Mississippi, northern Alabama and western Tennessee have an 80 percent chance of a tornado occurring within 50 miles. The channel said there was also a 70 percent chance of a tornado within 50 miles of eastern Arkansas, and at least a 50 percent chance of a tornado in a widespread region from the Florida panhandle to Kentucky, North Carolina and Missouri.

High winds were already being blamed for at least one death.

Arkansas television station KTHV reported an 18-year-old girl was killed after high winds uprooted a tree and sent it crashing through a home in Pope County.

Weather Experts Predict 2016 Could Be Hottest Year in History

British meteorologists said Thursday that 2015 is on track to be the warmest year in history, and forecasts indicate that next year could be even hotter.

Britain’s Met Office predicts the average global temperature is expected to be between 1.2 and 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than a 30-year average, with a “central estimate” of 1.5 degrees.

Temperatures in the first 10 months of this year were about 1.3 degrees hotter than that 30-year average, the Met Office said. If that trend continued, 2015 would be the hottest year on record.

“This forecast suggests 2016 is likely to be at least as warm, if not warmer,” Chris Folland, a research fellow at the Met Office, said in a statement accompanying the forecasts.

The 30-year average the Met Office cites covers global temperatures from 1961-1990. In those years, the average temperature on Earth was 57.2 degrees. But the Met Office said that human-induced climate change, as well as naturally occurring weather phenomena like El Nino, have factored into the recent observed temperatures, along with the forecasts for the future.

“This forecast suggests that by the end of 2016 we will have seen three record, or near-record years in a row for global temperatures,” Adam Scaife, who heads long-range prediction at the Met Office, said in a statement.

The Met Office said the forecast doesn’t include “random events” like volcanic eruptions, which could cause temperatures to cool temporarily. It also said that while it doesn’t expect the run of record-setting years to continue indefinitely, the forecast does indicate how climate change “can combine with smaller, natural fluctuations” to push temperatures to unprecedented levels.

The latest forecast comes on the heels of last week’s landmark COP21 agreement in which nearly 200 countries pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an attempt to keep average global temperatures from rising to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels. Scientists have publicly warned that eclipsing that long-feared threshold could yield catastrophic results.