02.03.11
Posted in Weather News, Winter Weather at 8:00 am by Rebekah
The big snowstorm of the last few days is pretty much over for the U.S. and Canada. The highest storm total report I heard was 26.5 inches of snow just west of Racine, Wisconsin.
Following is a graphical summary of snow reports from the storm. Many of the NWS forecast offices have more information about the storm in their area; click on the desired link to get to that forecast office’s web page.
Note: all of these images may be enlarged by clicking on them, including the above image from NOAA, showing the storm on the 1st.
National, 24-hr snowfall ending 8 am Central Time on Feb. 2nd, from the NWS Experimental Snowfall Analysis (some of the below NWS offices just zoomed in on this map for their regional snow maps):
NWS Norman, Oklahoma:
NWS Tulsa, Oklahoma:
NWS Wichita, Kansas:
NWS Topeka, Kansas:
NWS Springfield, Missouri:
NWS Kansas City/Pleasant Hill, Missouri:
NWS St. Louis, Missouri:
NWS Hastings, Nebraska:
NWS Omaha/Valley, Nebraska:
NWS Des Moines, Iowa:
NWS Sioux Falls, South Dakota:
NWS Quad Cities, Iowa/Illinois:
NWS Lincoln, Illinois:
NWS Chicago, Illinois:
NWS Northern Indiana:
NWS La Crosse, Wisconsin:
NWS Milwaukee, Wisconsin:
NWS Grand Rapids, Michigan (this write-up opens as a PDF):
NWS Detroit, Michigan:
To see a text list of snow totals across the U.S., see the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center’s Storm Summary.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/enhanced.php
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02.01.11
Posted in Weather News, Winter Weather at 3:58 pm by Rebekah
The blizzard has struck Oklahoma…my first blizzard was a pretty big one, and by now the worst is up around Missouri and Illinois.
I measured about 8 or so inches of snow here in Norman, but it’s difficult to measure just how much snow we would have gotten without the strong winds. I found quite a few 2-foot snow drifts, and some drifts that were around or just over 3 feet deep!
The wind has really been howling, at about 30 mph or greater, with gusts to 40 mph. The temperature this afternoon when I went out was around 10 °F, with a wind chill of -15 °F!
Last night we got some heavy thundersleet (with quite a bit of lightning!), starting about 9:15 or so. We probably got around an inch of sleet before the snow even started, after midnight. The snow was done falling by noon, but it’s still blowing around out there.
Here’s a surface map from The Weather Channel, at about 3:30 am Central Time:
And here’s a map from 12 hours later, showing where the snow and ice has moved on to (there’s also a tornado threat for the Southeast):
Preliminary snow totals for Oklahoma, via the NWS Norman:
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Posted in Non-US Weather, Tropical Weather, Weather News at 8:00 am by Rebekah
This week’s post in the global weather and climate series features Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
Cairns, from Mt. Whitfield, looking east. From Wikipedia
Cairns is situated on the northeastern coast of Queensland, on the eastern side of the Cape York Peninsula. The Great Dividing Range is to the west, and the Great Barrier Reef is just off the coast. Cairns is home to over 164,000 people.
Cairns was founded in 1876, and was later used by the Allied Forces during World War II as a base for Pacific operations. Today, the city is an important international tourism destination. Following Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, Cairns is the fourth-most popular destination in Australia for foreign tourists.
A few more facts about Cairns (from Wikipedia):
- Time zone: Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)
- Average elevation: sea level
- Climate zone: Tropical monsoon
- Average high temperature: 84 °F (29 °C)
- Average low temperature: 69 °F (21 °C)
- Average annual high/low temperature range: 78 to 89 °F (26 to 31 °C) / 63 to 75 °F (17 to 24 °C)
- Average annual precipitation: 79 inches (2,011 mm)
Weather: February is climatologically the wettest month of the year for Cairns. The city’s monsoon climate means that there is a very pronounced wet season in the summer, with a dry season in the winter.
While not as affected by the Australian flooding as some points further south, Cairns has received copious precipitation recently. The rain is not going to stop any time soon, unfortunately; there is a chance of showers and thunderstorms every day and night for the next week or so, and Tropical Cyclone Yasi could bring as much as a foot or more of rain for some places around and just east of Cairns.
Models show Yasi could stall a bit in the mountains for about 12 hours or so after making landfall, bringing greater chances for large rain totals. Cairns will also get some strong winds (maximum winds could reach 100 mph, with higher gusts) from Yasi, as the cyclone is expected to make landfall as a Category 4.
See also yesterday’s post, Strengthening Tropical Cyclone Yasi.
Tropical Cyclone Yasi, at 00Z (10am on the 1st, Australian Eastern Standard Time), from MODIS (click to enlarge)
For the latest on Tropical Cyclone Yasi, see the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
For weather maps and information on current and forecast Cairns weather, see the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Weatherzone, Weather Underground, and Weather Online UK.
For more information on Cairns, here’s a link to Wikipedia.
Next Tuesday I plan to take a look at the climate and weather in another part of the globe. As always, if you have any suggestions for future cities, please leave a comment!
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01.31.11
Posted in Weather Forecast, Weather News, Winter Weather at 3:47 pm by Rebekah
Nearly half of the U.S. and about 1/3 of the nation’s population is bracing for a major winter storm, to take place today through Wednesday or so. Since there’s a lot that could be said, and I don’t have a lot of time for an in-depth post, I’ll just post some graphics from the National Weather Service.
I might add that to my knowledge, this is the first blizzard warning that I have ever been under (I missed the Christmas Eve 2009 blizzard, which was the first blizzard in central Oklahoma in modern history and dumped 13.5 inches of snow on Oklahoma City, with several-foot drifts).
The National Weather Service has been using the following statements to describe this storm (taken from The Weather Channel):
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Norman, OK: “Obvious analog would be Christmas Eve ’09. For some this may be as bad or worse.“
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Kansas City, MO: “This could end up being one of the more significant weather events in the last 20 years in Missouri.“
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St. Louis, MO: “Potentially historic winter storm headed for region.“
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Milwaukee, WI: “Paralyzing blizzard“
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Grand Rapids, MI: “Travel…and commerce in general…could be paralyzed with near record-breaking snowfall.“
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Indianapolis, IN: “Could result in devastating conditions for central Indiana. Long duration power outages appear possible.”
Note: we could get more snow than this, and with the winds, several-foot snow drifts are possible
Currently, here in Norman, it’s mostly cloudy, dry, 45 °F, with a north wind of about 15 mph. It’s hard to believe that within 24 hours we could have several inches of snow on the ground!
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01.30.11
Posted in Weather News, Winter Weather at 8:00 am by Rebekah
For quite some time now the models have been hinting at the possibility for a decent amount of snow and possibly ice for Oklahoma this week. The models have come to some sort of agreement lately and it’s looking like parts of central to northern Oklahoma could see several inches of snow from Monday night into Tuesday.
There may be some sleet or even freezing rain Monday night as well, but the GFS and the NAM aren’t showing much of a warm layer, if any.
A strong, arctic high (could be as high as 1048 mb or so) will edge down into the Northern Plains, bringing frigid air along with it. The National Weather Service in Norman (Oklahoma) is calling for a low of 7 °F in Norman Tuesday night.
We could certainly use some precipitation…it’s been so dry in the Southern Plains, and numerous fires have broken out in the last couple of days.
These last two days have been nice in terms of temperature, though; yesterday Norman reached 79 °F and today 76 °F! 🙂 I still haven’t turned my heat on…I haven’t had the heat on since March, if not February of 2010. My apartment stays insulated pretty well and so far this winter it hasn’t stayed cold for longer than a couple of days.
Here’s the 5-day precipitation (liquid-water equivalent) forecast from the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center…looks like it could be wet for much of the U.S. this week!
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