Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
Hello and happy Wednesday everyone, hope all is well! Tropical Storm Aletta continues in the Eastern Pacific, but will only pose a threat to ships and slow moving whales as she drifts west (away from the U.S.)
The image below comes from NOAA, see more info HERE:
“After officially becoming the first named storm of the 2012 Pacific Hurricane Season on May 15, 2012, Tropical Storm Aletta was observed by the nation’s newest weather satellite, the Suomi-NPP (a NOAA-NASA partnership), at around 8:30z. Seen here in 350 meter resolution VIIRS infrared imagery are the overshooting tops associated with the most intense areas of convention in the storm (colored dark orange). TS Aletta currently has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and is moving due west in the Eastern Pacific.”
A Newly Discovered Wettest Place in the U.S.?
That’s a lot of rain! Thanks to Weather Underground for this story, see more HERE:
“A team of scientists from the University of Hawai’i’-Manoa Geography Department has recently published a rainfall atlas to the state and may have discovered a new ‘wettest spot’ in the islands and thus for the entire United States. In 1992 they set up a rain gauge at a location known as the ‘Big Bog’ on the edge of Haleakala National Park on Maui Island. They had originally estimated the rainfall at this site to be on the order of 180” per annum, but the second year of data (1994) saw an amazing 560” of precipitation fall. The 30-year (1978-2007) average annual rainfall was 404? at Big Bog (estimated from 1992-2007 data) vs. 393? at Mt. Waialeale”
What the Hail?
Severe weather doesn’t just happen in the United States, here are two weather videos from Europe of hail storms.
London Hail – See Video HERE
Here’s Another One!
Belgium Hail
See the video HERE
Texas Drought Eases
“The most intense drought in Texas history lowered reservoir levels around the state, stirring widespread concern about water shortages. By April 2012 many had bounced back, particularly in Central and East Texas, after those areas saw an unusually rainy spring. But many West Texas levels remain very low.
Using data collected from the Texas Water Development Board’s reservoir status tracker, we have built a tool that visualizes the current levels of the state’s reservoirs. The map will be updated daily with fresh data. Each icon on the map represents an individual reservoir, color-coded based on how full it is currently.”
See the full story HERE
US Drought Monitor
This is the US Drought Monitor from last week, which shows SEVERE to EXCEPTIONAL drought still on spots through Texas and the Southeast. The good news is that with all the latest rain, we’ve seen some dramatic improvements since last summer!
See the Drought Monitor HERE (New Update on Thursday)
Drought Outlook
This is the drought outlook through the end of July released by NOAA, which shows areas across west Texas expected to continue drought conditions while locations in the Southeast will see some improvement.
See more from the Climate Prediction Center HERE
Observed Precipitation Last 7 Days
This is a look at radar estimated rainfall over the last 7 days, note the heavier blobs over Texas and the Southeast where drought conditions more significant. Nice to see rain in these spots!
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Rainfall Looking Ahead
The 5 day precipitation forecast shows a few pockets of heavier rain, but nothing significant. The heaviest will likely be across the coastal communities in the East and especially Florida. Another batch of rain and thunder will kick up measurable rain in the High Plains and the Upper Mississippi Valley by the weekend.
Severe Risk Today
The Storm Prediction Center has a SLIGHT RISK of severe weather across parts of the Northeast where hail and high winds are expected to top severe criteria (1″ diameter hail and 58mph winds)
See more from the SPC HERE:
Thanks for checking in on this Wednesday and have a great rest of your week!
Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @TNelsonWNTV
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
Happy Tuesday everyone, hope all is well and you are enjoying you’re week so far. Thanks to my good friend, Sarah Frakes, from Duluth, MN who snapped this pictures yesterday on the St. Louis River, which dumps into Lake Superior. She was out boating on a lovely evening after an 80° day… the first 80° day of the year! To have an 80° day in Duluth in May is quite rare, hope you enjoyed it!
It’s Alive… It’s ALIVE… IT’S ALIVE!
After a deep winter slumber, the tropics are alive and earlier than usual. The official hurricane season doesn’t start until June 1st and the Eastern Pacific is alive with Tropical Storm Aletta. This is the first time 1996 that we’ve had a tropical storm form before the official start to hurricane season.
“On May 12, the NHC reported that a tropical disturbance formed, about 550 miles south-southwest of Acapulco, Mexico. The storm quickly moved northwest before stalling, and then began to strengthen rapidly.”
See more from Earth Snapshot HERE:
See more from the National Hurricane Center HERE:
Keeping it Tropical
Thanks to the National Weather Service out of Miami for sharing this on their Facebook page. This was the scene from West Palm Beach earlier Tuesday. Look out! It’s a waterspout!
See more from Miami HERE:
Foggy Start in the East
After a few rounds of rain and calm winds overnight, several folks in the east woke up to patchy (dense) fog. This was the scene from the Shelby County Airport in Birmingham AL. Thanks to the National Weather Service in Birmingham for sharing this photo on their Facebook page.
See More HERE
Rain Continues in the Northeast
The forecast today calls for more (heavier) rain in the Northeast with precipitation forecast getting close to 1″ to 2″ in spots through today’s calendar date… don’t forget something waterproof.
Precipitation Forecast
Today’s precipitation forecast from the HPC (Hydrological Prediction Center) is suggesting the heaviest rainfall across the Northeast today.
Today’s Severe Threat
Today’s severe threat will be limited, but continues along the Eastern Seaboard with an isolated hail, high wind and tornado threat. There is an additional front that has the potential to kick out a few strong storms with wind and hail exceeding severe criteria. 1″ diameter hail (the size of a quarter) and 58mph winds or greater.
Beauty in Bayfield, WI
Thanks to another good friend of mine, Ryan Pauly, for this picture who woke up in Bayfield, WI to this! Looks very peaceful, Ryan.
Prehistoric Fish Caught
Thanks to my good friend, Joe Buckley, for sending me this shot from Ottertial Lake in western MN. He caught this 25lbs. sturgeon!
Read more about sturgeon HERE:
Arizona Wildfire Continues
“Firefighters continued to battle a wildfire Monday in northern Arizona that has forced residents from their homes in the historic mining town of Crown King just weeks ahead of the busy tourist season. (May 15)”
See the full video HERE
Stormy Monday in TN
Thanks to Diane Oneil who snapped this shot in Jacksboro, TN. Looks a little stormy out there! Thanks to a slow moving storm system rainfall amounts have exceeded 1″ to 2″ in spots. Good news is that the weather will be improving through midweek.
Thanks for checking in and have a great rest of your week.
Don’t forget to check us out on our new website @ www.weathernationtv.com
Check us out on our Facebook page HERE
and our Twitter page @WeatherNationWX
You can also follow me @TNelsonWNTV
-Meteorologist Todd Nelson-
“Don’t look for your dreams to come true; look to become true to your dreams.” – Michael Beckwith
Tuesday Severe Threat. A weak clipper-like intrusion of Canadian air may spark a few strong to severe storms from Madison to Milwaukee, Rockford and Chicago later today. Map courtesy of SPC.
“Research at Texas Tech University and elsewhere has shown that only masonry or reinforced concrete walls can protect against lethal flying debris that might be encountered during a tornado with wind speeds up to 130 mph.” from a Houston Chronicle story below.
“The best guess now is that a worst-case rise of 2 feet is no longer in the cards. The likely increase in sea level by 2100 now stands at 3 feet, with worst-case scenarios going as high as 6 feet. Three feet would threaten many coastal cities around the world with frequent, powerful floods, as the mildest of storms could send water coursing through streets and into buildings. Six feet could make large parts of major cities — Miami, New Orleans, Shanghai, Bangkok and many more — essentially uninhabitable.” – from a Climate Central article; details below.
Least Polluted Cities In The U.S. Ranked In State Of The Air 2012. Duluth came in at #19. Way to represent! Here’s a story from Huffington Post: “Are you and your neighbors breathing healthy air? American Lung Association has released their State Of The Air 2012 report, detailing cities with the least and most air pollution in America. Each city is ranked by ozone pollution, short-term particle pollution, and year-long particle pollution. Below are the report’s “Top 25 Least Polluted Cities By Year-Round Particle Pollution.” Although many problem regions still exist, the report shows that all but three of the most ozone-polluted cities improved air quality, and over 50% of the worst smog-makers were having their best year thus far.”
Photo credit above: Flickr image courtesy of kla4067
Fun Weather Fact: The windiest place in the world is Port Martin, Antarctica, which has an average wind speed over a year of 64 km/h (40 mph). It experiences gale force 8 winds (39-46 mph) for over a hundred days a year! Credit: Facebook and the Marquette, Michigan office of The National Weather Service.
Must-See Tornado Video. This is definitely worth a couple minutes of your time: “Last week a waterspout came ashore in Grand Isle, Louisiana causing damage. CAPT. KEITH “HERK” BERGERON captured this amazing video. It gets extremely intense about 4:35 in. You actually see a house get blown apart. Thankfully, Capt. Bergeron wasn’t injured getting this footage. Click here to watch the video. ”
5 Deadliest Hurricanes Wreaked Havoc. Here’s a great hurricane history lesson fromKXLY.com: “Hurricane season starts June 1 of every year and ends on Nov 30 of every year, with an average of 5.9 hurricanes forming in the Atlantic Ocean each year.Hurricanes that cause extreme destruction are rare, but when they do occur, they can cause significant property damage and/or thousands of fatalities. Below are the five deadliest known Atlantic hurricanes.”
Great Hurricane of 1780
“The deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record is the Great Hurricane of 1780. The storm passed through the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean between Oct. 10 and Oct. 16, 1780, killing more than 25,000 people. The hurricane struck Barbados with wind gusts that possibly exceeded 200 mph before it moved past Martinique, Saint Lucia, and Sint Eustatius; thousands of deaths were reported on each island.”
Photo Of The Day: “CBs”. Popular in the aviation community, the expression “CB” is slang for cumulonimbus, or thunderheads. Thanks to Edward Sklar for passing this one along – more at Facebook.
Chinese Space Station Transits The Sun. Here’s an excerpt from a story atspaceweather.com: “Solar photographers have grown accustomed to winged spaceships flying in front of the sun. For years, silhouettes of space shuttles and the International Space Station have flitted across the solar disk, producing photo-opsofrarebeauty. Now China’s space station, the Tiangong-1 (“Heavenly Palace 1″), is joining the show. On May 11th, perhaps for the first time, Thierry Legault of Paris, France, caught the newcomer transiting the sun.”
Scale Of The Universe. I’m feeling even smaller and more insignificant than usual. Nope, my wife didn’t call – I checked out this amazing web site that provides a sense of scale, from the micro to the macro, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Thanks and kudos to Michael and Cary Huang for sharing this at htwins.net.
Redefining Cute. How cool is this, courtesy of Denali National Park and Preserve: “Traffic is picking up on the park road this week. Yield to Denali’s newcomers as they learn their way around.”
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ABOUT ME
- Paul Douglas
- Welcome to the WeatherNation blog. Every day I sift through hundreds of stories, maps, graphics and meteorological web sites, trying to capture some of the most interesting weather nuggets, the stories behind the forecast. I’ll link to stories and share some of the web sites I use. I’m still passionate about the weather, have been ever since Tropical Storm Agnes flooded my home in Lancaster, PA in 1972. I’ve started 5 weather-related companies. “EarthWatch” created the world’s first 3-D weather graphics for TV stations – Steven Spielberg used our software in “Jurassic Park” and “Twister”. My last company, “Digital Cyclone”, personalized weather for cell phones. “My-Cast” was launched in 2001 and is still going strong on iPhone, Android and Blackberry. I sold DCI to Garmin in 2007 so I could focus on my latest venture: WeatherNation. Twitter name: @pdouglasweather
Monday, May 14th, 2012
Thanks to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park for sharing this picture on their Facebook page, see more HERE
“Our recent rain and warm temperatures has triggered many cactus blooms in some areas of the park. Come by and experience spring in the Guadalupe Mountains.”
See more about the Guadalupe Mountains National Park HERE
HOT HOT HOT
The National Weather Service has issued EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCHES/WARNINGS until Tuesday for locations highlighted below. Temperatures could soar to 110°!
Forecast Highs Today
Extended Heat
Why So Warm?
A large ridge of high pressure in the west is allowing record to near record heat to bubble as far north as Portland, OR. The forecast today calls for 88° and the record for today’s date is 86° set in 1973
Ridge Kills Severe Threat
The dominant ridge of high pressure out west is killing (for the most part) any severe weather chance across the Plains states. Isolated strong to severe storms may pop up across southwest Texas today.
Sunday afternoon a tornado touched down in the mountain village of Magdalena, New Mexico. Check out this incredible photo from Mark Ronchetti, Chief Meteorologist KRQE News 13 & KASA Fox 2 Albuquerque shared by the National Weather Service Southern Region HQ on Facebook.
Minor damage was reported after a tornado hit near Pensacola, Florida Saturday night.
You can read more from meteorologist Stephen Bowers at WTOK.
A wide variety of weather conditions around the nation for this Mother’s Day. Several cities held the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure this past weekend. Participants in the upper Midwest were treated to a beautiful day. Thousands of runners and walkers gathered in Minneapolis, MN. With temperatures climbing to the low 70s this afternoon, it was comfortable without being too hot.
Some photos from morning:
Minneapolis, MN
Picture by: @Hand2DaHairline
Minneapolis, MN
Picture by: @shannolan
Plenty of pink in Pittsburg, PA as well this morning. The weather here wasn’t quite as cooperative as it was in Minneapolis with a few more clouds and cooler conditions. The rain did hold off though until the later morning hours.
Pittsburg, PA
Picture by: @loveyoubeee
Elsewhere around the country, persistent and prolonged periods of rain continue to impact the Ohio Valley and the Southeast. Mother’s Day festivities will be moving indoors in these areas! Some stronger storms reported off the pan handle of Florida this morning. Several waterspouts were seen off the coast from this system.
The rest of the region won’t have to deal with severe storms, but most places won’t escape the rain today.
There was a report of a brief touchdown of a tornado in Escambia County, Florida this morning. No reports of any injuries or serious damage.
Turbulent skies over Florida as well.
St. Petersburg, FL
Picture by: Greg Harper
On the opposite side of the nation, temperatures continue to rise. It was a hot day yesterday and today will be even warmer and into early next week.
Phoenix will be one of the hot spots with high temperatures climbing over 100 degrees.
The National Weather Service has issued a Excessive Heat Watch for the area for Tuesday afternoon. That will be the warmest day of the week ahead with a projected high of 104°.
View of the city this morning from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
Just in case you might be disappointed about weather in your area (too hot or too rainy), here is something to lift your spirits. All the way up in Barrow, AK it is cold (as usual) and it has been cold for quite some time (as usual). The air temperature in Barrow has remained below freezing since last fall (Oct. 9 to be specific). And there is still over a foot of snow on the ground!
The view over Barrow this morning:
http://seaice.alaska.edu/gi/observatories/barrow_webcam
This camera is pointing north and, according to the website, there is a period during the summer when the coast is ice-free. It sure doesn’t seem like that will be anytime soon! Temperature at the time this image was captured on the webcam was 24°.
Now a little bit rain doesn’t sound so bad!
Happy Mother’s Day!
