February 13, 2016 - COSTA RICA - In what can only be described as an extreme weather anomaly, frost was seen on Costa Rica's Irazu volcano.
The
Irazu Volcano, still active, last made international headlines when it
erupted in 1963 on the day that former US President John F. Kennedy
visited the country. The eruption decimated crops in the area but left
the soil enriched for decades to come. The last noticeable activity came
in 1996, and since then Irazu has been a quiet giant.
Reaching upward
of 11,260 ft (3,432 m), Irazu is the tallest volcano in Costa Rica.
The volcano has several craters, two of which are the principal attractions. The larger of the two delves 900 feet (275 m) deep, as steam rises up into the air giving visitors at nearby viewing stations an amazing sight to behold.
The smaller crater, Diego de la Haya, dips below the surface 300 ft (91 m) as its mineral-rich lake astonishingly transforms its color from emerald-green to crimson-red. On a clear day, the Pacific and Caribbean are visible.
WATCH: This is how the Irazu Volcano National Park looks right now.
Two people are confirmed dead as a major bushfire continues to burn in remote rural areas of South Australia.
December 4, 2015 - AUSTRALIA - A clock frozen in time in the local bowls club destroyed by fire in the mid-north town of Wasleys in South Australia.
Firefighters spent yesterday searching burnt-out cars and homes after the blaze raged across a 40km front.
The Premier of South Australia, Jay Weatherill, took to Twitter to offer
condolences to the families affected and thanked the hundreds of
firefighters deployed in the area.
"We also know thatthere have been extraordinary losses of livestock and wildlife", the ABC quoted Weatherill as saying.
The South Australian deaths come after a blaze in the Esperence area of
WA last week claimed the lives of three tourists and a local farmer.
"We can't be entirely sure we have identified every single person within the fire ground", Mr Weatherill said.
Country Fire Service chief office Greg Nettleton said crews had
contained about 60 per cent of the fire perimeter which measured about
210 kilometres.
George Hooker has captured the moment he drove into a raging South Australian bushfire.
He said it was important that people in and around the fire zone didn't become complacent to avoid further deaths or injuries.
Meanwhile in NSW, a total fire ban is in place due to very hot
conditions and a watch and act alert is now in place for a fire burning
at Turlinjah in the state's south.
An expert on fire management at Melbourne University, Professor Kevin
Tolhurst, said Australia was "one of the best prepared nations in the
world for fires - but that is still pretty poor".
"There's been complete destruction of some of these vehicles".
"Until we get really substantial rainfall across the state, we're in a risky fire situation for the summer", he said.
"I cannot believe it, I still cannot fathom that she is gone", she said.
It was heading our way but it didn't get there.
Janet Hughes, 56, from Hamley Bridge also died as the fire swept across
the lower northern region of the state, north of Adelaide, while 19
people have been injured.
That blaze, sparked by lightning around Esperance, 750km southeast of
Perth, was finally brought under control late on Wednesday after tearing through nearly 130,000ha of bush land and farmland.
Another 42 homes have been damaged while crop and stock losses are expected to be significant. - The Oceanside Post.
May 21, 2015 - ICELAND - "What's going on," said Sunna, a staff member of Iceland Review, when she arrived at the office, at 8:30 this morning.
"It snowed last night. It was all white when I woke up!"
A thin layer of snow covered the capital area early this morning but had disappeared before 9 am.
The temperature in Reykjavík dropped to 1.2ºC (34.1ºF) during the night
but was already up to 3.4ºC (38.1ºF) at peak hour between 8 am and 9 am
this morning, according to the Icelandic Met Office.
The temperature fell below freezing at many mountain passes around Iceland last night.
The highest temperature in Iceland last night was recorded at
Hallormstaðir in East Iceland, 8.8ºC (47.8º F).
Papey island off East
Iceland had the strongest wind and Patreksfjörður, the West Fjords, had
the most rainfall.
Light snowfall returned for several minutes around midday but has now disappeared.
Gleðilegt sumar ('Happy Summer') as we say in Icelandic. - Iceland Review.
April 21, 2015 - MOSCOW, RUSSIA - Polar bears at the Moscow Zoo were in heaven, but millions of residents in the Russian capital certainly were not as a snowstorm – yes a snowstorm in the middle of April - brought gasps and groans from city dwellers.
Winter fur coats were hastily unpacked, while those who had been putting off changing their winter tires – probably through laziness – were blessing their good fortune.
Muscovites took to social media to make their feelings known, with sarcasm certainly coming to the fore. Some were questioning that global warming had by-passed Moscow, while others just let pictures do the talking.
Photo: #Moscow , April 20. That’s one heck of a #spring , ya know! #snow #russia #winter #снег #весна... http://tmblr.co/Zw4zlx1ivVn12
What Global Warming does about Moscow: snow in April. Is it really global warming? :-) http://twitrpix.com/da91p
The text says: "- Gandalf! - Yes, my friend... - Maybe we'd
better go by Metro"
Snow in Moscow.
#winter come bk in #Moscow ! -3! Bloody cold lol :D #April #snow #unbelievable
Despite being closer to summer, rather than spring and let alone Winter, Moscow was hit by a weather anomaly. An unexpected cyclone brought a front of cold weather to Central Russia.
Meteorologists say the unseasonal chill is likely to last until the weekend. However, they expect the temperature to return to ‘normal’ at the start of next week.
Building roof blown away in single blast of wind caught on dashcam (VIDEO)
A still from Youtube video
The entire roof of a two-storey building was lifted into the sky with a single gust of wind in Siberia’s, Zabaykalsky Kray. Stormy winds have been raging over the past week, causing massive devastation and deadly fires.
The flying roof episode was caught on the dashcam of a passing car in the city of Chita, in the south east of Siberia. The gust was measured at 24 meters per second (54 miles per hour).
Luckily, the building was uninhabited as it is used to house a taxicab fleet. No injuries or damage were reported, according to the press service of the local emergency ministry department.
WATCH: Wind and wildfire damage in Russia.
The roofless building is now one of more than 1,300 houses destroyed in the region by fire or the elements. The devastating blazes, which have already claimed the lives of over 800 people, have now spread to neighboring Mongolia.
An area of just over 100,000 hectares has been affected, despite around 3,000 fire fighters doing their best to try and tackle the blazes. They have used planes and helicopters to attempt to put out the fires and have managed to save five settlements.
The fire fighters have been trying to use a controlled burning technique, which deliberately burns out a certain part of the forest, to prevent the wildfires from advancing even further. Reports say that settlements in the region are not under any threat from the fires at present.
Terrifying footage of cars battling through hellish Russian wildfire (VIDEO)
A scary video emerged online of the wildfire in eastern Siberia now trapping residents, as they try to flee in their cars. The blaze surrounds the vehicles and what looks like volcanic ash rains down on them.
The grassland fire in Zabaykalskiy region, Russia, bordering Mongolia, has been raging since March 19, displacing people from over 1,200 dwellings in 20 separate towns and villages. Over the course of the Wednesday night and into early Thursday, the number of dead has doubled from 15 to 30, with nearly 500 people injured.
WATCH: Welcome to the Gates of Hell - Dashcam footage of terrifying wildfire in Russia.
There are a furthre two people missing, according to officials.
The latest reports from the national forestry service indicate that over the space of one night the fire advanced to engulf over 1,500 square kilometers (930 miles), with 140 separate forest fires in progress. By contrast, the figure was half that on Wednesday.
A total of 22 districts in the Zabaykalskiy region have been affected, with some 93 fires there alone affecting natural reserves, according to local authorities.
All emergency situation procedures are still in place.
- RT News.
March 30, 2015 - GLOBAL VOLCANISM - Eric Worrall writes: The Guardian has published an unusually interesting article about the danger to our civilisation, of a new Tambora scale volcanic eruption.
According to Bill McGuire, professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL:
"In
April 1815, the biggest known eruption of the historical period blew
apart the Tambora volcano, on the Indonesian island of Sumbawa, 12,000km
from the UK. What happened next testifies to the enormous reach of the
biggest volcanic blasts.
The Tambora volcano had shown no signs of life for 1,000 years; a
single eruption in the previous five millennia provided the only
indication that magma was still churning far beneath. It is very likely
that the residents of the island considered the volcano extinct, and
possible even that they did not know the impressive 4,300m (14,107ft)
mountain - at the time, probably the highest in the East Indies - was a
volcano at all. This all changed, however, with the rumblings and
earthquakes of 1812, a full three years before the climactic blast. Over
time, the seismic shocks were superseded by steam blasts and small ash
explosions, engendering increasing trepidation on the island and
signalling that something bigger might be imminent. It was. On 5 April
1815, a titanic explosion hurled a cloud of ash to a height of more than
30km." ...
The consequences for the developed societies of the northern hemisphere
were dire. A dry, sulphurous, fog draped itself across the landscape of
eastern North America, causing temperatures to plunge and bringing
unprecedented summer cold. In New York State, snow fell in June, while
the bitter cold and killing frosts wiped out crops and halved the length
of the growing season across much of the region. On the other side of
the Atlantic, Europe saw summer temperatures down by 2C compared to the
average for the decade; the unseasonal cold accompanied by incessant
rains and - into the following winter - by unusually powerful storms.
Analysis of climate records reveals that 1816, the so-called "year
without a summer", was the second coldest in the northern hemisphere of
the past six centuries."
McGuire adds a minor obligatory genuflection towards climate change, this is after all The Guardian
- but unusually for a Guardian story about the environment, the focus
of the article is not on the alleged dangers of our industrial output of
CO2. And what McGuire says is entirely pertinent - a Tambora style
eruption could kill millions of people from starvation, as massive crop
failures caused food prices to skyrocket.
And Tambora is not the worst which could happen - The Toba eruption,
which occurred 74,000 years ago, blackened the sky, causing massive die
backs across the world - and may even have almost ended the human race.
McGuire then goes on to list a few of the world's most dangerous volcanoes - though interestingly the Indonesian volcano Merapi, an unstable giant slumbering adjacent to a city of 3 million people, doesn't make his list.
These
colossal global catastrophes of the past, and the certainty that
similar catastrophes will occur again in the future, maybe even in our
lifetime, really puts the feeble temperature wobbles which are ascribed
to humans into perspective. - WUWT.
December 19, 2014 - EUROPE - In a paper published in the Journal of Quaternary Science, Esper et al.
(2014) write that tree-ring chronologies of maximum latewood density
(MXD) "are most suitable to reconstruct annually resolved summer
temperature variations of the late Holocene."
And working with what they call "the world's two longest MXD-based climate reconstructions" - those of Melvin et al. (2013) and Esper et al.
(2012) - they combined portions of each to produce a new-and-improved
summer temperature history for northern Europe that stretches all the
way "from 17 BC to the present." And what did they thereby learn?
As the international team of researchers from the Czech Republic,
Finland, Germany, Greece, Sweden and Switzerland describes it, this history depicts "a long-term cooling trend of -0.30°C per 1,000 years over the Common Era in northern Europe" (see figure above).
Most
important of all, however, they note that their temperature
reconstruction "has centennial-scale variations superimposed on this
trend," which indicate that "conditions
during Medieval and Roman times were probably warmer than in the late
20th century," when the previously-rising post-Little Ice Age mean
global air temperature hit a ceiling of sorts above which it has yet to
penetrate.
And so we continue to collect ever more real-world evidencefor the fact that there is nothing unusual, unnatural or unprecedented about the Earth's current level of warmth.
Paper Reviewed
Esper,
J., Duthorn, E., Krusic, P.J., Timonen, M. and Buntgen, U. 2014.
Northern European summer temperature variations over the Common Era from
integrated tree-ring density records. Journal of Quaternary Science29:487-494.
References:
Esper,
J., Frank, D.C., Timonen, M., Zorita, E., Wilson, R.J.S., Luterbacher,
J., Holzkamper, S., Fischer, N., Wagner, S., Nievergelt, D., Verstege,
A. and Buntgen, U. 2012. Orbital forcing of tree-ring data. Nature Climate Change2: 862-866.
Melvin, T.M., Grudd, H. and Briffa, K.R. 2013. Potential bias in
'updating' tree-ring chronologies using Regional Curve Standardization:
reprocessing the Tornetrask maximum-latewood-density data. The Holocene23: 364-373.
June 24, 2014 - NORWAY - The northern Norwegian city of Tromso experienced a freak summer snowfall on Monday after freezing wind from the North Pole saw temperatures plummet.
It was the first time since records began that the city had seen
snowfall in June. Local meteorologist Trond Lien said that sleet and
snow showers hit the city on Monday night, and there has even been some
snow lying on the ground. He said that the situation was "very rare",
noting that it must have been a long time since it snowed on 16 June. He
added that he had found records showing that Tromso had experienced
snowfall in July, but he could find nothing to indicate snow in June.
Motorist Odd Arne Thomassen told reporters that he was driving over
roughly four centimetres of snow when he was in Kvaenangsfjellet, in
North Troms, early on Monday morning. He explained that it was not bad
enough to make him feel he needed his chains on, but that there was
certainly about four centimetres lying on the ground.
Yr.no, the weather forecasting venture between the Meteorological
Institute and TV station NRK, predicted that other areas of the country
would also experience snowfall. It said that high-lying areas of western
and southern Norway would likely see snow, despite the fact that the
capital Oslo is lapping up temperatures in excess of 20C. - IceNews.
June 24, 2014 - MINNESOTA, UNITED STATES - There is still snow on the ground in southern Minnesota.
Chris Kuball, ABC 6
You read that correctly. ABC 6 Meteorologist Chris Kuball tweeted a photo of a snow pile, that looks more like a rock, at Marcusen Park in Austin, Minnesota, Monday morning.
The park is a dumping site for snow in the area, Kuball says, and on June 23 there was still a pile of snow that was about 10 feet tall, 50 feet long and 30 feet wide, Kuball said in a Facebook post.
Marcusen Park isn't the only place in Minnesota where there's still snow
- the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has a little snow
left:
Kuball was surprised that the snow pile is still there. He told BringMeTheNews
that the snow piles usually melt away by this point in June. For some
comparison: In 2011, a giant snow pile that reached the top of the light
posts in the Sear's parking lot in St. Paul melted by June 8.
How long these snow piles stick around depends on how much snow the area
gets and how warm the spring is, Kuball notes. Austin, Minnesota, got
somewhere around 60 inches of snow this winter, Kuball says, and temperatures were cooler than average for much of April and May.
Because of the cooler-than-average spring, snow and ice seemed to stick
around Minnesota a little longer this year. Despite record-setting heat
in Duluth over Memorial Day weekend, ice was still floating on Lake
Superior, which gave Melissa Ellis and her friend Brigitta Keyler an idea for a photo (to the left), that went viral.
Chunks of ice were floating around Lake Superior until the beginning of June, which wasn't really a surprise because of the record-setting winter Minnesotans endured this year. More than 90 percent of the Great Lakes' surface was covered in ice during this past winter, WCCO reports.
Minnesota isn't the only Midwestern state that's seen the long-lasting
effects of the harsh winter. Michigan's Rocks National Lakeshore,
located on Lake Superior, still had snow piles on June 16. - BMTN.
June 21, 2014 - BULGARIA - "The flooding in Varna, Bulgaria, is all over the MSM news in the
Netherlands, but not a single word about the June snowfall in Bulgaria,"
says reader Argiris Diamantis.
Snow in June!
19 Jun 2014 - Unique footage of the flood through the eyes of photographers and readers of Trud
Up to 40 cm (16 inches) of new snow
20 Jun 2014 - Up to 40 cm new snow in places above 1500 meters altitude in Smolyan.
In Pamporovo Pass and the road Smolyan - Mugla cars can pass only with chains, without cargo trailers, reports Agency "Road Infrastructure".
Snow falling over most of the country
20 Jun 2014 - Snow is falling over most of the country. Temperatures are in the range from - 13 ° C to +4 C °. Weather is cloudy over the country. The roads are snowy and icy, but Traffic Police ensure that pavements are cleaned and sanding.
WATCH: Summer snowfall in Bulgaria.
Thanks to Argiris Diamantis for these links.
- Ice Age Now.
June 19, 2014 - ESTONIA - Living with sub-zero temperatures for several months a year, Estonians are no strangers to a little snow, AFP reported.
AFP
But residents of the Baltic nation were baffled on Tuesday when flurries
of the white stuff fell in June for the first time in more than three
decades.
"We last recorded snow in June 32 years ago and it was on exactly the
same date: June 17, 1982," Estonian meteorologist Helve Meitern told
AFP.
"Tonight, we could see temperatures fall below zero degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit)," she added.
The wintry weather follows a heatwave over the last month that saw
temperatures spike to a toasty 30 degrees Celsius across this EU state
of three million, where average June daytime temperatures range from
18-20 degrees Celsius.
The mercury soared to a searing 35.6 Celsius in August 1992, the hottest day ever recorded in Estonia.
June 17, 2014 - RUSSIA & FINLAND - Here are two stories out of Russia and Finland that further illustrates the monumental weather anomalies currently happening across the globe:
Snowfall In Russia During High Summer
Anastasia Pozdeyeva
In mid-June the thermometer dropped below zero.
This morning, the Ust-Tsilemskii area began heavy snowfall accompanied by strong northerly winds.Precipitation occurs with such intensity that sometimes does not have time to melt snow.
In the district the thermometer temperature recorded 1, 2 degrees.
Weather in northern Komi began to deteriorate overnight. Yesterday on
the Pechora River rose a strong wind and waves. Republic reported a
weather storm warning.
Anastasia Pozdeyeva
Anastasia Pozdeyeva
Anastasia Pozdeyeva
People try not to leave their homes unnecessarily. In addition, residents are worried that the abnormal cold in mid-June can ruin planting vegetable gardens.
According to preliminary data, the warming in this area is expected only
to the environment. Weather forecast for the week can be found here .
Recall that the fifth day of June in Vorkuta first June snow fell. - Komikz. [Translated]
Surprise Summer Snowfall In Finland
Snowfall surprised on Monday morning for Muonio people. White flakes
floated down in Kerässiepissä. Muonio, in addition snow fell in
Sodankylä, Inari and Utsjoki.
The Finnish Meteorological Institute weather forecaster on duty Paavo Korpela says midsummer week throughout the chilly Lapland.
WATCH: Summer snow in Finland.
- The cold air arrives from the north to the south, which is why in
Lapland can be in the water, even rain and snow. The snow is melting
away during the day, says Korpela.
The next few days of inclement weather continues, and on Tuesday night can be cold.
Even the weekend, the weather is warming up, but remain at ten degrees on the surface or just below it. - Lapinkansa. [Translated]
June 16, 2014 - SWITZERLAND - In the area of Emmental / Upper Aargau Peter had to the World Cup start ready for a nasty surprise: On Thursday evening, went in this region a particularly powerful thunderstorm. In the Canton of Bern Police Department on the evening were around 40 messages a because of water that had entered real estate. In most cases, the fire department had to move out, as Kapo spokesman Christoph Gnägi leave on request. There are as yet no reports of injuries known.
Lightning above the Churfirsten. Michi Kessler
In Ranflüh it is also been a landslide, as the government governorship Emmental notifies on Friday.
With shovels and excavators
In certain areas, however bliebs not only in the rain. About Rüederswil im Emmental about went down a hailstorm of violent nature. The village presented itself after the storm almost like the dead of winter, as evidenced reader images impressive. "Half the village helped with the T-shirt to rid the streets of the white mountains, where the cars were stuck," said reader reporter Christian cores compared with "20 Minuten" . Together they have made with shovels, excavators and tractors to work.
Damage up to 2 million Swiss francs
In the Bernese Building Bern (GVB) around 80 damage reports have so far been received, mainly from the room Hindelbank-Rüderswil-Sumiswald. Were reported primarily hail damage. GVB spokeswoman Stephanie Kriesel says that the damage to an estimated two million francs will amount. Many conservatories and blinds were damaged. When severe weather on Thursday if it were a normal summer event, so Kriesel on.
A heavy thunderstorm hit on Thurday evening (12/6/2014) over Emmental (near Bern). 20 Minuten
The streets look like in the middle of winter here in Rüderswill, CH. zvg
Million damage to agriculture: a broken canola crop Michael Rentsch.
Hailstones as big as eggs. Olaf Star
Flooded basement, apartments, elevator shafts - and muddy roads, as here in Lucerne SRF.
Dark and ominous: A thunderstorm cell at Bremgarten in Canton Aargau Urs Berger Dell.
With the useof excavatorsshoveledtheroads are clearofinhabitants. RosmarieStalder
In theCantonof Bern Police Departmentaround 40messageswere receiveddue to waterintrusion intobuildings. 20 Minuten
The GVB has corrected after first visits the damage reports to top: the insurance expects 500 messages.
Power failure in Thun
Also the Bernese Oberland was not spared: A lightning had struck near Amsoldingen in a line. To the south of the city of Thun then the power went off briefly. In the other urban areas of the interruption lasted longer, namely about half an hour.
Also in other parts of Switzerland there was heavy rainfall. For example, in the Olten region. There, too, had to move out around 25 times because of water leaks in buildings, such as the Solothurn Canton police informed by the police. In Olten train station the two underpasses were partially submerged and were no longer passable.
Million damage to agriculture
In particular, the agriculture has to accept painful losses: hail and floods are said to have caused damage to the extent of about 2.5 million Swiss francs to crops. The Swiss Hail Insurance Company was expecting up to 600 damage cases. Affected are arable crops, vegetables, nurseries, grass, wine and fruit.
Local thunderstorms with large amounts of rain
According to information provided by MeteoSwiss there was a very
large-scale thunderstorm activity. Especially in the summer storm was
that it was not a classic storm front that hinwegzog with southwesterly
winds over the whole of Switzerland. The storm had been "home-made"
locally on the spot originated from the warm and very humid air mass as
meteorologist Daniel Gerstgrasser news agency sda said. "It was a lot of
energy in the air.» The focus of the storm was the Alpine foothills
along the Emmen Valley, on the Central Switzerland to the east of
Switzerland.
May 18, 2014 - CHICAGO, UNITED STATES - Residents of the north suburbs woke up to light snow on Friday, the
first time it has snowed in Chicago in May in nearly 10 years.
(Credit: Megan Schmitt)
Snow was falling in Hoffman Estates and Deerfield around 7:30 a.m. Snow was also reported on cars in the western suburbs.
The last time is snowed in May was back on May 5, 2005, according to CBS 2′s Megan Glaros.
Any snow is unlikely to accumulate, and temperatures will rise to around 50 degrees.
(Credit: Megan Schmitt)
Twitter/Stevegmz1
Although there was snow on the ground farther to the west, between Rockford and Sycamore.
Megan Schmit sent photos during her commute to Sycamore.
WATCH: Spring snow in Chicago.
The latest report of snowfall in any season was a trace of precipitation
in early June, 1910, according to the National Weather Service.
The heaviest monthly snowfall in May happened back in 1940, when the Chicago area officially got 2.2 inches.
WATCH: Snow makes fleeting return.
The Friday snowfall was just the latest evidence of an extremely cold
and snowy 2014 - which ranked among the coldest and snowiest season in
history.
The good news is the weekend forecast looks much better, with temperatures near 60 on Saturday, and in the mid 60s on Sunday.
Next week will be even better, with a high of 68 on Monday, and temperatures in the 70s starting Tuesday.
- CBS Chicago.
May 07, 2014 - ARCTIC- There is a huge event being forecasted this year by the CFSV2, and I
don't know if anyone else is mentioning this. For the first time in over
a decade, the Arctic sea ice anomaly in the summer is forecast
to be near or above normal for a time!
While it has approached the
normals at the end of the winter season a couple of times because of new
ice growth, this signals something completely different - that
multiyear growth means business - and it shows the theory on the
Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) is likely to be on target. Once
it flips, this red herring of climate panic will be gone. Global and
Southern Hemisphere anomalies are already unmentionable since the former
is well above normal and the latter is routinely busting daily records.
The biggest minimum anomalies are in the summer since this flipped, and
the only peaks came very close to the height of winters once this
melting was underway.
Now look at what the CFSV2 forecasted for 2012.
The brief positive anomaly hit early, but for the summer it's well below normal. In 2013, it's the same, though not as far.
But this year it's forecast to be around normal in August!
This is only with a yearly AMO back off. I don't think this is the real
deal of the flip yet. But it makes the point that one can correlate the
ice in the Arctic with the Atlantic cycle.
If we look at the cold AMO years we can plainly see why this is going on.
The Jamstec model is forecasting water temps this summer to be much
colder in the north Atlantic than the map above. but still not cold
enough to say this is the permanent flip. It is, however, a sign of what
is to come.
It should be obvious as to who is the boss here, and with the
warm AMO in its waning years, the Arctic sea ice hysteria will wind up
where so many agenda driven items do - on the ash heap of history.
This, if correct, is going to be a huge story. It would be the first
summer where Arctic sea ice returned to near normal, indicative of the
increase in multiyear ice and what a turn to the colder AMO in the
future means! Let's see if anyone else picks up on it.
By the way, this same kind of evolution through the fall and into the winter would lead to another harsh U.S. winter. - Patriot Post.
April 24, 2014 - SEATTLE, UNITED STATES- February was among the wettest on record with 6.11" in Seattle. March
did it one better and smashed the all-time rain record with a whopping
9.44 inches.
While April likely won't make those lofty heights (11th wettest on
record), when combined with the soggy February and March, they make
quite the rain trio.
It's now the wettest February-to-April on record in Seattle, with 19.33"
as of Thursday and more is on the way. The old record was 18.97 inches
set in 1972.
The relatively dry January will likely prevent us from setting the
wettest four-month start to a year, currently at 23.03 inches -- 5th
wettest, but well behind the all-time record of 26.21 inches set in
1972.
WATCH: Spring Rain In Seattle.
Also, Seattle is nearing another rather obscure but amazing rainfall
statistic: Another 0.76 inches of rain and Seattle could then go bone
dry the entire rest of the year -- we're taking zero rain not just in
the summer but through October, November, and December; a 200+ day
consecutive dry streak -- and it would not go down as the driest year on
record. That was 23.78 inches in 1952.
Long range forecasts do keep showers at times through the end of the
month, although none of the days look as wet as what we've gone through
the last few days. - KOMO News.
March 29, 2014 - ARIZONA, UNITED STATES - An oddly timed dust storm is moving into the Valley right now. A Dust
Storm Warning remains in effect until 5 p.m. for Maricopa and Pinal
County as the massive wall of dust moves north along Interstate 10, and
into parts of the southeast Valley.
We're all used to dust storms in the summer -- butrarely do they come in March.
Our dry winter, along with heavy winds in southern
Arizona today, are likely the culprits of today's dust storm.
Along with the dust, it's been a warm day. It doesn't look like we'll
top the 90 degree mark, but we'll come very close to it with a high of
88 in Phoenix. On average, our first 90 degree day is March 31, so we're
getting really close to 90s being a reality for us.
We continue to track an area of low pressure that is passing across
southern Arizona today. There's also a chance for a few scattered
showers along the eastern half of the Mogollon Rim and the White
Mountains this afternoon and evening.
We aren't expecting any rain in the Valley but you might notice some
light showers in the mountains north and east of the Valley.
Even bigger changes come Wednesday as another, stronger low pressure system moves in from the northwest.
Gusty winds will pick up on Wednesday as it approaches. Peak gusts will
reach 30 to 35 mph across the central and southern deserts. These gusty
winds will bring the threat of blowing dust along I-10 between Phoenix
and Tucson, so watch out for areas of reduced visibility. We could have a
repeat of today in the Valley too.
Up north, gusts will hit 45 mph with sustained winds up to 35 mph. So, it's going to be a very windy day in the high country.
We will also see chances for showers and thunderstorms in the high
country with a slight chance that some isolated activity could move down
into the Valley, too.
Since we'll still be so dry in the Phoenix metro, most if not all of
what we'll see will evaporate before it hits the ground, but we can't
rule out a few light showers making it down to us.
Up north, the highest peaks could see a brief change over to snow early Thursday as temperatures dip below freezing.
Temperatures will drop quite a bit, too. Valley highs will reach the mid
70s on Thursday, putting us a couple of degrees below normal.
Of course, the cooler air won't last long. Valley highs will gradually warm back up, nearing 90 degrees by Sunday.
- ABC15.
