North American Weather (U.S.A & Canada)

[Coast]

Looks to be affecting Southern California, as well:

www.google.com/hostednews

The North Eastern States also seem to be getting a nice layer but I would expect them to get something.

www.weather.gov/view/nationalwarnings

Is this a good omen for us or is that still an old-wives tail?

[Hilton]

We didn't get any snow yesterday due to the rain shadow from the olympics, while areas just north of Seattle got close to a foot.

Snow started here at about 5am and we've had 3inches do far. Lots more to come based on the radar, which is bad as the buses aren't running near here and I need to get to the airport...

[debs]

Wow,

Thats so wierd seeing snow on the Palm Trees of Las vegas.

Thanks for the link.

Debs

[Beverley Lass]

I just came on to say about the Las Vegas snow, but see

others have done so.

It does look very odd I think !

Cheers, BL.

[Roger J Smith]

With 3 to 7 inches across the Las Vegas area, this was the heaviest snowfall on record in December. In fact, it was only the fifth measurable snowfall in December since records began in 1937.

The storm responsible is now in western Kansas getting ready for a big snowstorm event across the Great Lakes region and the inland northeast. Snowfalls of 10-15 inches seem likely for large sections of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, southern Ontario, upstate New York, and most of New England inland from the Long Island Sound. This storm will head off to sea almost due east and may only give Nova Scotia and southern New Brunswick a light 2-4 inch snowfall on Saturday.

There will also be some significant ice accumulations in a narrow band near the storm track, estimated to be northern IL-IN-OH into central PA and n NJ, NYC area and possibly Long Island. To the south of that, it will warm up again to near 15 C as the storm plods by tomorrow (Friday).

We ended up with 7-10 cms of snow in the Vancouver area yesterday, now we have three dry but cold days ahead, with the next snowfall event expected Sunday. Temperatures have been running five to eight C deg below normal here since a week ago. And that's the forecast for the next week too, so this December is going to approach record cold territory without a really dramatic warming before New Years.

The current storm track is slowly edging northward across the central and eastern states with another strong low following about 48 hours behind the current one, although a bit further north. This has taken the Gulf coast and southeast states out of the reach of winter weather for the time being and it is now much warmer than a few days ago across Texas and the southeast, more like 20-23 C than the single digits of a few days back.

[❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️]

I cant believe the NW ski and snowboard forecast is correct. Shows Copper mountain, USA, being at -55C at the base and -60C at the top. That cant be right.

[Roger J Smith]

I looked into that, Rain cubed, and as those are wind chill temps for this resort in Colorado, not that far off at all, air temps right now at sunrise are about -25 C but winds are howling from the west in some of the nearby passes up to 70 mph, so wind chills are reported below -45 in some places.

The snowstorm has pretty much ended across New England, will largely miss Debs to the south today, then the northeast and Great Lakes regions prepare for another storm on Sunday, that will bring 3-6 inches widely and 6-10 in some of the snow belt areas like Buffalo NY. This should wind up into a powerful storm for eastern Canada on Monday and could bring Debs a whole mix of weather conditions, snow at first, a thaw with some rain, then back to blowing snow and strong winds at the end of the storm.

Very, very cold here this morning, at 0500 local time it is -12 C. We are expecting another snowfall of 5-8 inches on Sunday lasting into part of Monday, but this morning it is still clear and snappy cold with a biting east wind that totally overcame the large urban heat island around here and brought the -10 C air to the coast. Hope we can do the same for you before too long. If we had this set-up and a North Sea of some kind to our east, then this would be a monster snowfall event instead of a dry cold. I guess Rich is away from the action now, but it remains very cold across the western two-thirds of Canada, more like -30 than -40 but still ... http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/drunk.gif http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif

[Roger J Smith]

Hey there Debs, do you have a barometer, the low approaching is bombing out and should be tracking right over you late tonight. Expect a blizzard interrupted by some freezing rain and perhaps an hour or two of rain if you get into the warm sector at all, Halifax to Sydney will (8 C) but most of NB will stay all snow, 20-40 cms with very strong east winds up north of you. Your winds are probably going to veer from ENE to SE, S then come around to gale or storm force westerly when the centre goes past you. Temps will then fall to -15 C from a peak of perhaps 4 C late tonight. Could see wind gusts over 100 km/hr (60 mph) along the Fundy shore.

So how's your weather, other readers?

I've got 15 cms of snow, still falling, it has warmed up to -4 C which may not even be a record low max, but probably still is. Shows no signs of letting up. I'm amused by the TV coverage of the Seattle home game (NFL) in the snow, took the "under" as a safe bet, they are having trouble even seeing the football let alone scoring points.

Back to the Great Lakes where the tail end of the east coast storm is hammering Buffalo NY and some other snow belt areas with 4 inch an hour snow squalls, westerly winds 40-60 mph, and temps as low as -15 C in Detroit, take that all the way up unfrozen Lake Erie to Buffalo and it's -5 C there with thundersnow (not a huge surprise).

In between the two storms, bitterly cold but the pattern is about to shift again to a much milder east coast, once this storm is done, there will be progressively warmer events on the 24th-25th and then the 27th-28th, and as crazy as it sounds, it could be shirt-sleeves weather for some by next weekend.

[phil nw.]

Hi Roger and others,

Whilst waiting and hoping for our real cold spell to evolve i had a look at the snow cover map for over there.

That`s quite amazing covering a large portion of NA--is that usual?

[Michael Fishermans Friend]

Been taking a look at the weather in Vancouver/Seattle recently which has weather similar to ours and it has been mighty cold with days temps varying from near Freezing to -5C!! wow, be great if we could see some of that. What are the synoptics over the Pacific North west? I take it a large dominant HP near Alaska?

Noticed the Broncos (Denver) played their game yesterday in temps of 16F so obviously a huge swathe of central and Western States are being effected by the big chill.

Have a friend taking a year out in Toronto and he msn'd me on Friday saying they were having a blizzard and 20cms of snow were expected that day, he also said temps were near -7C! Here's a picture from central Toronto on Friday morning.

Edited December 22, 2008 by Timmy H

[Roger J Smith]

The snow cover is a bit more extensive than usual for this Christmas season. The west coast here usually has a green Christmas, and even in southern Ontario it is about a 50-50 chance. This year we have almost a foot on the ground. They were saying that this will be the first Christmas since 1971 that "all of Canada" will have a white Christmas. There may be a few spots on the outer coast that don't but they mean all of the major cities, I guess.

And the synoptics are totally different this month, as you guessed, there is a persistent source of arctic high pressure over the region just north of here, northern BC, Yukon being the general location. Often there is arctic high pressure a little further north and northeast which spills out into the prairies and heads off southeast, but in this case, it is trying to head south through the inter-mountain region as well as taking that more familiar route, and so it gets stuck between mountain ranges and reinforces the cold pattern.

Meanwhile, Pacific storms which usually crash ashore north of here and cross the Rockies, are running into a wall of cold and crawling southeast down the coast until they can move inland, usually around northern California, and over the desert southwest before heading into the central plains and the Great Lakes.

Looks like a fairly big warming trend lies ahead for the east, but we are locked into this cold pattern for quite a while, although it looks like it might relax slightly in about a week.

[Roger J Smith]

Here's the view from our west-facing window this morning, with the sun catching the trees down the street ... these still have some brown leaves left on them, as we have had so little rain or wind in recent weeks, they haven't all come down yet.

[Rollo]

Well that picture has turned me green with envy-it reminds me of the cold snowy frosty mornings back in 62'.

[Roger J Smith]

Are you okay, Debs? That storm went right over your house from what I could see on the post-mortem.

Just an update, some parts of southern Ontario got two to four FEET of snow from lake effect on Sunday. The areas hardest hit were north of London ON, around Barrie ON and across the river from Buffalo NY in Fort Erie. Otherwise the storm dropped about four to eight inches where lake effect did not kick in afterwards.

Vancouver bracing for another snowfall tonight and Christmas Eve (day) ... clear and -2 C at 0930 Tuesday.

The pattern looks very locked in over the west with just a minor warming trend likely next weekend or so, at least it will get the interior regions of BC and the prairies out of the deep freeze for a while. This is cold even by long-timer standards.

It has been so cold in BC that the lower Fraser River has frozen over for perhaps the third time in sixty years, and ferry service was indefinitely cancelled at the busy run across the river about thirty miles east of the city, between Fort Langley and Maple Ridge. The province has almost finished building a bridge to replace this ferry crossing but that won't open until the spring of 2009, so people who use it are stuck having to drive an extra 50 kms around to where there are bridges. They aren't losing any time, though, as there is usually a one-hour wait to board this little ferry (it takes about three minutes to cross the river).

Apparently the Fraser has almost totally frozen over at that point, despite a four-foot tidal range from the long inflow of Pacific tides into the estuary. This ice routinely breaks apart and reforms on a twelve hour cycle, which is starting to damage the installations along the river bank here and there.

The city here has no real long-term structure to deal with persistent snow, the main roads are all plowed but the side streets will be left to their own fates as they are strewn with parked cars under a foot of snow, and besides, in our climate the cities don't have enough equipment or manpower to clear all the sidestreets as they eventually do in Toronto or other Canadian cities after a storm.

Since there has been no wind after the Sunday storm, all the trees are still coated with snow and it is quite like an old-fashioned Christmas card out the window here. I hope you'll have the same view before too long. http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif

[phil nw.]

Here's the view from our west-facing window this morning, with the sun catching the trees down the street ... these still have some brown leaves left on them, as we have had so little rain or wind in recent weeks, they haven't all come down yet.

Great pic. Roger.Looks like you are having a longer cold spell than normal.Hopefully the UK will be experiencing our own cold after Christmas as pressure builds further North.

Thanks for your reply re.NA snowcover by the way.

[Coast]

The snow cover is a bit more extensive than usual for this Christmas season.

Getting around will be a challenge in most parts of the country as Canadians brace for yet another string of winter storms - and possibly the first national white Christmas in nearly four decades.

www.ctv.ca

Last-minute travelers making a holiday trek today and Christmas Day should expect delays in Arizona and across the country as relentless winter weather continues to cause chaos in the air and on the roads. The northern tier of the country has been hammered with a series of storms that forced airlines to cancel and delay flights in the past few days. And the storm cycle isn't taking a break for the holiday.

www.azcentral.com

Bad weather has put a brake on holiday travel, and a lot of people are stuck because of it. Airplanes, trains, buses are affected. Right now at the Salt Lake Airport things are looking good. We're told there are no cancellations and no delays. But other parts of the country aren't so lucky, and that's why some travelers are stuck here.

www.ksl.com

A Canadian woman who went missing during a blizzard last week has been found alive, buried in 23in (58cm) of snow, police say.

news.bbc.co.uk

Canada and much of the US have been hit by extreme winter weather in recent days, with vast amounts of snow falling from coast to coast. Transport has been disrupted and thousands of homes have been left without power.

[Roger J Smith]

Snowing again here in my part of Vancouver, rain may mix in near sea level with this storm, but all snow for most, and could reach a further 20-30 cms by Christmas morning.

Meanwhile in southern Ontario they are bracing for a fast melt of the snow, some slush is already appearing in the larger cities as a weak warming event moves through (4-5 C with rain) but a much stronger warming event on the weekend will melt the snow very quickly across the lower Great Lakes and much of the inland northeast. There may be massive flooding in some places as two to four feet of lake effect snow has accumulated in many parts, and all sections have at least one foot on the ground.

Debs, if you read this, merry Christmas, these events will also affect you a little more gradually, your meltdown may come around Sunday to Tuesday.

Rich, I guess you're in the UK now, a snowstorm will bring almost a foot of snow to Canmore on Christmas Eve. But the pattern looks milder for the next week, the bitter cold is being replaced by a modified Pacific flow, however, I expect the bitter cold to return in the second week of January.

[Coopsy]

I am in the UK, now wishing I was back in Canmore lol. I predicted the first Christmas I leave Canada there would be a snowstorm...and it happens. Sods law

[debs]

Hi All

Merry Christmas everyone.

Thanks for your worries. we made it through the storm safely, although the winds were horrendous. Power went out for a day. Lots of trees down and snow drifts upto 6 ft high in places. On the ground the snow depth was probably only another 30cms on top of the last snow fall. Mind you when the power is out theres only one thing you can do to keep warm......and thats sledging. Video attached. At my age, I feel al lthose bumps the next day....ouch, but what great fun.

I hear another storm is on the way. Wind is not going to be too bad this time only getting to around 80km so at least the roof will stay on (i hope) http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif

Have a great White Christmas

TTFN

Debs

xxx

100_1257.mov

Edited December 24, 2008 by debs

[Roger J Smith]

Well, the predictions now call for temperatures to rise to 20 C (68 F) or thereabouts for most of the northeast US and mid-Atlantic states over the weekend, probably on both days as a rather weak cold front makes its way through on Sunday afternoon. Even behind that temps will be near or above 10 C (50 F) for another couple of days, so most of the snow on the ground in all of the northeast US, Canadian Maritimes, and southern Ontario-Quebec, will melt at various rates over the weekend and into early next week. This will surely bring about some massive flooding problems especially in the lower Great Lakes and central New England where snow packs are currently around 2-3 feet in some cases.

Also, we face a rapid thaw here on the west coast on Saturday. I don't think we'll lose all our snow (which is now almost two feet as well, quite extraordinary) because the period of warmer temps (above 5 C) is only likely to last 12-18 hours and peak near 7-8 C. This will probably just result in a huge slushy mess with 90% of the storm drains now covered up by mounds of snow pushed off the roads by either plows or just the volume of traffic. The sidestreets have never been plowed through the whole two weeks of snow and they are just rutted tracks, if all of that partly melts and then re-freezes on Sunday the streets will become almost impassable. There is also a widespread problem with snow on flat roofs around here as well as in the Seattle WA area, when that snow gets saturated with rain, the weight can easily bring down roofs and a few have already failed here or there. More of a problem, many will start leaking even if they don't collapse.

Looks to me like this phase of our winter will last about five days in general terms, and then we will be back into the more extreme cold of mid-December again by early January with the east coast back into the frontal transition zone.

[Cookie]

just been watching some good vidoes on youtube of the snow in canda.

you got any good links roger or anyone else?

[Roger J Smith]

It is an unholy mess here today with rain and 2 deg C on top of the heavy snow pack, roads have improved slightly from the liquid replacement of the sludge, but sidewalks are becoming slushponds, and the snow is very heavy now where sitting on flat roofs, people are out in the rain shovelling the crud off their roofs hoping to avert a flood through the ceiling or worse.

In southern Ontario and nearby parts of the snow-covered U.S., a more rapid meltdown is underway with temps near 10 C over the snow and 17-22 C moving in to the south of the snow pack, so it rapidly fogs up over the melting snow.

A few severe storms along the cold front in IL and MO at present, nothing too dramatic, F0-1 type winds mainly.

Sunny and 14 C at BUF where two feet of snow fell a few days ago. One would think it is probably time to get away from the local rivers and creeks.

[Roger J Smith]

Well Debs, did you lose most of your snow? There's another snowstorm heading in for New Years Eve, looks like a nasty one too, 20-30 cms of snow and strong winds developing, as a low bombs from near Cape Cod to near Halifax NS.

Meanwhile, it is snowing yet again here, was advertised to start as rain but I think this storm is having trouble mixing the milder air due to the snow-cooled surface layers, should turn to rain later tonight (local time), as a hurricane-like centre has developed well north of here, winds have risen to 80 mph near this centre, fortunately it is heading inland in an unpopulated region well north of Vancouver Island. We should see some gusts to 60 mph tomorrow morning when the cold front comes through here. This low dives southeast over the following two days and ends up near the Great Lakes on the 2nd. Meanwhile, yet another strong low heads inland over top of us here on New Years morning, this time, the rain-snow line is likely to be near us and at low elevations, then the much colder air returns for a day or two. The prairies have remained under this very cold air all through this slightly milder phase on the coast.

Rich, you should find plenty of snow when you return, there have been several more dumps. Perhaps you heard on the news that eight snowmobilers were lost in an avalanche near Fernie BC a few days ago. Tragic, although they went into a high-risk area under avalanche alert, so it seems to be a rather senseless tragedy.

Anyway, this second storm for us looks like being a big player for the central and then eastern U.S. over the first five or six days of January as it moves further east.

The pattern is such that New York City is near the rain-snow dividing line for several storms in a row, while Washington DC is probably going to be staying mild enough to avoid much snow for a while longer yet. Boston meanwhile should see a fair amount of snow from each storm.

[Yozzer]

Yes, the low now rapidly developing (or 'bombogenesis' as our friends across the Atlantic like to term it) is heading up through the Gulf of Maine towards NS. Latest estimates are for up to 50cm level snow in some areas, with hurricane force winds wrapping around the centre, causing massive drifts, 3m or more. A New Year's storm to remember!

Take care out there, and post the pics when it's over.

Have a happy and safe New Year.

[Roger J Smith]

We've had a forecast-busting 15 cms of snow here since mid-afternoon (it is now 0100 local time) ... the models were suggesting rain as Pacific air is streaming in, but the problem has been feedback from the foot of snow on the ground cooling the surface layer and throwing off the old thickness correlation that coastal forecasters use in both this part of the world and the UK ... and boosting us up to the mid-continental 534-540 dam thickness for a rain-snow boundary.

In other words, it didn't warm up at the surface and pounded down with snow for eight hours. This will no doubt have an even worse effect on the next wave moving in later Monday. It has had some serious consequences as various road and transit authorities were changing equipment and gearing up to handle flooded streets, slush etc, and what they have is a vast pile of snow all over the roads with most of the plows making a late response now.

The models are showing an almost definite breakthrough of 5-7 C type air mass late Tuesday for about 24h which, if it rains hard, is going to make for chaos around here, there is about two feet of snow piled up now, and so many flat roofs in this region, I fear the worst in terms of massive building damage and perhaps some serious collapses.

On the other hand, I am hopeful that the models will veer away from this and keep us on a modest scale of melting for a day or two, followed by a dry spell, that will allow the snow pack to ablate slowly.

Looks like the worst of the severe cold has ended for the prairies, as temps soar from -35 to -15 C levels, but with wind and snow that is still pretty darned cold. A further intense cold wave seems likely in about a week's time (Rich, if you can extend your UK stay, if not, bring extra socks).

Turning a bit milder in the east again, looks like a very up and down pattern ahead with minor snowfalls mainly still north of NYC ... they have had very little snow in Philly or DC so far this winter, probably an average amount in NYC and a bit above average further north. Showing signs of being like last winter as we go forward, with the massive snowfalls that hit some parts in Feb and Mar (and April).

Very unusual goings on in the Canadian arctic, a strong low drifted from east to west at quite high latitudes, almost devoid of weather except for strong winds, and then drifted northwest towards the North Pole. This is confusing the global models, I am sure, and has something to do with the ever-changing output for the Greenland-Svalbard area that would receive a strong northerly when this low's strong southerly winds cross the North Pole.

Getting a headache just thinking about it.