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

[Roger J Smith]

Saturday's severe weather event maxed out at Dumas, Arkansas which is 80 miles southeast of Little Rock. No fatalities but considerable damage and injuries reported so far. Other damage in LA and MS.

The storm is now weakening, with the low over Iowa and a secondary forming over the Carolinas. This will keep the warmer air from moving into the northeast and will lead to possibly 4-8 inches of snow in New York City tonight and Monday although the forecast is rather tricky. The main low will stall out near Chicago and fill, while the new low moves slowly northeast along the Gulf stream.

Very cold air remains fully in charge over the Great Lakes and northwards and the pattern remains rather blocked through most of the coming week, so temperatures will be near normal in the southeast and below normal just about everywhere else as the Pacific is rather quiet at present. We have cloud, rain and about 5-6 C temps here, not quite up to normal values.

[dapick2002]

take a look at this.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/02/25/wint...m.ap/index.html

looks like we're not the only ones who have had a bad winter...but for totally different reasons. give it two weeks that will head our way as rain, ha!

Edited February 26, 2007 by dapick2002

[WhiteFox]

take a look at this.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/02/25/wint...m.ap/index.html

looks like we're not the only ones who have had a bad winter...but for totally different reasons. give it two weeks that will head our way as rain, ha!

Nothing special really. I don't think New York was hit particularly hard - perhaps a few inches. I struck lucky as I was flying from New York to Chicago on Sunday; the flight before and the flight after mine were both cancelled. Mine was on time!

Snowed all day in Chicago, but nothing really settling. Temperature just above freezing. Winter is relaxing its icy grip here, but the weather can easily still through a cold spell until the end of March and even April for places like Wisconsin and Minnesota.

I'm actually looking forward to some spring warmth right now!

[Gorky]

The SPC is very bullish about the next system with a severe weather outbreak for tomorrow and especially Wednesday. Looks like I should have gone storm chasing during this week which I have off work and not in May

Day 2

Day3

[Roger J Smith]

White Fox, I don't imagine you were over here in 1990, but the weather pattern is quite similar at present, that was the year when the weather suddenly warmed up dramatically in March from wintry cold to summer heat, we had 28 C (82 F) where I used to live in southern Ontario a few days after there had been a foot of snow and -15 C cold, quite remarkable how fast it can warm up in eastern North America at this time of year. Somewhere between those two extremes I spent a day diverting water away from my house as all the snow melted pretty much in about three hours one morning.

I have the feeling something similar is about to happen because the pattern across North America is slowly retrogressing and the cold is beginning to seep into the western regions, so a quick reversal to an eastern ridge would not surprise me in a week or two. It has been one of the colder Febs of recent years in the Great Lakes region, but I think 1993 was colder.

[WhiteFox]

Hi Roger.

I can well believe it. March can be such a variable month in Britain, let alone the US. I'd expect some pretty violent swings in termperatures over the next few weeks before some spring warmth settles it. It was April last year when I saw my last snowfall, albeit a few inches which melted by lunchtime. I can't wait for the warmth, but I'm not looking forward to the humidity of summer again...

[Coopsy]

Hi guys, I am in the same mind set. I am looking forward to spring and some warm, however I feel it wont be until mid May til we get some true heat here (25oC plus)

We have now had continual snow cover since December 14th, so going on 76 days. Even for a snow lover its getting a little tiresome lol

[WhiteFox]

The first signs of a warm up in Chicago. The first non-frozen precipitation since early January fell on Sunday, albeit fairly briefly before turning back to snow.

Today the ppn started as freezing rain and very painful it was too walking back to the hotel! Anyway, this is forecast to turn to plain rain later (if not already) with some heavier bursts for a while before turning back to snow again tomorrow night. No real accumulation expected over an inch.

Good news as I have to fly back to New York on Friday. A developing system on the East coast is forecast to clear New York by lunchtime Friday. I hope this is the case because anything more than a breath of wind and a drop of rain sends LaGuardia airport into severe delay mode. Temperatures are looking good though; mid fifties forecast for Friday. Positively baking!

Edited March 1, 2007 by WhiteFox

[Roger J Smith]

It's going to be a real mess in areas outside NYC like eastern PA, northern NJ, the Catskills and Connecticut by Friday, this mild weather and rain will melt a lot of the rather heavy snow pack in those areas (10-30 inches) ... further north there will be a slight thaw too but it doesn't look prolonged enough to melt much of the snow around eastern Lake Ontario for example, that may come in a week or two.

So would look for some news reports on flooding on rivers in the northeast closer to the Atlantic, from this rainfall event in the next day or two.

[Gorky]

First High Risk of Severe Weather in 2007 has been issued....

[wallopweather]

Just returned from Las Vegas where they made a fair fuss about a rainbow over Vegas caused by some showers in the nearby mountains. Have some pictures which I will post later today, but just wondered if this is a rare event in the Vegas valley or the local news station giving the weatherman something to talk about? Comments from our N.American friends appreciated.

Just as a footnote, was bright but cool most of the time I was there, some scattered clouds and a few windy days which made me appreciate the dampness we have in the UK as even a breeze of just 21mph was enough to cause dust to be a problem.

[WhiteFox]

Just returned from Las Vegas where they made a fair fuss about a rainbow over Vegas caused by some showers in the nearby mountains. Have some pictures which I will post later today, but just wondered if this is a rare event in the Vegas valley or the local news station giving the weatherman something to talk about? Comments from our N.American friends appreciated.

US news focuses on the local first and foremost. You may get a little section about politics, but this is usually about the President or the Presidential race.

It doesn't surprise me that they make such a big deal out of a rainbow. On local Chicago news I once saw a reporter live on the shores of Lake Michigan doing a piece about how big the waves were.

That's why everyone watches BBC World News if they want to see what is happening outside their state.

[Roger J Smith]

Yep, they have some jaw-dropping segments on the local weather on US stations, last night the Seattle station (which I don't normally watch for news) had some reporter up in the Cascades showing with her boot that there was three inches of snow on the interstate highway. This was indeed an astounding factoid, that much measurable snow at 1200 metres in the Cascades in February has to be some sort of anomaly, probably near the low end rather than the high end though.

As to rainbows in the desert southwest, these are very common in the winter half of the year, I spent six weeks down there in Jan and Feb of 1996 and any time there would be any sort of weather disturbance you could expect to see a rainbow at some point during the day. Perhaps they don't see as many in Las Vegas with all the other distractions they have.

Today's storm system is winding up to become quite powerful with a squall line developing in the south central states -- this has already given some damaging tornadoes but a stronger round is expected soon. A second cluster of severe storms is located in nw Florida along a wave on the warm front of this system (the low is in Missouri currently). Heavy snow on the north side of this storm for Omaha and parts of western Iowa.

[wallopweather]

Thanks whitefox and Roger J Smith for your replies. I must agree with you whitefox, during our stay we watch a fair few news channels (all others seems to focus on college basketball or CSI) and we certainly got the impression that traffic and weather news we the two main points to any news programme, even the visit by Hilary Clinton to a local Las Vegas school had less coverge than the rainbow!

[wallopweather]

Today's storm system is winding up to become quite powerful with a squall line developing in the south central states -- this has already given some damaging tornadoes but a stronger round is expected soon. A second cluster of severe storms is located in nw Florida along a wave on the warm front of this system (the low is in Missouri currently). Heavy snow on the north side of this storm for Omaha and parts of western Iowa.

Sorry to hear of the deaths as a result of this storm, the tornadoes have been heavily reported on the BBC news here in the UK this morning.

[wallopweather]

just posted rainbow picture over in photography forum

[WhiteFox]

Winter is not over for us here in New York just yet.

Chilly today, but above freezing with a few flurries around.

Tuesday is forecast to be a maximum of -4oC and Wednesday about -2oC. Still the potential for cold air around here!

Wednesday looks interesting as a system forms over the Great Lakes and pushes East; current track takes it through a perfect position for New York to see some snow. Differences in 850 temps between New York (about -10oC) to Washington (about -2) mean that a slight shift of the track will make a big difference. Washington forecast is for a mix of ppn, and NY is currently all snow.

SLP:

850:

Snowfall will not be up to much regardless. About 2 inches would seem about right, and milder weather returns later in the week.

[January Snowstorm]

Any more news on snow for New York whitefox??

Keep up the reporting thanks

[WhiteFox]

Any more news on snow for New York whitefox??

Keep up the reporting thanks

We had moderate snow yesterday on and off for an hour or so. Nothing settled though.

Currently at 1130 EST the temperature is -8oC with a windchill of -18oC. A bit parky!

Edited March 6, 2007 by WhiteFox

[jonboy]

Yet up the coast in Vermont at the ski resort of Stowe they have had over 2 feet of snow since Friday and 5feet since the beginning of March so a few hundred miles makes all the difference http://nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif

[WhiteFox]

Yet up the coast in Vermont at the ski resort of Stowe they have had over 2 feet of snow since Friday and 5feet since the beginning of March so a few hundred miles makes all the difference

Something doesn't compute!

It was the first day of March on Thursday. Are you saying that they had 3 feet of snow on Thursday? Got the months mixed up I think!

Anyway, there is a big difference between the ski regions of Vermont and New York City. Further North, and altitude make all the difference. Over an inch of rain fell in NYC on Friday, and this will have fallen as snow in the ski resorts, so two feet wouldn't overly surprise me.

If you go back to the middle of January, Vermont was almost as snow-stricken as New York. In fact, there were long periods where they couldn't even make artificial snow because it was too warm!

[Roger J Smith]

Very cold in Ontario and Quebec today, -23 C at Toronto airport this morning, about as cold as it gets there in early March, and -30 C in some rural areas of central Ontario. Meanwhile, it warmed up to 17 C here in Vancouver and 18 C at Abbotsford in the Fraser valley. These are fairly close to early season records in both cases.

With a large circular high over the Great Lakes (on timing line one if you catch my drift) this is the classic March signal of a large warmup about to start. Would expect temperatures to rebound to above normal values later this month in the currently frigid east.

[WhiteFox]

Frigid is the right word!

Had about an inch of powdery snow here on Long Island today. The sort of snow which brushes off the car very easily.

Forecast to be 1oC tomorrow, 2oC on Friday and then a balmy 9oC on Saturday! Forecast to hit low double-figures early next week. That will feel very pleasant after yesterday's high of -6oC and today's -3oC! -12oC overnight Thursday though.

I bet that 17oC felt lovely and warm over there Roger!

[Roger J Smith]

Yes, it's quite balmy here again today (Wednesday 7th) at 15 C -- just looking back at March 1990 when it warmed up so quickly in the Toronto area, the temperature was -13 C on the 6th and 21 C on the 13th, with a steady warmup in between. And some distance inland from the Great Lakes it was as high as 27 or 28 C in that warm spell, so some places probably went from below -20 to above 25 C in the space of a week. Could do something similar this year, the way the pattern is looking. This warm air on the west coast will probably flood into the central plains then reach the east coast soon.

[Roger J Smith]

Hey White Fox, here comes the warm weather -- looking like 75-80 F in the Chicago area on Monday and Tuesday, and some of that warmth should make it to NYC, maybe around 60 F on Tuesday and Wednesday, 70 to 75 for PHL and DCA. Not going to last too long by the looks of the 12z models, but as this tries to work across the Great Lakes region there could be a fairly serious flooding situation in the lake effect snowfall zones where 2-4 feet of snow still present back in the forested areas if not in the more open country where there is probably a foot or more as well. Some rivers in upstate NY, southern and central Ontario, PA and New England are likely to go on a rampage with big ice-jams adding to the problems.