It’s beginning to look a lot like…. Arbor Day? Unseasonably mild temperatures are spreading over the eastern half of the country and about 75% of the U.S. population will see the temperature climb over 60°F by the end of the weekend. Not exactly Christmas season. This is true even in the winter-whipped city of Buffalo. There, the first snow normally … Read More
The Most Powerful Hurricane Ever Recorded Is Bearing Down On Mexico
200-mph sustained winds and even more powerful gusts. Patricia is “the strongest hurricane on record in the National Hurricane Center’s area of responsibility (AOR) which includes the Atlantic and the eastern North Pacific basins,” according to a Friday morning forecast discussion. The closest contender, at this point, might be Hurricane Camille when it battered the U.S. Gulf Coast in 1969. … Read More
Aid For Me And Not For Thee
What a jerk Washington (CNN)Sen. Lindsey Graham is asking for federal aid for his home state of South Carolina as it battles raging floods, but he voted to oppose similar help for New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2013. “Let’s just get through this thing, and whatever it costs, it costs,” Graham told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on … Read More
Hurricane Joaquin Deadly But Could Have Been Worse
It seems the biggest damage was caused by rain and subsequent flooding in South Carolina, although Joaquin only played a part. Technically, here’s what happened: As Hurricane Joaquin tracked north, well east of the coast, a separate, non-tropical low pressure system was setting up shop over the Southeast late last week. This system drew in a deep, tropical plume of water vapor off the … Read More
Hurricane Joaquin Probably Not Going To Be A Big Deal
In spite of some very premature comparisons to Sandy, new projections show Hurricane Joaquin appears to be heading east and may not make landfall in the United States. Different models gaming out the path of the Category-4 storm were initially split on their forecasts, but as the storm has stalled over the Bahamas, the likelihood of it reaching the U.S. … Read More
North Carolina Is Shark Central
Number of shark attacks in NC waters 2004-2014: 25 (average of 2.5 every year) Number of shark attacks in NC water this year: 4 so far (and it isn’t even July yet) Why? “It’s kind of a perfect storm,” says George H. Burgess, the director of the International Shark Attack File at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Burgess says … Read More
Hypocrite Cruz
He’s a weasel: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Wednesday assured Texans that the state would receive federal relief following major flooding, even though the senator opposed federal funding following Hurricane Sandy. “There are a series of federal statutory thresholds that have to be satisfied. Initially, it appears those thresholds are likely to be satisfied by the magnitude of the damage we’re … Read More
Boston Beats Snow Record
Just after 7 Sunday evening, with 2.9 more inches of fresh snow blanketing Boston, the National Weather Service in Taunton announced that the city notched its snowiest winter since records started being kept in 1872. The official total at Logan International Airport reached 108.6 inches — one inch more than the previous record, which was set in the 1995-1996 winter, … Read More
Blizzard ’05 SnowCams
You’re welcome: Cams no longer up. UPDATE: It missed New York City. That’s good for NYC but…. This #snowFail does not bode well for civilian cooperation with the terms of the next snow emergency in NYC. — Lisa B. (@politeracy) January 27, 2015 For the record, the GFS was right. Meteorologists largely depend on three major forecast models: the NAM … Read More
Irene Update
The latest NOAA discussion notes that Hurricane Irene has weakened slightly, which is (quite obviously) good news. However, the important word is "slightly". For the next 12-24 hours, it probably won't change much in strength (either way) which means it will still have maximum winds as high as 105 mph. Nothing to sneeze at. By comparison, the Great New England … Read More
Brains Are Officially Fried
The Associated Press is simply embarrassing here. And if you doubt this article actually exists, here's the link.
Heat Dome
Some 141 million Americans over nearly 1 million square miles were under a heat alert on Wednesday, the result of a heat "dome" that's only slowly moving away from the central U.S. — and into the East Coast. Lovely.
Tornado In Brooklyn Last Night: What Does It Mean, Dude?
The National Weather Service still hasn't confirmed that it was an actual tornado (as opposed to a downburst or something). But whatever it was, it wasn't pretty. And why is it that people who capture weather phenomenon are such dorks?
Not Sweatin’ Earl
Unless it veers westward, I don't expect Earl to be much of a force in the Piedmont, even though it might be a Category 4 (or even 5!). Some rain, that's it. In fact, it look my family in New England is likely to see far worse from Earl than I will.