stormdigest

Rare snow storm surprises Arizona - CNN.com

PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- Parts of northern Arizona received more than a foot of snow, and children as far south as Tucson got a rare chance to play in the whiteness as one of the strongest winter storms of the year moved through the state.

Sunday's storm came amid a wave of winter storms that have brought snow, ice and strong winds to the Plains region, but also to the Southwest, including Arizona, Texas and New Mexico.

Link: Rare snow storm surprises Arizona - CNN.com.

Rare snowfall across South Africa - Yahoo! News

Forecasters said snow was reported in the southern Johannesburg township of Soweto and the posh northern suburb of Sandton, as well as the nearby towns of Carletonville and Westonaria.

Johannesburg last had snow on September 11, 1981.

Link: Rare snowfall across South Africa - Yahoo! News.

CNN.com - Winter storms to merge, dump more snow - Dec 9, 2005

Up to a foot of snow expected in New England.

CNN.com - Winter storms to merge, dump more snow - Dec 9, 2005

Thanksgiving Holiday Travel: Prepare for Weather's Effects

Not what those of you want to see during one of the busiest travel weeks of the season, but that low we told you about it most likely going to affect holiday travel, both in the air and on the ground. Being forewarned, you'll now have a modicum of patience when you're standing in those security lines or waiting in bumper to bumper traffic.

Aw hell, we tried.

Anyway, the squall line is now on its way northward after developing off the Florida coast. Look for thunderstorms today in North and South Carolina, and deteriorating conditions in Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia as the day progresses.

Here's also the NOAA graphical map for today's forecast:

And to see the current probabilities for snow on Thanksgiving Eve and Day, check out NOAA's Winter Weather Snow Map.

Update: One more for the road:

Winter Storm: NOAA Watches

We love NOAA's site. So much data, so little time. But without further ado, here's the latest out of Binghamton, NY:

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BINGHAMTON NY 345 PM EST SUN NOV 20 2005

NYZ009-036-037-045-046-056-057-PAZ039-040-211100-
/O.NEW.KBGM.WS.A.0002.051122T1100Z-051122T2300Z/
NORTHERN ONEIDA-MADISON-SOUTHERN ONEIDA-CHENANGO-OTSEGO-BROOME-
DELAWARE-SUSQUEHANNA-NORTHERN WAYNE-
345 PM EST SUN NOV 20 2005

...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY MORNING THROUGH
TUESDAY AFTERNOON...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BINGHAMTON HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY MORNING THROUGHTUESDAY AFTERNOON.

LOW PRESSURE IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP OVER THE NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO TONIGHT...AND TRACK NORTHEAST TO THE CAROLINAS BY MONDAY EVENING...AND THEN OFF THE NEW JERSEY COAST BY TUESDAY MORNING. THE LOW WILL BECOME A MAJOR WINTER STORM TUESDAY AS IT TRACKSACROSS EASTERN NEW ENGLAND...TO NORTHERN MAINE AND SOUTHEASTERNCANADA BY LATE TUESDAY NIGHT.

THIS STORM WILL INITIALLY SPREAD RAIN TO CENTRAL NEW YORK AND NORTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA...MONDAY EVENING AND OVERNIGHT. COLDER AIR WILL BE DRAWN SOUTH ACROSS THE WATCH AREA BY EARLY TUESDAY AND CHANGE THE RAIN TO SNOW TUESDAY MORNING. SNOW COULD BECOME HEAVYAT TIMES DURING THE DAY TUESDAY BEFORE TAPERING TO SNOW SHOWERS
TUESDAY NIGHT.

HEAVY SNOW IS POSSIBLE IN THE WATCH AREA. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF UPTO 7 INCHES OR MORE ARE POSSIBLE BY THE TIME THE SNOW TAPERS OFF TUESDAY NIGHT.

A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT SNOW THAT COULD IMPACT TRAVEL. IF YOU PLAN TRAVEL TUESDAY IN THE WATCH AREA...CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS AND LISTEN FOR POSSIBLE WINTER STORM WARNINGS OR WINTER WEATHER ADVISORIES.

Rain, Snow, and Thanksgiving

AccuWeather.com - Weather News

Over the river and through the woods to...yeah you know the rest. However, some of you are going to need sleighs, especially in the Appalachians (why does that word always look like "Apple chains" to me?) and upstate New York north to New England where snow will be making the news. Look for some travel advisories over Thanksgiving, both air and highway.

Meantime, Florida is still going to get hit with some rain tomorrow coupled with, of course, severe conditions in some cases. Ya'll are used to that, so after getting through hurricanes, this should be more of an annoyance than panic attack.

For the rest of us on the East Coast, get ready for old Man Winter. He's on his way and toting some cold air and wintry weather to fix those of us on the east coast of the country with a chilly and appropriate Holiday season.

Potential for Thanksgiving Week SNOW!

Ooouuu. We just read the Old Farmer's Almanac, NOAA forecast discussions, and Accuweather and for once,all of them are rather alluding to the same thing: winter weather is possible for the Great Lakes, Mid Atlantic and Northeast.

AccuWeather.com - Weather News As if these were not enough, there will be a wintry side to the storm, too. Cold air will pour into the Midwest Monday night and Tuesday. It will meet the back side of the storm's precipitation over the southern Appalachians first, where potential is good for a substantial fall of snow. As the storm itself heads north, snow, potentially heavy, will replace rain northward along the Appalachians into Pennsylvania and western New York. Separate from the storm will be outbreaks of lake-effect snow triggered by the cold shot.

Sounds possible so we'll track it over the next several days to see what this low and Gamma finally do, and where they end up. There's evidently some variance between models at the moment, so nothing is for certain. Yet. :)

Some Winter Weather Reading

Since winter is on it's way this week and holiday travel will begin in earnest next week, weather buffs with a reading fetish might be interested in The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin. The book chronicles an 1888 blizzard experienced by the settlers, and particularly their school aged children, of the Dakota Territory and Nebraska along with the activities related to the Nation's weather forecasting as performed at that time by the US Army Signal Corps:

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin from HarperCollins Publishers

The event known as the school children's blizzard was a powerful winter storm that swept down on the Upper Midwest on January 12, 1888. Even settlers who had lived in the region for years insisted that they had never seen a storm come down so quickly (many compared it to an explosion or a wall of ice), drop temperatures so rapidly, and reduce visibility so dramatically. The storm hit today's South Dakota (still part of the undivided Dakota Territory at the time) and Nebraska in the middle of a school day (between 11 AM and 2 PM depending on location) -- and many frightened teachers dismissed their one-room country schools. Hundreds of children become lost on the prairie on their way home, hence the name the school children's blizzard.

The book is both heartbreaking and enlightening especially from the perspective of homesteading immigrant settlers and how they lived in such a difficult environment in the first place. The chapters devoted to the timeline and history of weather forecasting by the Signal Corps is not to be missed.

Snow! Where Is It, Anyway?

Those of us on the East Coast have been experiencing some pretty mild weather for November - 60's and 70's with cool nights. But we're approaching Thanksgiving - where's the cold and the snow? The horse and sleigh to Grandmother's-house-we-go doesn't seem to be in our forseeable future. However, look out South Dakota to Montana - according to Accuweather and NOAA, you folks will be getting some snow shortly.

Farmer's Almanac is predicting snow this month right around Thanksgiving (well, sorta anyway.) Check out the forecast map and choose your zone. Same with the Old Farmer's Almanac. Some people may say "what? They're suggesting we look at THAT?" Why not?. The Old Farmer's Almanac predictions date back (in part) to a formula developed by Robert Thomas, founder of OFA, in 1792. Thomas believed that sunspot and sun activity influenced the weather, and OFA takes this into account when making their weather predictions now. The Farmer's Almanac, founded by David Young in 1818, also takes into account sunspots and moon phase...and both of the Almanacs profess an 80% accuracy rate in predicting long range weather forecasts. Farmer's Almanac will be featured in a program called "Extreme Weather" on A&E on Monday, November 7th at 8:00 pm EST. Might be worth watching.

As snow starts to fall and the weather gets colder, check out NOAA's National Snow Analysis and the HPC Winter Weather Forecasts.

Snow, Snow, Snow!

Can't believe it's that time of year already...well hell, it's not really since here in the Storm Digest headquarters our trees haven't really changed yet. However, big changes for some on the East Coast:

Heavy snow fell this morning across western and central Pennsylvania into northern West Virginia. Here at the world headquarters of AccuWeather.com 1-4 inches of heavy wet snow has fallen so far. Power outages, tree damage and icy road conditions are being reported throughout the areas being hit by the heavy snow. The heavy snow is expected to move into the Poconos, Catskills and parts of northern New England this evening, and could cause tree damage and power outages in these areas

BTW, Accuweather slightly differing from NOAA about their Winter Forecast possibilities. Without further ado, Accuweather again:

Active hurricane seasons are a by-product of warmer-than-normal water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean. The warmer-than-normal water at higher latitudes of the Atlantic sets up a blocking pattern, forcing the cold air that builds across central Canada into the eastern Great Lakes and New England.

The forecast calls colder-than-normal temperatures (by as much as 3.5 degrees) over the Northeast. The West will be warmer than usual, as much as 4 degrees warmer over the Great Basin. This forecast indicates a continuing trend of normal- to below-normal temperatures over the Northeast that started during the winter of 2000-2001 and was interrupted only once. The midsection of the nation will have near to above-normal temperatures.

The incredibly slick part that we like about Accuweather's forecast is that they actually explain how they came to their conclusion. We know that doesn't mean a hill of beans if they're wrong, but it does convince you that they're not just playing darts blindfolded. :)