Central Plains Temperature Inversion

This morning, Chinook winds produced 850 temperatures over 20C across the Central Plains:

With cold, stable air still in place at ground level, a temperature inversion of over 20C (36F) was present in the Central Plains. At North Platte, NE, the temperature increased by 20C only about 200 meters above ground level:

Chicago Area MCS

This MCS developed in northern Illinois late last night (June 25th), and produced flooding across the north suburbs of Chicago:

A CoCoRaHS station at Cary reported 6.15" at 7 AM on the 26th.

The COD storm chasers were frustrated yesterday when nothing developed in Iowa. Despite convective inhibition of only 3 on the 0Z Omaha sounding, convective initiation never occurred:

Snowy April and May 2013

On April 3rd, a narrow band of cold air allowed accumulating snow to fall in central Oklahoma:

On April 9th, a storm ran warm 12C air at 850 mb over cold surface air with temps near freezing:

As a result, a convective squall line moving through central Kansas produced winter conditions at ground level. At 9:00 PM CDT, Concordia was under a severe thunderstorm warning while reporting freezing rain, a temperature of 30, a north wind at 24 mph, gusting to 35, and a wind chill of 16. Salina reported light snow, fog, a temperature of 33, wind northwest at 32, gusting to 38, and a wind chill of 19. Hutchinson reported a thunderstorm with a temperature of 32, fog, wind north at 16 gusting to 36, and a wind chill of 21. Radar from 9:11 CDT:

By 10:00 PM CDT, Hutchinson was reporting hail with a temperature of 32, fog, a north wind at 26 mph gusting to 37, and a wind chill of 18. Radar from 9:54 CDT:

Roads were coated with ice as far south as the Oklahoma-Texas border. Snowfall amounts from this storm include 28.5" at Lander, WY; 24" at Harrison, NE; 30.0" at Deadwood, SD; and a record shattering 28.2" at Rapid City, SD. The previous record from a single storm in Rapid City was 18.0" on April 22, 2001. Some wind gusts from the storm in mph are: 84 at Castaic Lake, CA; 78 at Dubuque, IA; 85 at Menominee, MI.

From April 16-19 this storm produced heavy snow from Colorado to Michigan:

Snowfall amounts: 20.0" at Great Basin National Park, NV; 9.5" at Denver, CO; 23.4" at Fort Collins, CO; 33.0" at Virginia Dale, CO; 36.0" at Centennial, WY; 17.3" at Cheyenne, WY; 17.7" at Duluth, MN; 8.1" at Minneapolis, MN; 22.0" at Cornucopia, WI. This storm also produced huge amounts of rain including 8.20" at Pella, IA and 7.34" at Naperville, IL.

Just a few days later, another surge of cold air allowed for snow to fall in Oklahoma and significant accumulations to occur across I-70 in Kansas:

For the morning of April 24th, a freeze warning was issued for Lubbock, TX, and a hard freeze warning for Amarillo, TX:

On April 25th, frost advisories were issued from extreme northern Texas to Tennessee:

On April 24th, low temperatures were 25 at Lubbock, and 20 at Amarillo. On the 25th, Nashville had a low of 36.

On April 26th, Fargo, ND had the latest 50 degree day on record, with the previous record being April 17th in 1881. April was the snowiest month of the 2012-2013 winter season in Fargo.

As of April 26th, the United States had the second coldest start to a spring on record.

On May 1st and 2nd, 850 temps as cold as -4C were reaching Texas:

 

 

 

By May 3rd, a freeze warning was issued for San Angelo, TX, and a winter weather advisory was active for northwest Arkansas:

Accumulating snow fell as far south as northeast Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas:

Up to 5" of snow fell in Arkansas. This is the first time snow has been recorded in Arkansas in the month of May. At Tulsa, OK, snow fell on May 2nd, breaking the previous latest snow on record of April 18th in 1953. Records in Tulsa go back to 1900.

Another surge of cold air prompted a frost advisory for Nashville on May 13th:

Record lows of 39 at Nashville and 33 at Crossville occurred on May 13th.

On May 14th, a blizzard hit the UK with 65 mph wind and power outages.

March 2012 Tornadoes and Southern Snow

On March 2nd, just two days after the Harrisburg, IL tornado, this huge trough over the central US produced another major tornado outbreak.

A 988 mb low was just south of Lake Michigan:

An area of 2,000 J/kg CAPE was coincident with 0-1 km helicity of 500 m2/s2:

40 people were killed, including 11 by an EF4 with a path of 49 miles through Indiana and Kentucky.

On March 7th, a storm near Iceland reached 944 mb:

Northwest Pacific storm on March 12th:

On the afternoon of March 15th, several tornadoes touched down in eastern Michigan where 500 mb winds were only 25 knots.

This is a good example of the fact that there seems to be an exception to almost every rule in meteorology.

On March 18th, this intense western US trough dug into Mexico:

500 mb wind speeds reached 80 knots about 100 miles south of the border:

Winter storm warnings (pink) were issued in southeast Arizona down to the Mexican border, and winter weather advisories (purple) were issued for the Santa Ana Mountains:

Accumulating snow fell on the Mexican border south of Tucson:

Typhoon Roke and Stronger Mid Latitude Storms

You can't always trust the barometer. On September 16th, Madison, WI (KMSN) reported a pressure of 30.34"/1027.7 mb and light rain. A shortwave trough was moving directly over a surface high and was still able to produce some light rain even as it encountered an increasingly confluent flow over the Great Lakes.

On September 19th, a 964 mb storm prompted hurricane force wind warnings for the Gulf of Alaska:
Same storm two days later:
This is category 4 Typhoon Roke on September 20th south of Japan with 115 knot (135 mph) winds:
It was a category 2/90 knot (105 mph) storm when it made landfall in southern Japan around 4:30Z on the 21st.
Tokyo was hit with 90 mph winds and 260,000 households lost power.

On September 20th, a 998 mb low produced a 75 mph wind gust at Bullhead, SD and a 66 mph gust at Pierre, SD.
Yesterday (September 29th), this 992 mb storm prompted storm warnings for Lake Superior and Lake Michigan:
Winds gusted to 60 mph at Sturgeon Bay Airport, 69 at Stannard Rock Lighthouse (Lake Superior), 69 at Sister Bay (Door County, WI), and 71 at Green Bay Lighthouse. At 3:50 AM toady, Buoy 45007 in south central Lake Michigan, 43 miles ESE of Milwaukee, reported 23 foot waves.