Washington DC Snowstorm in March

Even Though it is March 17th, this storm hit Washington DC with 8 inches of snow, Hillandale, MD with 11" and Haywood, VA with 13.7".

2011 Japan Tsunami

Today is the third anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan on March 11, 2011. At least 15,884 were killed, 6,148 were injured, and 2,633 were missing. 127,290 buildings were destroyed, 272,788 were half collapsed, and 747,989 were damaged. 4.4 million households lost power, and 1.5 million had no water. The economic cost was estimated to be around $300 billion.

At 14:46 JST (5:56 UTC), a 9.0 magnitude earthquake occurred 45 miles off the east coast of Japan, at a depth of 19 miles.
About 70 minutes later, a massive tsunami hit the Sendai area, traveling up to 6 miles inland:
The Tsunami was estimated to have reached a maximum height of 40.5 meters at Miyako.

The seismic moment from the earthquake was equivalent to 9,321 gigatons of TNT, or about 600 million times the energy released from the Hiroshima bomb. Peak ground acceleration was calculated to be 2.99 g, or 29.33 m/s2. Japan moved 7.9 feet closer to North America. 250 miles of Japan's coast dropped by 2 feet. The seabed between the earthquake epicenter and the Japan Trench moved 50 meters east-southeast and rose by 7 meters. The Earth's axis of rotation was estimated to have been moved between 4 and 10 inches, and the length of a day was shortened by 1.8 microseconds.

This video gives a good idea of what it was like to be in the path of the tsunami:

Great Lakes Ice Cover

It appears that ice cover on the Great Lakes reached its maximum extent on Thursday, March 6th at 92.19%:

This is the greatest extent since 1979 when ice cover reached 94.76%.

Florida Fire Whirls and The Everglades

While traveling through central Florida on highway US 27 in February 2008, we saw at least five fire whirls:

Early 2008 was a dry period for Florida and the Southeast.

The next day, we went through the Everglades. There were lots of Alligators and Anhingas. Some egrets, great blue herons, and turtles. In the video below, a very small lizard is standing on top of a wooden post at 3:25. Pelicans are at 3:35, and a crocodile is hiding at the center of the frame at 3:40:

Houston Freezing Rain

The arctic front which is continuing to undercut warm moist air in Texas led to a period freezing rain last night in Houston. Houston Intercontinental Airport reported freezing rain from 5 PM until midnight CST, when temperatures went back above freezing. The dramatic difference beteen 850 and 925 mb temperatures can be seen here:

Almost 40,000 customers lost power. Galveston had heavy rain with temperatures as low as 35 F.

Forecast Verification and Winter Storm Review

No tornadoes occurred in my outlooked area for March 2 because a rapidly moving arctic front undercut convection in Texas and Arkansas, and surface based convective initiation never occurred in northern Louisiana despite dew points reaching the upper 60s in the afternoon. Louisiana may have been too far ahead of the forcing associated with the main trough to the west.

This storm did produce 6" of sleet at Clarksville, TN and 0.50" of ice at New Lexington, OH and 0.5" of ice at Panther, WV. Snow amounts include:

6.1"     Hunter, OK 6.0 nne
6.5"     Pea Ridge, AR
8.5"     Anderson, MO 6.8 w
10.3"   Porter, IN
10"     Bruceton Mills, WV
10"     Cherry Grove, WV 6 wsw
9"       Manassas, VA
6"       American University, Washington DC
8.3"    Clarksburg, MD
7"       Ventnor City, NJ

This storm left the contiguous US 57.3% snow covered on March 3rd: