Record October Snow At North Platte

North Platte, Nebraska had already broken their October snowfall record before the same storm that hit Colorado put down another 13.5 inches ending yesterday. The monthly total of 31.5 inches is double the old record of 15.7 set in 1969. In addition, October's snowfall already exceeds North Platte's average seasonal snowfall of 29.8 inches!

The storm that put down all that snow is still deepening over Hudson Bay with a minimum pressure of 956 mb and a cold front to southern Mexico.
That front produced a 7 degree temperature drop, winds gusting to 38.9 knots, and waves to 15.7 feet at buoy 42055 in The Bay Of Campeche.

Colorado Blizzard

A snowstorm in Colorado has already dumped over two feet of snow in central of Colorado today, including the Denver - Boulder - Fort Collins area, and it's still coming down. Over 40 inches accumulated in the higher elevations. Blizzard warnings (red) are currently in effect for northeast Colorado including Limon and Sterling. Winter storm warnings are in pink, winter weather advisories are in purple, and freeze warnings are in light blue. Severe weather watches (yellow) are in effect for the lower Mississippi valley, while various flood advisories extend into Missouri Iowa and Illinois.

As of yesterday, Cheyenne, Wyoming had two feet of snow for the month of October, breaking a record set in 1906. North Platte broke their October snowfall record a week ago with 18 inches.

Freeze warnings are in effect for El Paso and Midland in Texas, and Tucson, Arizona, where the average first freeze is November 24th.

Brutal winter weather has also been affecting Europe. The blizzard that I mentioned as being on GFS charts at the end of this post on October 12th, hit Poland very hard and prompted the deployment of troops after 700,000 people lost power.

Frost/Freeze Update

Freeze advisories (light blue) have been extended through West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, northern Georgia, Northern Alabama, and eastern Mississippi. Frost advisories are in effect for most of the Mid-Atlantic states, a large part of Georgia including Atlanta and Macon, and most of the remainder of Alabama even down to Mobile, where the average freeze date is Nov. 29th.

Hurricane Rick And Cold In The Southeast

Hurricane Rick in the Eastern Pacific is now a category 5 monster. The estimated minimum central pressure is 906 mb (26.75 inches)...maximum sustained winds estimated at 180 mph...with hurricane force winds extending out to 45 miles from the center and tropical storm force to 155 miles. Rick is the second strongest hurricane on record in the Eastern Pacific. A wider view:And a visible image from earlier today:Although Rick currently moving westward, a trough is forecast to dig into Southern California by Monday and turn Rick to the north. GFS has been consistent with moving Rick into Southern Baja by late Wednesday and NHC concurs:Meanwhile, a polar airmass with dewpoints in the 30s had prompted frost advisories (in blue) and freeze warnings (light blue) across the Ohio Valley and Southeast.Freeze warnings cover almost all of Ohio, most of Missouri, The Appalachians down to extreme Northeast Georgia, and even the County north of Tulsa, Ok. Frost advisories are in effect for most of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee including Nashville and Chattanooga. Freeze watches (dark blue) go down to parts of Mississippi, Alabama including Birmingham, and Georgia including Atlanta and even to just two counties north of Macon. Dewpoints are now in the 30s even on the Gulf Coast.At station 42363, about 100 miles south of New Orleans, the dewpoint fell to 42.1. I am reminded now that this same station measured a dewpoint of 55F (12.8)C back on August 23rd. It should be noted that this is a drilling platform with measurements taken at a height of 37 meters as opposed to the more standard 4. Even so, the dewpoint at 4 meters at station 42039 115 nautical miles southeast of Pensacola was 57 0n August 23rd and 47.7 at 1AM today - and an air temperature of only 60.4 currently. This cool airmass has swept through the entire Gulf of Mexico.Buoy 42055 in the Bay of Campeche recorded a temperature drop of almost 7 degrees.Even though this buoy is at 22 latitude, the front was still strong enough to produce 35 knot wind gusts and sustained winds at over 3Also, Eureka, Canada on Ellsemere Island already hit -20 degrees on Oct. 17th. It went down to -22 at 8PM with a dewpoint of -31.

And yes, there was even more snow in central Pennsylvania...

Record Early Snow In Pennsylvania

As much as 9 inches of heavy, wet snow fell in central Pennsylvania on Thursday and Friday (OCT 15-16), with 4.7 inches at State College. Large tree limbs and power lines are down across northern Pennsylvania including in State College. This is typical with such a heavy snow this early in the season because the snow more easily sticks to the branches which still have their leaves. For many areas, this was the earliest measurable snowfall on record. See more here.

Snow also accumulated in New York State and even parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut.

North Atlantic Storm

A storm off the coast of Newfoundland just had an an incredible pressure drop of 27 mb (0.79 inches) in 12 hours and an almost unbelievable 49 mb (1.44 inches) drop in 24 hours. It is now at 953 mb (28.14 inches) - lower than any Atlantic tropical cyclone this year except Hurricane Bill.
Category 3 Hurricane Fred - the only other Atlantic hurricane this year - had an estimated minimum central pressure of 958 mb. Despite the sparsity of buoys in the North Atlantic, 24.6 foot waves (station 44138) and 62.2 knot wind gusts (station 44139) have been measured - and that was just before the 27 mb pressure drop! Those measurements were taken when the storm was south of Newfoundland - where buoy data is available - not east of Newfoundland where it became a 953 mb storm and there are no buoys. Satellite scatterometer data shows winds at 50 knots in several locations between areas of possible rain contamination (indicated by black wind barbs).