Gulf Coast Winter Storm 2

On January 28th and 29th, unusually cold air spread across the Gulf Coast:

Snow accumulated along the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida:

With chinook winds in place across the Plains, this led to the strange situation of having no snow cover in Nebraska, and having snow cover in Florida. New Orleans received freezing rain. Freezing rain accumulated 0.1" at Mobile, AL; 0.25" at Gulf Breeze, FL (near Pensacola); 0.25" at Fort Walton Beach, FL; 0.5" at Sylvania, GA; and 0.75" at Summerton, SC. Sleet accumulations include 0.75" at Alexandria, LA; 0.9" at Kenrwood, LA; 2" at Tylertown, MS; 1.25" at Grove Hill, AL; 0.8" at Mobile, AL; and 2.3" at Newport, NC. Heavy snow fell right along the Atlantic Coast, for example 9.8" at Virginia Beach, VA.

A hard freeze warning is active this morning (Jan 30) across the Gulf Coast:

Temperatures this morning have dropped to 25 at New Orleans, 16 at Mobile, and 22 at Pensacola.

Gulf Coast Winter Storm

A winter storm warning is in effect today (January 28) across most of the Gulf Coast.

Significant accumulations of freezing rain and sleet are likely for New Orleans and Mobile, where models are forecasting liquid equivalent precipitation in excess of 0.50". Heavier amounts are possible in Georgia and the Carolinas. Savanna, GA and Charleston, SC are under an ice storm warning.

Another Arctic Outbreak

Yet another arctic air mass is moving through the Midwest:

The clipper system on the leading edge of the arctic air prompted blizzard warnings from the Dakotas to Iowa:

Wind chill warnings were extended into Ohio:

Winter storm warnings have been issued along the Gulf Coast as NAM predicts a variety of frozen precipitation on Tuesday, January 28:

An impressive 949 mb storm hit the British Isles yesterday (January 26):

Historic Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011

As we approach the third anniversary of the historic Groundhog Day blizzard of 2011, I thought I would review my experience with it. The official snow total for Chicago was 21.2". The first thing I noticed on the morning of February 2nd 2011 was that there was such a large snow drift covering the front door, that it would not open!

At the beginning of the next video, you see can that snow had been forced underneath the door and into the house before I even opened the door.

I forced the front door open and looked around outside...

The snow drifted into an interesting pattern around a large tree in the backyard. Snow can be seen blowing off the roof at 0:32.

This was recorded on the afternoon of February 2nd. Although some shoveling had been done now, it would still take a long time before the van would be dug out. A substantial part of the pine tree seen at 0:33 was later taken down.

The top of the pine tree that was knocked down:

Houston Winter Storm

A winter storm hit Houston with sleet and freezing rain last night and this morning (Jan 23-24). Galveston received freezing rain. I-10 was closed at the Texas-Louisiana border.

Winter Update

This storm produced 7" of snow at Washington DC (National Zoo), 11.5" at Central Park, New York, 15.8" in New Jersey (Manalapan), and 18.3" in Massachusetts (Norwell):

4,400 flights were cancelled across the Northeast.

Houston is now under a winter storm watch; NAM shows rain changing to sleet tomorrow night, and GFS shows sleet and freezing rain.

A large part of the Central US is under wind chill advisories, and much of Florida is under a freeze warning as another piece of arctic air is on the way:

If the latest ECMWF holds, Florida may be even colder next week:

Washington Tornado Radar HD

A radar review of the Washington, IL tornado outbreak from November 17th, 2013:

Another North Atlantic Storm

Yesterday, a storm approaching the British Isles dropped to 958 mb:

An eye is visible at the top of the second water vapor image (from 18z):

Arctic Outbreak Update

The storm which hit the Midwest and Northeast with heavy snow and extreme cold on January 4-7 became a 938 mb storm just off the coast of Labrador yesterday (Januarty 8th):

This storm hit Benton Harbor, MI with 27" of snow (much of it lake effect) and Chicago O'Hare with an air temperature of -16 and a windchill of -42. On January 7th, Atlanta had a record low of 6, and New Orleans had a low of 24.

Brutal Winter of 2014

From December 31st - January 3rd, a storm produced 10.9" of snow at Chicago O'Hare, 16.7" at Libertyville, IL, and 23.8" at Boxford, MA. That storm dropped to 933 mb in the North Atlantic yesterday (January 4):

Another storm hit Chicago O'Hare with 9" more today:

The extreme cold seen coming in behind the storm has prompted wind chill warnings from the Northern Plains to the Southeast:

I have never seen such a large area covered by wind chill warnings before. Wind chills as low as -61 have been reported at Navajo, MT. Models have been consistently predicting wind chill values of at least -40 for the Chicago area for tomorrow morning. Hard freeze warnings are in effect for the Gulf Coast, and winter storm warnings are shown in pink.

It has been a cold winter so far. Mean temperature and temperature anomaly for December: