Tag Archives: national

Intense Rain Puts a Big Dent in California’s Drought

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Over the past week, a cavalcade of intense rain and snowstorms battered the west coast of the US and put a major dent in California’s five-year drought.

According to the latest report from the US Drought Monitor, the northern third of the Golden State is now drought free. This is a major change from just three months ago, when the entire state was in some form of drought.

Across the region, copious amounts of precipitation were reported. More than a foot of rain fell in the Sierra Nevada, with 20.7 inches measured locally at Strawberry Valley, CA. Higher elevations saw tremendous snowfall totals. Heavenly Ski resort in South Lake Tahoe, according to the NWS, received an incredible 12 feet of snow in just one week.

These staggering totals came courtesy of a weather phenomenon known as an “atmospheric river”. These are narrow, but intense bands of water vapor sourced from the tropics. Often originating near Hawaii, this fire hose of moisture is sometimes called a “pineapple express.”

While this excessive rainfall did cause flooding events across the region, reservoir levels have benefited. Lake Shasta, the largest largest reservoir in California, is currently at 81% of total capacity and 126% of its historical average for the date.

Southern California also picked up some much-needed rainfall, but still remains in drought. That said, only 2% of the state is currently in exceptional drought, the worst possible category.

Northern California is drought free for the first time in five years. Credit: US Drought Monitor

2016 was Second Warmest Year on Record for US

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2016 was the second-warmest year ever recorded in the continental US.

The average annual temperature of the lower 48 states, according to NOAA’s National Centers of Environmental Information, was 54.9°F. That is a whopping 2.9°F above the 20th century average and only 0.4°F shy of the record that was set in 2012. This also marks the 20th consecutive year that the annual average temperature for the contiguous US was above its long-term norm.

From coast to coast, every state posted one of their top-seven warmest years. Georgia was record warm and Alaska, the nation’s northern most state, had its third consecutive warmest year on record. “The breadth of the 2016 warmth is unparalleled in the nation’s climate history,” NOAA said. “No other year had as many states breaking or close to breaking their warmest annual average temperature.”

Credit: NOAA

2016 was also notable for its unusual number of weather and climate disasters that each totaled more than $1 billion in damages. In all, fifteen such events collectively caused $46 billion in direct costs and claimed the live of 138 people across the US. These incidents included drought, wildfire, four inland floods, eight severe storms, and a tropical cyclone. Only 2011, with sixteen events, produced more billion-dollar disasters.

Credit: NOAA

The exceptional warmth of 2016 was driven by a combination of strong El Niño conditions at the beginning of the year and the long-term trend of human-caused climate change. These soaring temperatures, however, were not limited to US borders. Later this month, NOAA is expected to announce that 2016 was the planet’s warmest year on record for the third year in a row.

Weather records for the contiguous United States date back to 1895.

GOES-R Satellite will Improve Weather Forecasts

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Satellites have helped forecasters predict the weather for more than forty years. Now, they are getting a major upgrade.

Launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday night, the GOES-R is the newest model in NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite series. It has been nearly a decade since the last upgrade and this one is loaded with new technology.

Carrying 34 different weather products, the main instrument is the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI). Essentially a camera that views the western hemisphere’s weather, oceans, and environment, it offers 3 times the spectral information, 4 times the spatial resolution, and temporal coverage that is five times faster than the previous GOES model. In other words, it will provide a clearer and faster image of what is going on in the atmosphere than ever before, allowing for better forecasts. This, in turn, means improved protection for lives and property, which is the main mission of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Other instruments onboard include a lightning mapper, which will continuously measure the lightning activity over both North and South America. This information is important because the rate of lightning is related to a storm’s updraft. Better lightning data can increase the lead-time for warnings on storms that could produce severe weather. Another important device is the magnetometer. It will monitor space weather such as solar storms  that produce the northern lights and can, when strong enough, disrupt power grids and telecommunications.

Once in orbit, GOES-R will become known as GOES-16 (letters are only used while it is in development on the ground). After a calibration and testing period of several months, its data will become available to forecasters. If all goes well, it should be online by next year’s hurricane season.

GOES-R satellite. Credit: NOAA

GOES-R satellite. Credit: NOAA

Drought Update: Autumn 2016

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This autumn has been marked by heavy rain and catastrophic flooding in some parts of the United States.  Drought, however, continues to plague large sections of the country.

According to the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor, 49% of the nation is dealing with drought. While this number represents a slight improvement for parts of the west, both the southeast and northeast have been drying out.

Currently, 57% of the southeastern US is in some form of drought and 21% is suffering from conditions of extreme drought. These parched conditions, which have been building for months, are now fueling wildfires across the region. According to the US Forest Service, 59 of the 61 active large wildfires burning in this country are in the southeast.

Another hard hit area is the northeast, where 19% of the region is in severe or extreme drought. Water restrictions are in place in parts of Massachusetts and communities in New Jersey are asking residents to conserve water voluntarily.

On the other side of the country, California – now in its fifth year of drought – received some much-needed rainfall recently. However, most of it fell only in the northern counties. Overall, 88% of the Golden State remains in some form of drought with 21% in exceptional drought, the worst possible category.

The Drought Monitor is a weekly publication produced by a partnership of government agencies, including the National Drought Mitigation Center, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Credit: US Drought Monitor

Credit: US Drought Monitor

The Weather Gamut Becomes a Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador for NOAA

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It’s official! The Weather Gamut is now a Weather-Ready Nation (WRN) Ambassador for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

As a member of the WRN Initiative, The Weather Gamut is committed to working with NOAA to help increase awareness and strengthen resilience to our nation’s increasing vulnerability to extreme weather and climate events.

Be it hurricanes, tornadoes, snowstorms, heat waves, cold waves, drought, or flooding, every part of this country is subject to extreme weather. Therefore, it is vital that we, as a nation, improve our readiness, responsiveness, and resiliency to these environmental hazards that threaten lives and property.

Look for articles tagged “WRN” on our website to learn more about different types of extreme weather and climate events and how to prepare for them.

For more info on NOAA's WRN Initiative: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/com/weatherreadynation/

Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador™ and the Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador™ logo are trademarks of the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, used with permission. For more information, click  here.

Hurricane Matthew Slams the Southeastern US

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Hurricane Matthew, the 13th named storm of the Atlantic Hurricane Season, hammered the southeastern United States this weekend from Florida to Virginia.

Tearing up the coast as it trekked northward, Matthew made landfall near McClellanville, SC on Saturday as a category-1 hurricane with 75mph winds. It had reached category-5 status in the Caribbean – the first storm to do so since Hurricane Felix in 2007- but weakened as it moved toward the US.

Despite this downgrade, Matthew still packed a powerful punch. Its strong winds, flooding rains, and storm surge caused significant property damage and widespread power outages throughout the region. The death toll from this storm currently stands at 26 people from across five states and is expected to increase in the coming days.

With successive bands of heavy rain, Matthew also caused catastrophic inland flooding. In Fayetteville, NC – 100 miles from the coast – 14.82 inches of rain was reported. As a result, several rivers in the region rose to record or near-record levels and overflowed their banks, inundating communities.

All told, Matthew dumped 13.6 trillion gallons of water on Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia before heading out to sea as a post-tropical storm. That is enough water to fill over 20 million Olympic-size swimming pools. The highest rainfall total, 17.49 inches, was reported near Savannah, GA.

The damage caused by Matthew is currently estimated at $6 billion.

Hurricane Matthew batters the south eastern US. Credit: NOAA/NASA

Hurricane Matthew batters the southeastern US. Credit: NOAA/NASA

Weather Gamut Writer Talks About Unseasonable Heat in NYC on WUTV

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It was both an honor and a thrill to be asked back to The Weather Channel’s WUTV show tonight for my 6th appearance!  As a personal weather station owner based in New York City, we discussed the unseasonable heat and humidity that has been baking – or should I say steaming – the Big Apple the past few days.

The show, which dives into the science behind different weather events, airs weeknights from 6 to 8 PM EST on The Weather Channel.

Weather Gamut writer, Melissa Fleming, talks with Mike Bettes on WUTV. September 9, 2016. Credit: TWC and Melissa Fleming

Weather Gamut writer, Melissa Fleming, talks with Mike Bettes on WUTV. September 9, 2016. Credit: TWC and Melissa Fleming.

Climate Change is Changing Glacier National Park

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Glacier National Park (GNP) in western Montana is on the verge of losing its namesake features to climate change. Given this fact, I made a point to visit the park this summer to see what remains of its famous glaciers before they completely melt away.

According to the National Park Service, the area that is now GNP was home to 150 glaciers at the end of the Little Ice Age in 1850. Today, because of rising global temperatures, only 25 remain and most are mere vestiges of what they once were. Looking ahead, if the current rate of melting continues, all of the park’s glaciers are expected to disappear by 2030, if not sooner.

Glaciers are dynamic entities that respond to changes in temperature and precipitation. They advance when more snow accumulates in the winter than melts in the summer. When this process is reversed, they retreat. Sadly, the new norm in GNP includes warmer summers and a decreasing snowpack.

The USGS, which monitors the park’s glaciers, reports that the mean annual temperature in GNP has increased 1.33°C (2.4°F) since 1900. That is nearly twice the global average. The park also now sees 16 fewer days each year with below-freezing temperatures. These warmer conditions mean that more precipitation is falling as rain rather than snow.

Beyond aesthetic changes to the landscape, the shrinking glaciers and reduced snow pack mean less melt water for the region and therefore warmer and drier summers. This, in turn, affects soil moisture and the proliferation of wildfires. It also has serious ramifications on the availability of fresh water for drinking and irrigation.

In arid regions, like the American West, people depend on mountain run-off from melting glaciers and winter snow packs for the majority of their fresh water. In western Montana, according to the NPS, snowmelt accounts for 60-80% of the annual freshwater supply. As temperatures rise and the stores of this precious resource dwindle, competition for it is expected to increase.

But, glaciers are not the only things changing in GNP. As the atmosphere heats up and the ice retreats, the park’s various ecosystems are also being reshaped. Sub-alpine trees are moving upslope replacing alpine meadows, for example. This changing distribution of vegetation affects the type of wildlife the park can support. While some animals can adapt and move upslope with their habitat, others, like the pika – a small furry relative of the rabbit who lives at high elevations and cannot survive temperatures above 75°F – already live at the end of their range and have no place to go.

The NPS has no plans to change the name of Glacier National Park.

"Repeat Photography", a USGS project, documents the changes to GNP's glaciers over the years. Credit: USGS/NPS

Images of Sperry Glacier from “Repeat Photography”, a USGS project, that documents the changes to GNP’s glaciers over the years. Credit: USGS/NPS

Hurricane Hermine Batters Florida’s Gulf Coast

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Hurricane Hermine, the eighth named storm and fourth hurricane of the 2016 Atlantic Hurricane Season, made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida early Friday morning. It slammed the Sunshine state’s west coast from Tampa to Tallahassee with heavy rain and winds measured up to 80 mph.

The category-1 hurricane generated a 9-foot storm surge in Cedar Key and dumped more than 22 inches of rain in parts of Pinellas County, flooding many communities. The storm also downed trees and knocked out power to over 250,000 people. Only one storm related death was reported.

Traveling across Florida, Hermine was downgraded to a tropical storm. It is now in the Atlantic moving north along the eastern seaboard. Impacts such as powerful winds, heavy rain, coastal flooding, and dangerous rip currents are expected to be felt from Georgia to Connecticut this holiday weekend.

Hermine was the first hurricane to make landfall in Florida in eleven years.

Hurricane Hermine makes landfall in Florida on September 2, 2016. Credit: NOAA

Hurricane Hermine makes landfall in Florida on September 2, 2016. Credit: NOAA

Summer Colds can be Worse than Winter Ones

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Dealing with a cold is annoying anytime of the year. However, during the summer, when you want to be outside enjoying the beautiful weather, it is especially frustrating. Adding insult to injury, summer colds also tend to be worse than the winter variety.

The reason for this, according to infectious disease experts, is that different viruses cause summer and winter colds. Winter colds are the result of rhinoviruses and summer colds are produced by enteroviruses.

Along with the usual coughing and congestion of a winter cold, enteroviruses can cause a host of other nasty symptoms. These include, fever, diarrhea, sore throat, and body aches. They also tend to last for a few weeks and can reoccur. Rhinoviruses, by contrast, usually run their course in a few days.

This resilient virus, according to the National Institute of Health, is present year round, but thrives in mild weather. Most infections occur between June and October.

Since most people spend more time outdoors during the summer months, summer colds are less prevalent than winter ones. Nevertheless, they are spread through contact with infected people and contaminated surfaces. To help reduce your odds of getting sick, doctors recommend you wash your hands frequently and avoid touching your face.

Summer Colds. Credit: mlive

A Summer Cold.  Credit: mlive