Tag Archives: storms

2011: A Year of Wild Weather

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As 2011 comes to a close, there is no doubt that it has been an extraordinary year in weather.  We saw the full gamut of wild weather, both here in New York City and across the United States.

Locally, in NYC, we had a variety of exceptional weather events.  January became the snowiest month on record with 36 inches of snow.  Our second hottest day of all time came on July 22nd with a high temperature of 104°F.  In August, Irene became the first hurricane to make landfall in the city in 26 years. The storm contributed to August becoming our wettest month ever, with 18.95 inches of rain.   October brought us an early season snowstorm that left 2.9 inches of snow in Central Park, a record for the month. Overall, 2011 brought us 72.8 inches of rain.  That is 22.6 inches above average and marks this year as the second wettest in city history.

Nationally, some form of severe weather impacted nearly every state in the U.S. this year. This included blizzards, tornadoes, drought, wildfires, flooding, extreme heat, and hurricanes. According to NOAA, a new record for “billion dollar weather disasters” was set in 2011 with one-dozen extreme events. These twelve natural disasters alone are reported to have taken 646 lives and caused $52 billion worth of damage.

What a year it has been!

Atlantic Hurricane Season 2011

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Last week, as the month of November came to a close, so did the Atlantic Hurricane Season.  The six month season was extremely active this year with nineteen named storms. Only two, however, left their mark on the US.

Irene was a category-one hurricane that struck in late August.  The massive storm affected most of the eastern seaboard from North Carolina to Maine. In New York City, she dumped 6.87 inches of rain and caused extensive power outages.  Most of Irene’s sting, however, was felt in the interior sections of the Northeast and New England. Heavy rain in the mountains of upstate NY and Vermont led to catastrophic in-land flooding.

Tropical Storm Lee made landfall in Lousiana in early September.  This large, slow-moving storm brought significant amounts of rain and flooding to the states along the Gulf Coast.  Lee also sparked numerous tornadoes as it moved through the region.

These two storms are reported to have claimed 77 lives and caused an estimated $11 billion in damage.

Strong Santa Ana Winds

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Earlier this week, the southwestern region of the US experienced one of its worst wind storms in over a decade.  The winds that swept through the area were not a typical Santa Ana event.

The Santa Anas are robust easterly winds that blow dry air across southern California in the late fall.  It is formed by a large pressure difference that builds up between the inland Mojave Desert and the LA Basin. The steep pressure gradient between the two areas funnels air downhill through the canyons and passes of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains toward the Pacific. Winds speeds generally reach somewhere between 40 and 60 mph.

This week’s event was unusual, because it followed a cold front and had a powerful northerly wind component with exceptionally strong gusts.  The NWS is reported to have measured wind gusts up to 140 mph along the Sierra Crest mountain ridge.  This fierce wind storm uprooted trees and knocked out power to over 300,000 people across the Los Angeles area.  Even LAX lost power and had to shut down briefly.

Another unusual aspect of this epic wind event was its wide reach across the region. Damage has been reported across the west from California to Colorado.  Some places in Utah experienced wind gusts over 100 mph and saw tractor-trailers flipped over like toys.

The tight pressure gradient that caused the storm has now weakened and the winds have subsided.  The forecast, however, is calling for blustery conditions to return to the southwest in the next few days.

October Surprise

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A pre-winter snowstorm left its mark on the northeast this weekend.  Heavy, wet snow fell from Maryland to Maine in record amounts for the month of October.

The storm was a classic nor-easter.  It moved up the east coast pulling in moisture from the Atlantic Ocean.  The area of low pressure also pulled in colder air from the NW producing snow, instead of just rain.  In addition, this storm delivered the rare sounds of thunder-snow.

In New York City, we set a new record for October snowfall with 2.9 inches in Central Park!  October snowfall here is rare, but not unprecedented.  The last time we saw the flakes fly this early was in 2002, but that event did not produce any accumulation.  For measurable snowfall (0.1 of an inch or more) in the October, we have to go back to 1952 when 0.5 of an inch fell.  The record amount, prior to this weekend, was 0.8 of an inch in 1925. Typically, we do not see measurable snow in NYC until December.

The excitement of this early snowfall did not come without a price.  Many of the trees in the area still have leaves on their branches.  The leaves provide more surface area for the snow to accumulate.  The extra weight was too much for some trees and caused many branches to break and fall.  In some cases, entire trees were split in two.  In Manhattan, Central Park is reported to have lost 1,000 trees in the storm.  That is more damage than the park endured from Hurricane Irene this past summer. Downed trees also damaged aboveground power-lines causing outages in many areas.

Depending on your point of view, the storm could be seen as Mother Nature’s trick or treat. Either way, the residents of the northeast will remember the snowstorm of Halloween weekend for years to come.

Pumpkin in the snow, October 2011

Autumn Tree in the Snow

Photo credit: MF at The Weather Gamut

Dust Up In Texas

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Earlier this week, a massive dust storm darkened the skies of Lubbock, Texas.  Wind gusts reached 70-mph and the cloud of dust climbed 8,000 feet into the air.

This type of intense dust storm is called a haboob. They are usually seen in arid climates when the strong downdraft of a thunderstorm reaches the ground and blows the dry loose sand up into the air.  We have seen a few of these in Arizona recently.   The Texas haboob, however, had different origins.  It was caused by the fast moving winds of the leading edge of an approaching cold front.

The Lubbock dust storm was a by-product of the extreme drought that has been plaguing most of Texas.  Without rain, crops have dried up and large tracts of land have been left barren. Lacking the stabilizing roots of natural prairie grasses and commercial crops, the dry soil is highly subject to wind erosion.

The images of this huge dust storm and the drought that caused it are reminiscent of the Dust Bowl storms of the Great Depression.  Throughout the early 1930’s, a severe drought in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas caused huge dust storms that damaged both the ecology and agricultural industry of the great plains.

Unfortunately, there is no end in sight for the current drought in Texas.  As a result, we could see more dust storms in that state.

Dust Bowl Storm, 1935

Photo Credit: ksu.edu

IMAX Tornado

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I recently saw the IMAX film, Tornado Alley, by storm-chaser/filmmaker, Sean Casey.

The film follows both the storm-chaser and a large team of scientists from the VORTEX 2 project.  Working separately, both groups were following storms in Tornado Alley, a wide open area in the central US that runs between the Rocky Mountains in the west and the Appalachian Mountains in the east.  This is where most of the tornadoes in the US occur.

The goal of the storm-chaser was to drive into a tornado and capture the experience on film. Casey built a special vehicle for the task called the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle). Constructed of armor-like steel and aluminum plating with bullet-proof glass, it looks like a tank with a special IMAX camera turret on top.

The VORTEX 2 team was trying to get as close as possible to the storms without getting sucked inside.  They were monitoring the tornadoes with remote equipment and collecting data.  Their goal was to study the structure of the storms and try to understand why some thunderstorms become twisters and others do not. This sort of information could produce more accurate forecasts and increase the warning times for approaching tornadoes.

Overall, I enjoyed the film.  It was educational and had a sense of adventure with great footage. It is currently playing at the American Museum of Natural History in NY.

TIV parked on the street in New York

Photo Credit: MF at The Weather Gamut