"Meet The Press" Abandons Climate Deniers; Actually Has Worthwhile Policy Discussion

"Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd devoted the entire show on
Sunday to the subject of climate change. He pointedly
omitted climate change deniers from the discussion. 

The Sunday morning talk shows usually annoy me. Just a bunch of political pundits trying out their spin of the week. Usually the remarks make headlines, sure, but the whole thing can be obnoxious.

Pardon the pun here, but Sunday's "Meet the Press," hosted by Chuck Todd, was a breath of fresh air. I'm calling it that because Todd devoted the hour-long program to climate change.

Click on this sentence for a full transcript of Sunday's show. 

Todd opened the show by saying this: "We're not going to debate climate change, the existence of it. The Earth is getting hotter. And human activity is a major cause, period. We're not going to give time to climate deniers. The science is settled, even if political opinion is not."

What followed was more of a policy debate on what to do about climate change, which is what the nation and the world as a whole should be focusing on now.

Panelists on the show included climate scientist Dr. Kate Marvel, who, among other people on the show, saying climate change is now, and we have to start dealing with it now.

Todd had previously been criticized for a "Meet the Press" episode in November in which he hosted Danielle Pletka of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Todd didn't challenge Pletka when she said "We need to also recognize we had two of the coldest years, biggest drop in global temperatures that we have had since the 1980s, the biggest in the last 100 years. We don't talk about that."

That statement is completely false.  True, 2018 and 2017 are ending up marginally cooler than 2016, which was the world's hottest year on record. But 2018 and 2017 are fourth and third hottest on record.  

Obviously, I'm going to get pushback about this post from a host of climate deniers and skeptics regarding this post. Social media is packed with them. There's already been a lot of climate denier yelling and screaming on social media about Sunday's episode of "Meet the Press."

A lot of the pushback involves cherry picking past weather events as "evidence" the world is not warming. For example, I see a lot of people citing the extreme heat waves in the United States during the 1930s.

I  can cherry pick, too.  It's true that 1934 was one of the hottest years on record in the United States. It ranks sixth behing 2012, 2016, 2015, 2006 and 1998. (Note those are all recent years). For the Earth as a whole, though, 1934 averaged out a wee bit cooler than average, notes Skeptical Scientist. 

True, those Depression-era heat waves, particularly in the Great Plains, remain easily the most intense by far on record in those regions.  There have always been weather extremes like the Dust Bowl heat waves of the 1930s. The issue is that weather extremes are getting more common, and, generally speaking, more extreme.

I think I partially get where the climate denial crowd is coming from. Most of them are politically conservative, and, to oversimplify, don't like the government telling them what to do. Fair enough.

The concern in this crowd is that if we deal with climate change, that could mean more regulations, more government action, more impinging on their "freedoms."  I just wish these conservatives would get real and get in on the debate.

It would be useful to get ideas from conservatives on how to deal with climate change in a way that does not restrict personal freedoms, in a way that boosts the economy, creates jobs, stays in line with the free enterprise system.

We could really use their ideas.  I'm not being snarky at all. I really mean this.

I think Sunday's episode of "Meet the Press" was done in part because people are freaked out about the extreme weather events of 2018, such as the devastating California wildfires, Hurricanes Michael and Florence, and the big heat waves and flash floods that hit different parts of the nation and the world during the year that's just now ending

Few people would say these weather events were "caused" by climate change, but there's a compelling case to make that many (but not all) of them were probably made worse by global warming.

I"ve also heard climate change skeptics say the world might well be warming, but that's just a natural cycle, unrelated to human activity.

Marvel, on Meet the Press Sunday, said that the warming is largely man-made is perversely comforting. If it were a natural cycle, there would be pretty much nothing we could do to stop it. But since the warming is largely caused by fossil fuel emissions, we can cut back and switch to other alternatives and, over time, slow and stop climate change.

Nobody thinks such an effort would be quick or easy, but you have to start somewhere.

New Year's Eve Update: Still Looks Messy, Could Be Worse

National Weather Service forecast mapfor snow tonight.
Not much: Rangingfrom nothing in parts of the
ChamplainValley to four inches in eastern Vermont. 

People probably want an update to the weather forecast for their New Year's Eve plans, so here goes, fellow Vermonters.

It still doesn't look like a particularly pleasant night to be out for the festivities. You'll especially want to be careful on the roads.

A winter weather advisory is still in effect for tonight in Vermont from the Green Mountains eastward, most of northern New York outside the Champlain Valley, most of New Hampshire, parts of northern Massachusetts and parts of Maine.

Those areas can expect a mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain and rain overnight and into Tuesday morning. Needless to say the road conditions won't be great. No drinking and driving, please.

Some areas that would like to see some fresh snow cover are actually going to get it out of this storm system. Northeastern Vermont will get a coating of probably two to five inches of wet snow out of this.

The big winners will be northern and western Maine and tbe northern tip of New Hampshire. They are  is under a winter storm warning, where four to 10 inches of snow, mixed with some sleet and freezing rain, is anticipated overnight and Tuesday morning.

Where the snow is heaviest in far eastern Vermont and in the winter storm warning zone, there might be a few power failures due to the wet nature of the snow.

Precipitation looks like it will move in this evening and keep going most of the night. The Champlain Valley looks like it will have a mix of rain and wet snow with this, with little accumulation, if any. Up in the northern Champlain Valley, near St. Albans, they could eek out an inch or two of slush.

Up in Montreal, Sherbrooke and Ottawa, things look nasty for tonight. The cities and surrounding areas are under a freezing rain warning for tonight, with very slick roads, sidewalks and everything else expected.

The roller coaster ride of temperatures will continue. We've had several days in the past couple of weeks when the high temperatures for the day was in the early morning, when it's supposed to be coldest. Then temperatures would fall during the day.

That will be the state of affairs on New Year's Day. The few early risers on Tuesday morning will see temperatures in the 30s and low 40s. Temperatures will crash downward, falling through the 20s during the afternoon. Any water left on roads and sidewalks will freeze, so watch out for that.

It'll get into the single numbers Tuesday night, and not get out of the teens Wednesday afternoon. The late week looks like it will feature near normal temperatures for January.

If you're complaining about the inclement weather we have in store here in Vermont for New Year's Eve, it could be worse. There's always places that are worse.

My pick for the place you don't want to be to celebrate New Year's Eve is eastern North Dakota, along the Red River Valley.

Nothing against North Dakota, but the weather is going to be atrocious there today and tonight. There's a blizzard warning up because of widespread blowing snow. Wind chill alerts are up, too.

Early this morning, it was 8 below in Grand Forks, North Dakota, with extensive blowing snow. The wind was from the north at 31 gusting to 41 mph, with a wind chill of 37 below.

The cold is actually forecast to get a little more intense there as the day wears on. Unless perhaps you are such a fan of the movie "Fargo" that you want to re-enact scenes from the film, I'd stay away from the city of Fargo, North Dakota and vicinity for New Year's Eve.

Messy Weather For Vermont, Northeast New Year's Eve

Slick roads in Burlington, Vermont last winter. Road conditions
look like they will be icy again this New Year's Eve in
Vermont, so factor that into your plans. 

Jeff and I usually stay home New Year's Eve. We get a bottle of Champagne, have a nice dinner, and watch the festivities on TV.

It's amateur night out there, and we don't want to get caught up in the crowds, the cold weather, the drunk driving, the can-we-stay-awake-as-we-drive home moments.

This year, we have an extra reason to stay home. The weather is going to be messy, to say the least, New Year's Eve.

Another wet, mixed precipitation storm is on its way, just in time for New Year's celebrations.

Forecasting exactly what will come out of the sky with this storm is even trickier than the last couple of storms. Temperatures will be marginal, and there will be complex layers of warm and cold air in the atmosphere above us. These layers will be rapidly changing and moving, which adds drama and challenge to the forecast.

The current thinking is this will start as a burst of wet snow tomorrow evening, and then go over to a mix pretty quickly. There's a chance the warm air aloft won't really get into the northeastern third of Vermont. If that happens, they'll get mostly snow, perhaps three to six inches of it.

The southern and central Champlain Valley might, might get lucky and have a brief period of mixed precipitation before things go over to rain. Of course, as usual, the ground will be cold, so even if the temperature sneaks a bit above freezing, rain could still freeze on impact.

Most of the rest of the North Country can expect any type of mixed precipitation during New Year's Eve.

The amount of ice and snow we'll get won't be enough to cut power to us. But it will slicken up the roads, for sure. Combined with the usual tired and drunk drivers we usually encounter on New Year's Eve, you can see why we'd want to stay in.

The precipitation dwindles down on New Year's Day, and it will get cold again that night.

The overall weather pattern over North America is fast moving, complex and rapidly changing, so for now, don't rely on forecasts past a two or three days at the most. It's too weird and fast to keep track of, and forecasters really don't have a good handle on what will happen a few days out.

Just expect surprises, I guess.

Good New On 2018 Tornadoes, But There's An Ominous Study About Them

The last known EF5 tornado - the most powerful possible - in the
United States was this twister in Moore, Oklahoma back in 2013.
The storm killed 24 people. The U.S. has gone more than five
years without an EF5 tornado, which is a very unusually
long time between such disasters. 

It looks like we are about to conclude an incredibly benign year for United States tornadoes this year.

Despite an uptick in tornado activity in the Northeast during 2018, the nation as a whole saw relatively few tornadoes, and this will quite possibly become the year with the fewest tornado deaths on record.

On top of that, we're just concluding a rare year in which there were no EF4 or EF5 tornadoes, which are the strongest possible. These tornadoes have winds of 166 mph or more.

Tornadoes with an EF4 rating will level well-constructed houses and toss cars around. An EF5 tornado would take those leveled houses and fling them away to oblivion.  Cars would be tossed 100 yards or more, and even extremely sturdy high rise buildings would be twisted and destroyed.

Needless to say, EF4 and EF5 tornadoes, and their nearly as strong companions EF3s, cause the most tornado deaths. There weren't many EF3's this year either. At last count, the nation had ten EF3 tornadoes.

There was one EF4 tornado in North America in 2018: An EF4 killed one person in Manitoba, Canada this past August. 

Still, 2018's lack of strong United States tornadoes contributed to the thankfully low death toll.

So far this year, only ten people have died in the United States in tornadoes. That would be the lowest toll since 1875, when they started really keeping track of such things. The current record for least tornado deaths is 12 in 1912, followed by 15 back in 1986, says the Weather Channel.

The nation has been in a bit of a tornado drought, and an especially thankful tornado death drought since 2012. The average number of deaths per year is 69. In 2018 and 2017 combined, there were only 52 deaths between the two years, says data from The Weather Channel.

The last year we had an average or above average number of tornado deaths was 2012, when 69 people died in twisters.

Of course, the famous tornado year of 2011 was tragically much worse. That year, 552 United States residents died in tornadoes, which is a tie with 1936 for the second-worse tornado year. Some 700 people died in 1925, mostly in just one super tornado.

Never mind science, we are overdue for a bad tornado year, unfortunately. It's just a matter of chance. You'll eventually get a bad roll of the dice.

This happened in the United States with hurricanes. We went eleven years from 2005 to 2016 without a major hurricane hitting the mainland U.S. Major being Category 3 or higher. That was an unprecedented. We'd never gone that long without a major hurricane.

Then came 2017 with Harvey and Irma, the first time since 1851 two Category 4 hurricanes hit the U.S. mainland. (And then we had Maria trashing Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.).  This year brought hurricanes Florence and Michael.

Tornado activity can turn on a dime like this too. This aspect has little if anything to do with global warming. But it does beg the question: Does climate change influence tornadoes?

INCREASED TORNADO POWER?

A researcher, Dr. James Elsner of Florida State University, says one measure of overall tornado power in the United States is increasing.

The tornado drought in recent years notwithstanding, there hasn't really been a trend up or down in strong and violent tornadoes over the past several decades

Dr. Jeff Masters wrote about this recently in the Category 6 blog in Weather Underground:

"Tornadoes have been coming in bigger bunches with individual tornadoes being wider and staying on the grojnd longer, resulting in an increase in the destructive power of U.S. tornadoes averaging 5.5 percent per year since 1994."

I have to say I got a lot of pushback when I retweeted something on this a couple weeks ago. Meteorologist and business consultant Mike Smith correctly pointed to data that shows there seems to be a general trend toward fewer strong tornadoes (EF3 or higher) since 1954. However, Eisner's research didn't really say there are more tornadoes, just that there are more long-tracked, strong tornadoes during large outbreaks. 

The number of violent tornadoes has trended downward in recent
decades, but there are worrisome exceptions to this trend

So it's kind of how you parse the data.

Anyway, Masters in Category 6 goes on:  

"Eisner's study found that a given tornado is more likely to be strong or violent at night,  between 10 p.m - 4 a.m. and during the coldest months, between November and April. This counterintuitive result could be because there are fewer tornadoes overall at night and in winter, but tornadoes that do develop at these times are more likely to be in environments of strong wind shear, thus allowing their destructive power to be higher on average."

The above situation describes conditions in which there is a lot of instability in the air, which climate scientists say should increase in a warming world. However, another key ingredient for tornadoes is wind shear, which is wind that changes direction and speed with height. Climate scientists say wind shear should decrease overall with global warming.

The decreased wind shear would be most pronounced in the warmer months and less so during colder times of the year, so this fits well with Eisner's research, and what's been going on in the real world in recent years.

Four or five years do NOT make a trend, but there have been fewer tornadoes during the warmer months lately. Then again, there's 2011, so it's hard to draw firm conclusions.

It's possible climate change could make winter tornado outbreaks worse, but this is too preliminary for me to definitely go there. I want to see more research.

For now, I'll just go for a little of that dreaded wishcasting:  Let's hope that 2019 continues with the tornado drought.

Ugly Friday Morning Today, Better Later

You can see the ice I will have to break through to get into
my truck this morning. Then I hope I"ll survive the icy
trip to work. Ugh. 

Just a quick update this morning, as it sure is ugly out there. When I took the dogs out first thing this morning, 5 a.m., in St. Albans, Vermont we were greeted by wind gusts of 40 mph and freezing rain. Everything is iced over. Yuck!

Nearly everywhere in Vermont is bad this morning, so take it slow and easy going to work this morning. Definitely allow extra time. Even in the Champlain Valley, there was enough freezing rain to ice the roads over.

The National Weather Service in South Burlington wisely extended the winter weather advisory into the Champlain Valley, so now that advisory covers the whole state.

Parts of the Champlain Valley are beginning to rise above freezing, but that might not help much. The ground is cold, so even if it's slightly above freezing where you are, chances are the rain is still turning to ice on roads, driveways and sidewalks. That's especially true on untreated surfaces.

Over and east of the Green Mountains, temperatures were still in the low to mid 20s early this morning. Snow and sleet were falling in those areas, which is bad enough, but it'll go over to freezing rain there, too. It'll last longer, so much of the morning will be an icy mess.

Much of the rest of New England is icy, too, so it's a region wide problem early this Friday morning.

There's not enough freezing rain to break trees and power lines. But in some places, it's windy enough to accomplish this. A wind advisory is in effect for the Champlain Islands and the western half of Franklin County.  Winds could gust to 55 mph through 1 p.m. today.

I can attest the wind is howling in St. Albans, Vermont here in Franklin County. It's even windier now than it was at 5 a.m., when I let the dogs out.

It should get better this afternoon. Most everyone will get above freezing, so anything that falls will be plain rain. The rain should generally get lighter and somewhat more showery this afternoon, too. Where it's windy, the gusts will die down somewhat.

After a mild night, with lows in the 28 to 35 degree range, we'll have something of a repeat of last Saturday. Temperatures will fall through the day behind a cold front. I'm a little skeptical of this, but the Natonal Weather Service is advising that we might have patchy dense freezing fog in areas for a time Saturday afternoon and evening, which of course would be a problem on the roads. (Think black ice and poor visibility.) It's something to watch out for.

Sunday looks dry and cold, so that will be an easy day. Beyond that, the forecast remains uncertain here in the North Country. It looks like some type of inclement weather is due later New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, but what form that would take is anybody's guess at this point.

Slip, Sliding Away Tomorrow Morning In Much Of New England

Sleet and ice, and shadows of tree branches created by outdoor lighting
made slippery patterns on a roadway last winter in Burlington, Vermont.
Expect icy conditions again in many areas Friday morning. 

The title of this post refers to a great song called "Slip Slidin' Away" by Paul Simon. The song, of course, has absolutely NOTHING to do with the weather, but I'm going to make that besides the point.

The point is be prepared in much of New England, including most of Vermont, for a slick ride to work if you're up early Friday morning.

That sprawling storm in the middle of the nation I've been talking about for the past few days will finally reach its tentacles into New England overnight tonight and Friday morning.

Even though there's a strong surge of warm air coming up the east flank of this storm toward us, it's still pretty chilly today.   It'll be mostly in the 20s with some teens in the north by this afternoon.

As the warm, wet air from this storm's south wind hits this cold air, it will rise up and over it. Rising air means moisture condenses into precipitation, and that's what will happen.  Most of us will start with a quick burst of snow overnight, followed by sleet, then freezing rain. 

Typical New England bullcrap wintry crap, right?

Eventually, it'll go over to just plain rain on Friday, but it might take a awhile in some spots, especially from the Green Mountains east, into the Connecticut River valley all south almost to the southern New England coast. Much of New York, New Hampshire and Maine is under the gun with this, too.

There won't be much ice accumulation at all, but it only takes the thinnest skins of ice to screw up the roads and make them dangerous. If possible, delay your trip tomorrow morning, or just work from home. The later in the day you do travel, though, the better it will be.

Things will dwindle off to rain and snow showers Friday night and Saturday. It will probably be calm and cold again by this coming Sunday, but after that, there's a lot of question marks about the weather and what will happen. Stay tuned on that one.

Meanwhile, sure enough, this large storm has prompted blizzard warnings in parts of Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas.

Severe storm, tornado and flood alerts remain in effect along much of the Gulf Coast and the southeastern United States.

At least one tornado touched down in Texas Wednesday, and there were plenty of reports of localized wind damage and flooding across parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

What A Messy Storm In The Middle Of The Country!

A large area of the central U.S., in pink, is under a winter storm
warming. Blue areas are mostly under winter weather advisories.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

The weather here in Vermont was certainly a nice holiday gift. Most places around the Green Mountain State had at least a little fluffy snow on the ground. The sky was blue, the sun shone brightly, the air was crisp and seemed to sparkle it was so clean.

Now it's back to reality, folks. In Vermont, it has tended to cloud up since yesterday, but there's no really bad weather to talk about until Thursday night. I'll get to that in a minute

First, as advertised, there's a sprawling storm developing in the middle of the country that is causing a  wide variety of havoc for people. Especially those traveling back home from holiday gatherings.

A vast area from eastern Colorado to Minnesota is under a winter storm warning. Near blizzard conditions are likely in many of these areas, especially tonight and tomorrow. A  foot of snow could come down in many these areas, and winds will easily top 40 mph in gusts.

It looks a stripe from central South Dakota, into southeastern North Dakota and parts of western Minnesota will get the heaviest snow, with up to 18 inches possible.

Along the eastern edge of this snowstorm, sleet and freezing rain will make travel especially scary, and might cut power in a few areas.

On the south side of the storm, severe storms, possible tornadoes and maybe some flooding are risks today and tomorrow.

The focus today is on Texas, where the storm threat is highest. The biggest tornado threat later today and this evening is probably in central Texas in an area centered around Waco.  Overnight, into tomorrow, there is a slightly lesser, but still real chance of tornadoes heading into east Texas and Lousiana.

The Southeast is quite sodden from recent storms, and this particular system will spread heavy rains throughout that region over the next couple of days. It actually looks like weather fronts and moisture will stall over the Gulf Coast region into next Monday, continuing the flood threat at least until then.

VERMONT IMPACTS

That huge storm system will certainly affect us here in Vermont. It will sort of be a rinse and repeat of last Friday, with some differences. Those differences mainly involve more mixed precipitation than last time at the onset, and somewhat less rain than we got a week earlier. That means flooding won't be as big a problem as it was last weekend.

Snow, sleet, freezing rain and in many places rather strong, gusty winds will develop in Vermont Thursday night and continue into Friday morning. I'm guessing the Friday morning commute will be pretty darn tricky. That's especially true along and east of the Green Mountains, where it will take longer to warm up.

Some areas might pick up an inch or two of snow and sleet before things go over to rain.

Friday looks wet, and the precipitation will wind down at night into the form of rain showers changing to snow showers. No big accumulations are expected from that.

Tsunamis Can Actually Be Created By Weather

People run as a meteotsunami crashes shore on Captiva
Island, Florida on Friday

A lot of us have read in horror about the tsunami that swept through an Indonesian seaside town over the weekend during a rock concern on the beach. The disaster killed nearly 400 people. 

Unlike the overwhelming majority of tsunamis, this one wasn't created by an earthquake. Instead, it looks like a volcano erupted, triggering a huge landslide on one side of the volcano, which then plunged into the sea.

This in turn created the huge waves that caused so much death and destruction and sorrow this weekend in Indonesia.

As noted, almost all tsunamis are created by earthquakes. The earth thrusts during a a big tremor, and that lifts a vast amount of water. When this mass of water nears shore, it encounters shallower water, so it builds up into immense waves that create these big disasters.

Weather can also create tsunamis of sorts, but luckily they're almost never as bad as the ones induced by earthquakes. Still they can cause a lot of damage.

On Friday, one such tsunami hit Captiva and Sanibel islands  Florida. These are called meteotsunamis.

I'll let NOAA explain what they are:

"Meteotsunamis are large wave that scientists are just beginning to better understand. Unlike tsunamis triggered by seismic activity, meteotsunamis are driven by air pressure differences often associated with fast-moving weather events such as severe thunderstorms, squalls and other storm fronts. The storm generates a wave that moves towards the shore, and is amplified by a shallow continental shelf, bay or other coastal feature."

That's what happened Friday at Captiva Island, Florida. A powerful squall line associated with that strong storm slammed into the western shore of the Sunshine State Friday. The squall line surged water ahead of it, and when the wave encountered shallower water off Captiva Island, the wave piled up, then crashed ashore.

The Captiva Island meteotsunami caused damage, but it wasn't the worst one ever.  Says NOAA: "Meteotsunamis have been observed to reach heights of six feet or more. They occur in many places around the world, including the Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Coast and the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas."

Even where they do sometimes occur, meteotsunamis do surprise people.   A squall line on May 15 caused an unusually severe outbreak of tornadoes and high winds in southern New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.

The tornadoes of course dominated the news, but the pressure changes associated with the squall line were intense enough to cause a meteo-tsunami along the coast from Connecticut to Maryland. This wasn't a damaging tsunami, as waves never got above 10 inches over normal high tides. But it was an unusual event, proving the atmosphere can influence the vast oceans as well.

Florida seems particularly prone to meteotsunmis. Perhaps one of the worst meteotsuamis in U.S history hit during the massive "Storm Of The Century" blizzard of March, 1993. As areas from Georgia to Maine were buried in up to three feet of snow, a squall line associated with the storm slammed into western Florida, causing a destructive meteotsunami.

A year earlier, a meteotsunami injured 75 people in Daytona Beach, Florida. Other ones hit in 2014 and 2016.

Most meteotsunamis aren't this destructive.  The vast majority are too small for most people to notice, but are picked up by tidal and water level guages.

There's another related phenomenon called a seiche. That's when strong winds, often shifting, push water in a lake onto one shore, then the water sloshes back to the other side, much like water can slosh in a bathtub if you move around too much.

Seiches, like meteotsunamis, can easily cause shoreline flooding.

Here's video of the meteotsunami in Florida on Friday. As you can see, they an be quite dramatic:

Surprise White Christmas In And Around Vermont; Christmas Travel To Be Good. But....

At work at Gardener's Supply this Christmas Eve morning, looking
out the window past the amaryllis to the unexpected snow
globe outside

UPDATE 1:30 P.M. DECEMBER 24

Well, we have a botched weather forecast to report this afternoon, but at least it was off in a way that many people like.

I mentioned this morning there would be very little snowfall in Vermont this morning. And if it did snow, it would be mostly in the southern part of the state.

Then a Christmas miracle of sorts happened. The weak, wimpy storm that was supposed to cause the paltry few snowflakes in southern Vermont had more oomph than we thought.

Some energy in the atmosphere combined with a ribbon of moisture floating around northern New York and heading into Vermont contributed to the unexpected snow.

This isn't a blockbuster storm by any means, but now pretty nearly all parts of Vermont have a dusting to two inches of new snow on the ground. There might even be a couple spot three inch totals. Enough to get us a white, or at least whitish Christmas.

Which was, again, unexpected, but oh well.

The only drawback is that the roads are a bit iffy if you're traveling today around the state or running last minute errands. So just be careful on the highways and streets.

This little area of disturbed weather is zipping right along, so the snow should shut off pretty quickly this evening. It still looks like it's going to be a rather sunny, but seasonably chilly day on Christmas. It will certainly be cold enough for the snow to stick around.

This post's previous discussion is below, and includes the underestimation of how much snow Vermont would get today:

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:


 A large storm in the middle of the nation will cause widespread zones
of snow, ice, rain and wind by Thursday

A lot of people are traveling to and fro today and for the next few days for the Christmas holiday.

Locally in New England, it's pretty much smooth sailing until Thursday night, when a storm will begin to make things messy. 
A large storm will make things tricky at various times from coast to coast starting today.

The Christmas Eve action will begin today with a large area of rain and snow across the west and Rockies through Christmas Day. There will certainly be a white Christmas for most areas that are high enough in elevation to escape the rain.

This storm will really begin to blossom Wednesday, the day after Christmas, across the Plains.

Snow will spread across the north, an ugly wintry mix will hit some of the central Plains (think Iowa and Nebraska). Rain and thunderstorms will hit further south. Some severe storms are possible in Texas by Wednesday.

The storm will get strong, so winds will become an issue, too. As the storm lumbers northeastward toward the Great Lakes Thursday, snow, ice and wind will continue in the northern Plains, with a large area of rain across the Midwest.

All this will spread into the Northeast Friday. Northern New England faces some ice on Thursday night and early Friday before everything goes over to rain.

There won't be as much rain as in last Friday's storm, so any flooding that does happen will be less severe and much less widespread than it was over the weekend.

This upcoming cross-country storm is sure to create flight delays, so check with your airlines before you head to the airport if your departure or destination happens to be in the storm zone when you're flying.

Here in New England, some light snow will fall in central and southern parts of the region today, but it won't amount to much. Maybe an inch or two, with less than that the further north you go.

Christmas Day will feature a lot of sun with seasonably cold temperatures across New England. That gives us highs in the 20s north, near 30 central and in the 30s south. Wednesday and Thursday also look good before the ickiness arrives Thursday night across New England.

West Coast Has Been Battered And Bruised Lately With Big, Weird Storms

Big waves on the California coast last week. Photo by Kent Porter/AP

While I've been whining about the stormy, wet, flood producing, windy, temperature-gyration storminess in our New England neck of the woods, it's been a trying December along the West Coast, especially up toward Washington State.

Giant waves, a very odd and strong tornado and then another nasty windstorm has made pretty much everyone in the dark December Northwest weather weary.

Videos are at the bottom of this post.

GIGANTIC WAVES

The stormy period started with some of the largest waves seen on the West Coast in years. These waves were generated mostly by immense storms in the Pacific Ocean in and south of the Gulf of Alaska.

The waves forced the postponement of the Mavericks surfing competition. They'll try to reschedule when the surf becomes less deadly. These cancellations happen from time to time. Better safe than sorry.

Forecasters issued strident warnings to people, urging them to stay away from beaches. "Sneaker waves"  gushes of water from the turbulent seas, could have easily overwhelmed areas along shorelines untouched by waves in the previous hours. That would have swept people out to sea.

The National Weather Service office in San Francisco warned people: "Stay way back from the ocean or face certain death."

So far, I haven't heard of any deaths or serious injuries from these waves. But some surfers braved the waves. Some of them reported got tossed onto rocky shores, giving them  some nasty bumps and scrapes.

There were reports of damage. The 146-year old Ventura Pier in California was closed after a couple pilings and a cross brace were wrecked by the big waves. They're not sure when they will reopen the pier, because now officials have to do a safety inspection. The pier is a popular spot for marriage proposals, prom photos and the like.

BIG TORNADO

A house wrecked by a tornado in Port Orchard, Washington
last week. Photo by Ted S. Warren/AP

It was pretty strange. It was a scene straight out of the spring tornado season in the Great Plains.

Yet it hit this week, a little southwest of Seattle, Washington. It was definitely not the place you'd usually find dangerous tornadoes.

But there it was, an EF-2 tornado that tore roofs off houses, sent debris flying into the air and caused a lot of damage.

Somehow, Washington got lucky in one important way: There were no reports of serious injuries, but roughly 450 homes and buildings were damaged. Some of them look like they are total losses.

Tornadoes do hit Washington State on a fairly regular basis, but they're usually not this intense. On average, the state sees 2.5 tornadoes per year.  This one was the strongest one to hit the state since 1986. And usually, the relatively stronger tornadoes that hit Washington occur on the eastern side of the state, not west of the Cascades.

Most are really weak, but there are exceptions. The worst was an EF-3 in and around Vancouver, Washington on April 5, 1972. It killed six people and injured 300, says mynorthwest.com

As in much of the rest of the nation, if you're going to get a particularly bad tornado in Washington it'll hit in the spring or early summer.

But as we saw this week, there are exceptions. Strong winter storms do sometimes create spinups in western Washington in December, January and February, but these twisters rarely amount to much.

Tuesday's tornado in Port Orchard was probably the strongest winter season tornado on record in Washington, but there is a close second, according to mynorthwest.com

On December 10, 2015, an EF-1 tornado with wind speeds of up to 104 mph touched down in two spots around Battle Ground, Washington, damaging 36 homes but causing no injuries.

THEN A WINDSTORM

Tornadoes like the one that hit Port Orchard, Washington cause severe damage, but normally in highly local areas. Go a half mile away from the tornado path, and everything's fine.

Not so when you get a large scale wind from a large storm coming off the Pacific Ocean. The damage might not be as intense as a tornado, but it's ultimately worse because it's so widespread.

Winds gusted to 70 mph in some locations in Washington, cutting power to tens of thousands of people. Interstate 5 north of Seattle was closed for a time due to downed power lines. Other state highways were closed because of fallen trees.

One person was killed by the storm in British Columbia and power was cut in and around Vancouver. Part of a pier broke apart in the wind and waves along the British Columbia coast, leaving a man stranded on the far end of the pier. He was later rescued by helicopter.

Of course, energy from these storms have been crossing the nation. That helped lead to the storm we had here in Vermont on Friday. Another large storm will organize in the middle of the country just after Christmas, promising a winter storm in the Upper Plains and more wind and rain for the Northeast. It looks like that will include Vermont.

Here's some videos:

We'll start with big waves on the West Coast to start last week:
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First, an Associated Press reported on the rough surf:



The next video shows some beautiful, massive ways. It also shows a horde of photographers capturing the action. Photo buffs always know where to get the good shots, I guess:



Next up, the Washington state tornado:

Here's a compilation video of what people saw:



Here's a CBS News report that gives an overview:

Rain Ends, Floods Conitinue Today In Vermont, New England

The Winooski River in Winooski was running very high this morning.
A flood warning was in effect.

One last round of downpours swept across Vermont early this morning, adding to all the water that is out there from the warm, wet storm that is finally departing.

The early rain will be pretty much it for this storm as far as precipitation goes, aside from some lighter rain and then snow showers from time to time.  

But runoff from the rain and the snowmelt continues, and flooding will be a problem in spots for much of the day. Although the flooding in Vermont isn't really extreme, it's affecting quite a few spots.

Including my property. A large section of my driveway in St. Albans, Vermont collapsed over a culvert after a small stream flooded overnight.

Before dawn, flood warnings were up along the Otter Creek in Rutland County and the Winooski River in Chittenden County. Flooding was reported around Lyndonville, and I wouldn't be surprised if there's lowland flooding along other rivers, too, like the Lamoille and Mississquoi.

The Mad River in central Vermont was above flood stage last night, but seems to be receding. Flood warnings were also flying for the Ausable River in New York's Adirondacks, and in several spots across New Hampshire.

You know the drill: Stay out of floodwaters and for gawd sake's don't drive through it. If the road is flooded and/or closed, don't be stupid. Turn around and find some other way to get to where you were going.

Temperatures were still in the 50s in many areas across Vermont before dawn, but those readings will be crashing downward through the 40s and 30s during the day today.

The warmth overnight was weird. Last evening, in St. Albans, the storm's "dry slot"  was overhead, and it had stopped raining. Skies partially cleared. A full moon revealed clouds racing at top speed south to north. You could actually hear the wind rumbling a few thousand feet overhead.

On the surface, winds were light. A puff of wind mixing down from above would spike temperatures into the humid 50s, making it feel like May. Then a puff from another direction would bring it down to 40 degrees in an instant. You stood outside and it was back and forth. 55 degrees one minute, 40 literally seconds later. Very strange.

The weather after today will stay pretty quiet until next Thursday night. There might be light snow and flurries around from time to time, especially Christmas Eve, but it won't amount to much at all, if anything.

It's looking like another warm, wet storm will affect us toward the end of next week, but after that, it looks like a pattern change is in the offing, with a return to harsh winter conditions to welcome the New Year.

Today's Soggy, Warm, Gusty Storm Playing Out As Expected

12:30 PM FRIDAY UPDATE:



Radar imagery from this morning shows a remarkably long and strong
plume of moisture extending all the way from Nicaragua and Honduras
to New England. Very odd indeed!

Parts of New England and southeastern New York, including southern Vermont, either are or could be in real trouble with flooding later today. 
The reason I'm saying this is because in this region, the amount of water in the atmosphere is at record highs for this time of year.

This raised the potential for some fairly extensive flooding, and in some places it could get nasty.

Flash flood warnings were in effect for much of Connecticut as of early afternoon. Flood warnings are in effect for much of southeastern New York and New Jersey, along with parts of western Massachusetts. .

While the flood watch remains in effect for all of Vermont, there are currently no flood warnings yet. If flooding does develop, it would most likely be in the southern half of Vermont, but could develop anywhere in the Green Mountain State between now and Saturday.

The rain might not be as heavy in Vermont as elsewhere in New England, but there's melting snow and temperatures far above normal. So watch out!

The eastern half of New England is also really under the gun by this high moisture content in the air.

Satellite and radar images are remarkable because they show a plume of moisture extending all the way from Honduras and the tropics, up through Cuba then north into New England. This is extremely weird. Which is why we have the unprecedented amounts of moisture in the air for this time of year.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

A gloomy, wet morning along the Winooski River near the Intervale in
Burlington this morning. Water levels will surely be higher than
this by tomorrow, due to rain and snowmelt.

My dogs were not as enthusiastic early this morning as usual when it came time to go outside to do their business.

They're not fans of drenching, cold rain, so I can't blame them. There was no leisurely sniffing around to see what transpired last night outside. It was go out, run back in. 

I can't blame them. No nice Charlie Brown Christmas Special light snow falling. Just a wind-driven rain. Yuck.

That's our lot for today, folks. As advertised, that warm storm is here.  The forecast from yesterday still stands, so kudos to the National Weather Service in South Burlington and other local meteorologists for getting this one right so far.

Flood watches are still in effect area wide. Total rainfall will range fron three quarters of an inch to around two inches.  East and southeast facing slopes will get the most, western slopes of any mountains will get the least.

With temperatures forecast to soar into the 50s later today, the snow left over in the high elevations and woods will melt fast. So the flood watch is a good idea.  If readings actually manage to get just a touch warmer than forecast, we could be flirting with record highs. The record high today in Burlington is 61, set in 1957. The record high in Montpelier for today is 56 degrees.

Wind advisories stay in effect until 1 p.m. this afternoon, mostly along the western slopes of the Green Mountains.  After that, winds should diminish some, but stay kind of gusty.

I noticed the top of Mount Mansfield was reporting wind gusts of 79 mph early this morning, so it wouldn't take much for some of those gusts to mix down onto the western slopes of the Green Mountains.

Nobody is expecting wind as strong as what they were seeing atop Mount Mansfield  in populated areas, but gusts over 50 mph are a pretty smart bet.

This wind will be localized and sporadic. In some areas, winds aloft won't be able to mix down, so things will be pretty calm. That was the state of affairs in places like Burlington, at least early this morning. Meanwhile, Rutland was gusting to 41 mph.

It still looks like it will cool off to seasonable winter conditions starting tomorrow afternoon. The rain showers will probably end as a few snow showers. A weak system might bring us another dusting of snow Christmas Eve.

Some areas might have a coating of snow on the ground for Christmas, but it won't be like last year, when most places have a half foot or more of powder on the ground.

It has actually been snowier this year leading up to Christmas than last year. Through Dec. 22 in 2017, Burlington had accumulated 20.8 inches of snow for the season so far, compared to 25.2 inches this year.

Of course, unlike this year, there was no big pre-Christmas thaw in 2017, and the snow kept coming. Another 1.1 inches came down on December 23, with 3.5 inches on top of that Christmas Day.

I'll be surprised if Burlington gets an inch of snow between now and Christmas Day, 2018.

Update On Loud Storm Headed Our Way

A really active day is coming on Friday, with possible flooding and areas
of strong winds. Orange areas on this map can expect wind gusts
exceeding 45 mph. Those small hot red areas in the mountains
and western slopes of those mountains might see gusts over
60 mph, which could cause some damage. 

As previously advertised, expect a really active, noisy day on Friday.

Before we get into that kind of nasty weather, today might be the most gorgeous day of this December in Vermont. That's not saying much, given how it has been quite cloudy and chilly so far.

However, today will feature some sun, especially this morning before clouds from the warm storm that's coming cover the Vermont sky.  

And it will be mild. Many of us will get at or just above 40 degrees. Not bad for the Dark Days of December.

Not much has changed in the forecast since yesterday. Severe storms and tornadoes are expected in Florida today and this evening in eastern North Carolina.

Flood watches are scattered from Florida to Maine, with the main areas of flood alerts being from the Mid-Atlantic States into New England. Vermont is included in this flood risk zone. 

The only real winter weather with this so-called winter storm will hit northern New Hampshire, northern Maine and to a lesser extent the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Freezing rain will slicken roads in these spots early Friday. The surge of warm air is extensive enough that most of us won't see much in the way of ice.

For us in Vermont, the main show will be Friday, which will be wet and windy. The flood watch is continued, as temperatures soaring into the 50s along with moderate rain and rapidly melting mountain snow should get rivers up and running.

As I said yesterday, this won't be a mega-flood, but still worth paying attention to. Please don't be an idiot and drive onto flooded roads. I imagine there will be some low spots that get flooded Friday into Saturday.

River ice isn't too thick yet, but there is enough so that there might be some ice jams and local flooding as the rain and warmth break up that ice on area rivers.

The main story might be the wind. It's looking more and more likely that there will be some strong gusts, especially along the western slopes of the Green Mountains. The worst of it looks like it will come Friday morning starting before dawn and lasting into the early afternoon. Winds in much of western Vermont look like they'll gust to 50 mph or so.

That's enough to bring down some branches, trees and power lines, so be aware of that. I also think there could be some very localized much stronger gusts in the immediate lee of some of the mountains

This might be places like east and southeast of Rutland, areas around Ripton and Bristol, and up near Cambridge, Underhill and  Bakersfield. These will be very local strong winds but still worth noting.

Temperatures will fall during the day Saturday as cooler air comes in behind the storm. Rain showers will go over to snow showers in the afternoon and evening, but don't expect much in the way of accumulation.

There's a chance a weak system might spread an inch or snow across much of Vermont on Christmas Eve, which would let us eek out a white Christmas, but don't count on it. It's not much of a storm, and there's still a chance it won't amount to anything at all.

Warm Storm To Be An East Coast Powerhouse, Vermont Rain And Wind

The National Weather Servide in South Burlington has this
prediction for heavy rains with the upcoming storm. Green areas
should see at least an inch of rain. Yellow aeras will more
likely get 1.5 inches of rain or more. A few spots might
get two inches. Flood watches are in effect.

UPDATE 5:30 PM WEDNESDAY

The National Weather Service in South Burlington, Vermont has gone ahead and issued a flood watch for the entire area. It runs from late Thursday night into Saturday afternoon.

That warm storm that's coming is destined to dump perhaps an inch of rain or more on us before a "dry slot" temporarily reduces rainfall rates. (See the discussion below about the dry slot.)

Temperatures will warm into the 50s in many locations Friday afternoon and night. (We might see a couple of record high temperatures out of this, we'll see.) The warmth could melt much of the snow cover in the hills and mountains which is unusually thick and heavy for this early in the season.

The result will be definite rises on all the rivers in and around Vermont. It's a little uncertain still how much snow will melt. But we could see the equivalent of two or three inches of rain come off the mountains in the form of melted snow, plus the inch or so of rain.

That could be enough to set off flooding.

This won't be a blockbuster flood. Don't expect Irene the Second. But any flooding needs to be taken seriously. If the road ahead of you is flooded, don't drive through. You don't know how deep the water is, and you don't know if the roadway washed away.

I don't anticipate a lot of evacuations due to flooding, but if they tell you to get out, then get out. Winter flooding is particularly dangerous because the water is so cold. And it's pretty much always night around the Winter Solstice, which means it's harder to see flood waters creeping up around you.

It still looks like some freezing rain will be in there at the start Thursday night. That's most likely in the Northeast Kingdom and the northern tip of New York. Roads might be icy late Thursday night and early Friday morning in those areas.

Get ready for gusty winds, too. A lot of us will see wind gusts in the 40 to 50 mph range with this storm, especially along the western slopes of the Green Mountains. A few power failures might result

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

A lot of people are probably bummed that the storm coming in for Friday and Saturday around the Northeast will bring mostly rain, even to northern New England.

Jammed up ice on the Missisquoi River near Enosburg last January.
Although nothing this bad is expected with the upcoming warm
storm, expect some ice movement and rises in Vermont
rivers over the weekend. 

It's right before Christmas, and people expect snow, right?   

However, it's probably a good thing in the grand scheme of things that this storm doesn't have a lot of cold air to tap into. 

That would just make what will be a powerhouse of a storm much, much worse if there were cold air to clash with the storm's warm side. 

Storms tend to be stronger when there is a very deep, sharp dip in the jet stream. They're even stronger when the dip in the jet stream is tilted a bit, so it runs northwest to southeast, instead of straight north to south,  or northeast to southwest.

This storm will have those ingredients. Which means pretty much everybody from Florida to Quebec will see areas of strong winds, heavy rain, and thunderstorms. In parts of the Southeast, some of the storms will probably be severe.

In fact, Florida in particular had better watch it. A lot of energy in the atmosphere is sinking south deep toward the Sunshine State. There's a real chance of some tornadoes there Thursday. Those twisters may extend up into far eastern North Carolina Thursday night. 

Even up here in Vermont, there's the possibility of a rumble of thunder during this, though there will certainly be no severe thunderstorms.

This storm will also create some odd temperature arrangements. High temperatures on Friday could well be just about the same in Tallahassee, Florida and Burlington, Vermont - in the 50s. 

Because of the orientation of that dip in the jet stream, the storm will zoom directly northward from around Georgia  late Thursday night to somewhere near Ottawa, Canada late Friday night. 

There are already flood watches up for parts of the already soggy Mid-Atlantic states.

Back to Vermont: We know it's going to rain and get windy and warm with this storm, but some of the particulars are still big question marks. Very often when a big storm gets wrapped up like this one looks like it will, it can create something called a dry slot. It's just a tongue of dry air that gets wrapped into the circulation of a storm from the southwest. 

This can shut off precipitation, or at least reduce it. But it can increase mixing in the air, which can lead to both strong wind gusts and, briefly, unexpectedly warm temperatures.  There is the risk of some downslope winds along the western slopes of the Green Mountains on Friday. Some of the wind could be strong enough to knock down some trees, branches and power lines. 

If enough warm air mixes in, there's a chance temperatures in some valleys in western Vermont could approach 60 degrees.

Nobody is sure exactly where and when this dry slot will set up, hence the question marks. 

What with the expected rain, and snowmelt, rivers will rise and ice will move around, so there's the risk of some localized flooding. At this point it doesn't look like it will be anything extensive, but it will be something to keep an eye on nonetheless.

Behind the storm, cooler air will filter in Saturday and Sunday, but this won't be a big blast of Arctic air. 

Instead, daytime temperatures will fall to near normal readings in the mid 20s to low 30s Sunday through Christmas.  Although there might be some snow showers Saturday night and Sunday, they won't amount to much. Some areas of Vermont will not see any measurable snow, so many valley locations will not have a white Christmas, at least as it looks now 

Snow Cover Extent Is Getting Weird In The Northern Hemisphere

The extent of snow and ice cover in the Northern Hemisphere during the
autumn has trended upward in the past 50 or so years, but.....
  

It's been a weird early winter for snow cover in Vermont and the rest of the North Country.

Where I live in St. Albans, tucked in the northwestern corner of Vermont, we have continuously had snow on the ground since November 13.

Which is really weird. The second half of November and early December usually have a thin snow cover off and on. Some days have no snow on the ground at all.

More often than not, you start to see a more consistent snow cover from mid-December on. Right now, the snow cover in my yard is the thinnest since November 16. And a warm, rainy storm forecast to hit Friday and Saturday will likely get rid of pretty much any snow that remains. Except for maybe a few drifts and snow banks.

This year's trend in northwestern Vermont is pretty much mirroring what is going on in North America as a whole, and has similarities to winter snow cover extent in the entire Northern Hemisphere.

North American snow cover extent this November was very likely the most widespread since at least 1966.  For the entire Northern Hemisphere, the snow extent in November was the third highest on record. These records go back 53 years.

But snow extent is really variable. Right now, in the grand scheme of things, latest maps from the Rutgers University Climate Lab show overall northern hemispheric snow extent to have settled into the near-normal category as of mid-December.

What's interesting from the Rutgers data is winter snow cover extent is all over the place during the winter. Some years, it's much greater than average, and in other years, it's much less.  There's no clear trend.

In the summertime, though, when snow and ice cover retreats to areas close to the North Pole, the extent of the snow and ice is consistently well below normal. 

........Spring snow and ice extent in the Northern Hemisphere has defintiely
fallen over the past five decades.  

Autumn snow and ice cover in the Northern Hemisphere has trended upward somewhat over the past 50 years and I've seen climate change deniers seize on that as helping "prove" their point that global warming is a hoax.

After all, if the world is warming, wouldn't there be less snow and ice extent?

Turns out, snow and ice extent isn't always the greatest measure of how the climate is changing.  Way back in 2014, the Washington Post Capital Weather Gang noticed the trend toward increased autumn snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere. They explained why this increased snow cover doesn't explain climate change:

"It simply needs to be near or below freezing for snow to fall. Temperatures that average 1-2 degres F above normal over the globe can still support snow in many places. Furthermore, slightly warmer than normal temperatures increase atmospheric moisture content, elevating potential snow amounts where they occur."

In other words, a storm that might have once been capable of producing three inches of snow in a given spot might now dump six inches of powder. It takes longer for six inches of snow to melt than it does for three inches, and that might be contributing to the increased snow cover in the North during the autumn.

It's possible, then, that climate change might, just might have something to do with the more widespread northern snow cover in the fall.

Interestingly, spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is showing a noticeable decline over the past 50 years. That's important in terms of climate change.

The sun angle is higher in the spring than in the winter and fall. Snow cover tends to reflect much of the sun's heat back up to space. Bare ground absorbs heat, helping make overall temperatures higher.

Less extensive spring snow cover means more heat can be absorbed by the ground, thereby helping to heat air temperatures, creating a "positive feedback" for climate change.

Sunshine in the fall and winter does get reflected back to space on snow covered ground, too, and heat from sunshine gets absorbed by dark earth, but the effect is less pronounced because the low sun angle doesn't provide as much heat from the sun as you'd get in the spring.

Back here in Vermont, we know that snow cover locally can go up and down pretty quickly in the winter, with or without influences from climate change. Local, regional and national short term weather patterns dictate how much snow is in my back yard, and yours.

My yard in St. Albans, Vermont had more than a foot of snow cover on November 18 and a patchy inch or two now.

Who knows, within a couple weeks, I might be back up to a foot of snow on the ground, or more.  Winters here in Vermont always hold plenty of surprises.

Another Storm Video You Should Watch

Last month, I gave a totally rave review to a storm chasing video by Pecos Hank.

In that post, I mentioned in passing my other favorite storm chaser, Mike Olbinski.

Olbinski usually focuses on Arizona. Every year, in the mid to late summer moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean finds its way into the Desert Southwest, creating a "rainy season" of sorts. It's called the seasonal monsoon.

This rainy season in Arizona and surrounding areas  consists of thunderstorms that develop over the region. Unlike the humid East, where haze often obscures the delicate yet powerful structures of thunderstorms, the visibility in the deserts remains great.

Most of what happens with the best of these thunderstorms are microbursts and haboobs, which are thunderstorm-generated dust storms.

Olbinski's beautiful time lapse videos usually focus on these microbursts and dust storms. When you speed up the footage of these phenomeneno, like Olbinski does, you really see the power of these storms.

As in the Pecos Hank video,  I'm not going to provide you with the link, so you can click on it and give Olbinski more hits. At least I think that's how it works.

Just click on this sentence to view the video, called Monsoon V.