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:

Last Slap Of Florence Hits Hard; Fire Tornado Sucks Up Hose, Melts It

One of the damaging tornadoes in Virginia Monday,
part of the remains of Florence

The remains of Hurricane Florence still had quite a punch Monday, unleashing tornadoes on Virginia that killed at least one person.  

Dramatic video at the bottom of this post shows it ripping roofs off buildings and flinging the debris high into the air.

A flooring company warehouse collapsed on workers during the tornado in Chesterfield County, Virginia, killing one employee and injuring another. This brought the overall death toll from Florence so far to 32.

The very last gasp, or what we think is the last gasp, is in southern New England this morning, prompting flash flood warnings in southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts  flood advisories in far southern Vermont, and flood warnings in parts of New York.

The rain avoided parched northern Vermont, and only scattered light showers might fall today as a couple of cold fronts come through. Nothing heavy. but the unseasonably hot, humid weather is ending and we will get into a spell of cool autumn weather, with the exception of a brief warmup Friday.

It has stopped raining in North Carolina, but the flooding on some rivers is only just peaking, and it will take many days for all of them to recede so cleanup can start.

FIRE WHIRL SUCKS UP HOSE

A viral video making the rounds shows a "a fire tornado" during an August 19 wild fire in British Columbia sucking a fire hose up into the air. This video is also at the bottom of this post.

Firefighter M,C. Schidowsky wrote on Instagram: "Fire tornado destroyed our line. It threw burning logs across our guard for 45 minutes and pulled our hose 100 plus feet in the air before melting it. That's definitely a first."

Seems like fire tornadoes are now a thing, give the history with that one in California earlier this year that destroyed homes around Redding, California.

First, here's the tornado video from Virginia, after that will be the fire tornado/hose video.



Here's the fire tornado grabbing the hose:

Madison Flood, Seattle Smoke and Hawaii Hurricane?

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EDITOR'S NOTE:
A photo of the Madison flood that originally appeared in this post was removed, as photo credit was not given and I could not prove it was Madison flood. I regret the error.

Spots of nasty weather keep popping up in different places in the nation. Areas around Madison, Wisconsin were inundated by up to a foot of rain, smoke is choking some areas of the west, including Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. And Hawaii is under threat from a hurricane.

MADISON FLOOD

Around a foot of rain fell in and around Madison, Wisconsin yesterday and last night, creating some of the worst flooding some areas around there have seen in decades. 

Many roads were closed, with city officials warning people not to drive through certain sections of Madison this morning. Many people had to be rescued from stranded cars, and water flowed into a number of homes and businesses. One person has been reported missing due to the floods.

Video of the flooding is at the bottom of this post.

This was all part of a slow moving storm that also caused serious flash flooding earlier in the day around Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa, among other places. Homes and apartment buildings in Council Bluffs flooded. 

The storm system also spun off a few tornadoes and caused quite a few damaging thunderstorms.

The storm will affect us here in Vermont tonight and tomorrow, but no severe thunderstorms or flooding will happen.

SMOKE ATTACK

Skyline of Seattle, Washington obscured by smoke Monday. Image form
KIRO, Seattle

Wildfires continue to rage from California to British Columbia with pretty much no relief in sight. The fires aren't only affecting people right near the fires.

Millions of people are coughing in heavy smoke settling into populated areas, including Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Air quality in British Columbia over the past few days has often been the worst in the world, even worse than the epic smog attacks that sometimes engulf Beijing, China. Ironically, Beijing reported its best, cleanest air quality in a decade this past week.

All this smoke is obviously unhealthy. KIRO-TV reported the smoke in Seattle Monday was as unhealthy as smoking seven cigarettes. Authorities were warning people not to go outdoors if at all possible, and also not to bring pets outside either. Which would be difficult, I think.

In British Columbia, the smoke was so thick that flights around Vancouver were delayed, and activities at some soccer camps were postponed.

The smoke keeps making its way eastward. There have been occasional air quality alerts in places like Minnesota. Here in Vermont, we have seen periods of hazy skies occasionally over the past week due to the western smoke.

HAWAII HURRICANE?

Powerful Hurricane Lane was spinning southeast of Hawaii this morning with top sustained winds of 140 mph. Current projections indicated it could come close to, or even over some of the Hawaiian islands later this week.

Hurricane Lane could strike Hawaii later this week

It's still a bit uncertain if that will happen, but people are being told to start preparing, just in case.

Even if Hurricane Lane hits Hawaii, it will weaken a bit by the time it gets there. It would still be a powerful, dangerous storm, so  it's probably a good idea if residents start at least thinking about it.

Destructive hurricanes are rare in Hawaii but they do happen. In 1992, Hurricane Iniki hit Kauai, killing six people, injuring 1,000, destroying 1,500 homes and damaging countless other. Total estimated damages were at $1.8 billion dollars.

Here's a video of the flash flooding breaking a small retaining wall and surging into an understandably frightened woman's house:

Canada Is Burning, Againg

Last year, in one of Canada's worst disasters, a wildfire overtook the city of Fort McMurray, displacing 88,000 people and burning hundreds of homes in that city.

Now, amid a long stretch of hot, dry weather, the forests of the vast western Canadian province of British Columbia are ablaze, and there's no sign things will settle down anytime soon.

At last check, no fewer than 220 wildfires were burning in British Columbia, which is under a state of emergency.

According to Reuters, things really took a turn for the worse Friday, when dry thunderstorms packing gusty winds and lots of lightning but little or no rain set off dozens of new, fast-spreading wildfires.

Dave Phillips, an Environment Canada climatologist, told CTV that a dome of high pressure is keeping any wet weather systems away from British Columbia.  It's been about a month since any rain fell in interior British Columbia, and before that, rainfall was scant.

There are no signs this high pressure will give way in the coming weeks.

"This will be the summer of fire," Phillips said.

Meanwhile, wildfires are also burning in the western United States, including in Alaska, Washington, Nevada, California and Arizona.

It's staying hot and dry in those states, too. The summer of fire, as usual, seems to be extending into the United States.

Best Snowball Fight Ever In Vancouver, British Columbia

This epic snowball fight broke out at the University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, Canada after an unusually
large snowstorm earlier this week. 

As we know, New England is getting hammered by a big snowstorm - the second time in a week that has happened.

Maybe not everybody likes the winter weather, but you always have to look on the bright side. Snowstorms are often fun, if you make them so.

For proof, we can look to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada as an example.

That city had a large snowstorm - 14 inches of it about a week ago.

Yes, Vancouver is in chilly Canada, and it's on the Pacific Coast. They do get snow every winter, but not all that much. Think Seattle. The climate is similar to that in Vancouver. It's rainy and stormy and mild most of the time in the winter along coastal British Columbia.

So 14 inches of new snow is quite an event. Especially when the snow is wet and sticky, perfect for making snow balls.

Thus,  you get this epic snow ball fight on the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Looks like fun!

Watch:

As Hurricanes Miss, Pacific Northwest Gets A Big Wind Blast

One of many fallen trees in Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada after a wicked weekemd wnd storm  

Tropical Storm Erika fizzled, Hurricane Fred is way out over the eastern Atlantic, so it looks like the United States is escaping a hurricane, at least for now.

(Though Hurricane Ignacio is going to cause tropical storm conditions in Hawaii.)  

However, the Pacific Northwest in the United States and British Columbia on the west coast of Canada got a hurricane force blow over the weekend from a regular, albeit powerful storm that came ashore.

Winds gusted to 90 mph in Oceanside, Oregon and 85 mph in Nasalle Ridge, Washington.

These kinds of strong storms with wind gusts to hurricane force affect the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia from time to time in the winter.

But it's very rare to get something like this in the summer. There's still leaves on the trees, and in wind storms, the leaves act like a multitude of little sails. The leafy "sails" pull the trees in the wind much more than if they were bare, so more trees than usual toppled in the weekend storm.

Falling trees killed two people in Washington State, and 450,000 or so of the state's residents lost their electricity.

In British Columbia, at least 400,000 homes and businesses were left without electricity. Parks and other outdoor activities were shut down Saturday over fears that trees would fall on people.

The storm has moved on and things have calmed down in the region. With drier air moving in, the wildfires, though, will continue.

Here are some weekend scenes from Vancouver, British Columbia:

Ghosts Of Pacific Hurricane Blasted Canada, Carolinas, Maine, Malta, Sicily.....

A severe "Medicane" storm in the Mediteranean Sea
this week distantly had a bit of its origins
in a Pacific Ocean hurricane.  

During the third wee in October,  a hurricane named Ana threatened Hawaii.  Turns out it didn't actually make landfall there, but it did give them a scare, along with some high surf, gusty winds and some heavy rain.

Ana then fell apart, and its remnants moved across the Pacific Ocean. The Ana remnants combined with other weather systems to cause a nasty storm with wind gusts to hurricane force in British Columbia, Canada  around October 28.

That British Columbia storm, partly the remains of Ana, then combined with other weather systems to produce that epic storm in the eastern United States last weekend.

That's the one that caused the record early snowfall in the Carolinas, and then blasted northern Maine with up to 21 inches of early season snow.

The ghosts of Ana continue to haunt. Energy from the nor'easter that hammered the Carolinas and Maine went across the Atlantic Ocean, where it helped spin up a nasty storm in the Mediterranean Sea late this week.

A snowstorm in Bangor, Maine last weekend left this damage
A bit of the storm had its origins as a hurricane in the Pacific
Ocean. The nor'easter that brought this snow helped
contribute to a subsequent severe storm in the Mediterrannean.  

According to Dr. Jeff' Master's weather blog, the storm in the Mediterranean was dubbed a "medicane" because it acquired characteristics of a tropical storm or hurricane.

The "medicane" wasn't a true hurricane as it had a blend of elements of a tropical system and that of a regular storm system.

It was a nasty storm though, causing terrible flooding in Malta, and sustained winds on the island of 47 mph gusting to 66 mph. Other weather stations on Malta reported gusts of over 90 mph.

Still, it's amazing to see that the ghosts and traces of a hurricane near Hawaii subsequently helped lead to very troublesome storms in such disparate places as British Columbia, South Carolina, Maine, Malta, and at last report, Sicily.

I wonder if the ghosts of Ana will cause trouble anywhere else. Who knows? Maybe it'll be Hawaii's turn again.  I really, really strongly doubt that would happen, but wouldn't it be wild if it did?