Montana Blizzard, Chicago Winter Storm. NOW?!?!?!?

Red sky in the morning means to take warning. This was the ABC News 7
webcam in Chicago at dawn today. By this afternoon,  this same spot
will likely be seeing a late season snowstorm.

Boy, has the northern tier of the nation taken a giant step backward into winter!!

A compact but pretty wound-up storm is setting off a winter storm of all things in a narrow stripe in southern Minnesota and Wisconsin, northern Iowa and northern Illinois, including Chicagoland.

The northern half of the Chicago metro area in particular looks like it's really under the gun. There, three to eight inches of heavy, wet snow is expected to come down later today.

This storm is, of course, weird for Chicago in the heart of spring. The average date for the last one-inch snowfall in Chicago is March 17. This one, if an inch accumulates, will be close to a record. The latest one-inch snow in Chicago on record came on May 3-4, 1907.

Some trees in Chicago are starting to leaf out. That means the heavy, wet snow accumulating on those nascent leaves, and expected gusty winds, will damage a few of those trees.

So yeah, this is pretty unwelcome in the Second City and other areas under the winter storm warning. Some areas could see snowfall rates of one to two inches per hour.

Meanwhile, a separate storm has triggered a blizzard warning of all things in north-central Montana. Two to five inches of late season snow propelled by gusts of 55 mph expected Sunday won't make for   a terrific day there, that's for sure.

Here in Vermont, we're not getting off scot-free, but at least there's no blizzard coming. Rain showers will change to snow showers in the mountains today, leaving behind a dusting to a couple inches way up near the summits by Sunday morning.

That storm from Chicago will weaken as it heads east, but will still drop a cold, light rain Sunday in southern Vermont, with a little snow possible up high.  A hard freeze is likely statewide Sunday night, so if you got ahead of yourself in the garden, protect those plants!

We've also launched ourselves into a long period of colder than normal weather in Vermont that will last more than a week.  Spring is on hiatus for the foreseeable future, I'm afraid.

Strange Autumn Heat Wave Grinds On In The East

North Beach in Burlington is never this busy in late
September, but it was Sunday. Photo by Elizabeth Murray/
Burlington Free Press.

Well, this autumn heat wave is really something.

Up here in Vermont, the temperature in Burlington got all the way up to 91 degrees on Sunday, shattering the old record 84, set in 1961.  

It was also - by far - the latest 90 degree reading on record. Previously, the latest 90 was on September 16, 1939. Pretty incredible.

It goes on. The low temperature this morning in Burlington was the same as the normal high. We're pretty much guaranteed to break another record high today and tomorrow with another 90 not out of the question at all.

This will go on through Wednesday, which is an awfully long time to keep getting daily record high temperatures. This type of thing usually only lasts a couple of days.

Actually, the warmth got under way around September 12 and 13 and the weather has been pretty typical of July ever since. The first 10 days of the month averaged 4.5 degrees below normal, but now, the month as a whole is 3.5 degrees above normal.

And here's a weird factoid the National Weather Service in South Burlington pointed out on Sunday. This year, Burlington has had five days that have gotten to 90 degrees or above. But none of those 90 degree days occured during astronomical summer.

Two of those 90 degree days were in May, another two were in June before the summer solstice and ther was one on Sunday. It never got to 90 in July and August.

I've been harping on Vermont, since that's where I'm based, but the heat has been widespread as well as intense.  Chicago has had five record highs in a row as of Sunday and today could be a sixth, and it's latest in the year they've had five days in a row in the 90s, says the Chicago Tribune. 

In Buffalo, New York, the record high temperature of 90 Sunday was the only day this year where that city reached 90 degrees.  

A hot day at the beach near Toronto, Canada in late
September as the leaves start changing. Photo by Andrew
Francis Wallace/Toronto Star

Toronto, Canada, also had a late season record high of 90 degrees.

Back here in Vermont, it's getting dry again as well. It had gotten too dry by late August, but welcome rains in the first week or so of September pretty much fixed that.

But in Burlington, at least, it hasn't rained at all since September 10. And not much rain is in the forecast.

When the heat breaks Wednesday night or Thursday, a few showers will probably accompany the strong cold front, but it won't amount to all that much.

After that, temperatures will be normal for late September - highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s- but another extended period of dry weather is likely.

Until the heat breaks, take care not to overexert yourself. You think it's September and psychologically you'd think it's not all that bad, but this is midsummer heat wave conditions. Stay hydrated out there folks!

More Random, Really Cool Weather Images

Satellite view taken Monday of most of New England
shrouded in snow cover.

In my continuing hunt for cool weather media, I'll share a few more finds from recent weather events that I think are really cool.

In any of the photos you see in this post, click on them to make them bigger and easier to see.

The first one is a real color satellite image taken amid clear skies this past, of New England, eastern New York and a bit of southern Quebec after that big snowstorm we got a little over a week ago.

In it, all but southeastern New England is encased in snow. The warm March sun had caused the thinner snow cover in and around Cape Cod to begin retreating northward.]

You can see the large dark spot on the northwestern edge of Vermont. That's the still open, ice-free water of Lake Champlain.

The snow also allows you to see the land features and land uses better. Notice much of the Champlain Valley and southeastern Quebec look whiter than other areas.

That's because there's more open fields in these locations. The spine of the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks are darker, because of all the trees and lack of open spaces.

A dense March 14 snow squall over Lake Michigan and Chicago

Smaller, frozen lakes also show up as bright white.

It's a pretty stunning post-snowstorm image, isn't it?

The next photo was taken March 14 from downtown Chicago.

Chicago can get lake effect snows off of Lake Michigan, especially if the wind is coming from the northeast, off the water.

The photo, taken from a high rise, shows the waters of Lake Michigan abruptly being hidden by a thick curtain of snow from a squall.

After going through January and February with no snow on the ground, winter finally hit Chicago in mid-March with a series of snowy and cold days.

Spring is returning to Chicago, however. The forecast high temperature on Friday there is 74 degrees.

Next, we turn to Hutchinson, Kansas, scene of widespread wild fires earlier this month. The winter in the central and southern Plains was dry, and that region has been subjected to repeated bouts of record warmth, super dry air and high winds all winter and early spring.

Aerial view of home near
Hutchinson, Kanasas spared
from a huge wildfire 

The result was the worst wildfires on record. Kansasans are calling the wildfires "our Katrina," referencing the 2005 hurricane calamity in New Orleans.

The wild fires earlier this month killed seven people and thousands of cattle caught in the fast moving flames. Many other cows were badly injured in the fires and ranchers had the heartbreaking task of taking out their rifles and shooting them to put the animals out of their severe misery and pain.

The photo in this post depicts one of the lucky ones. It shows a house that survived the wildfires near Hutchinson, Kansas, even as everything for miles around burned to a crisp

After a break, the wildfire threat has returned this week. Hundreds of Boulder, Colorado residents had to be evacuated due to a wildfire Sunday, which was fortunately contained.

Today, there's an extreme risk of dangerous wildfires in eastern New Mexico, the Texas panhandle and southeastern Colorado.

Let's hope they get some rain soon.

Also, here in the United States, we're ramping up into tornado season, too. There've already been some deadly outbreaks over the winter, so things are not off to a good start.

March 9 tornado in Germany 

Starting today, and continuing daily for the next week or so in different parts of the Plains, Midwest and South, there will be a threat of severe storms as we've entered a weather pattern that features such weather.

Of course, tornadoes don't only happen in the United States. They can happen almost anywhere. On March 9, there was a particularly picturesque tornado in, of all places, Wurzburg, Bavaria, Germany.

The tornado damaged the roofs of up to 80 homes. 

Tornadoes do take place from time to time in Germany and other parts of Europe. It's quite unusual to get one this far north in Europe this early in the season, however.

The tornado, as you can see in the photo, was really striking, lit up white by the late afternoon sun against dark clouds, with a rainbow crossing above it.

Elsewhere, a small tornado passed through the Brisbane, Australia airport, causing a scare but not causing much damage.

Here's the video, below. Note the tail end of the video is not that exciting, just a local weather report. But the tornado is cool:

Chicago Sets An Odd Winter Record

Runners enjoy warm, snow-free weather along Chicago's lake
front in February. Photo by Alyssa Painter/Chicago Tribune 

I've always thought of Chicago in the winter as Buffalo Lite

Winters are tough there, maybe not as tough as lake effect snow, very windy, very cold Buffalo, New York, but Chicago is not exactly a tropical resort.

Icy winds blast down the concrete canyons of the Loop. Frigid lake effect snows smother the Lake Michigan shore if the winds are right.

Big Middle American storms dump tons of snow on Chicago throughout the winter. Canada sends regular supplies of Arctic Air to chill the hardiest of big shouldered Chicagoans.

Not this year.  For the first time on record, there was no snow on the ground for the entire months of January and February.  Records in Chicago go back to at least 1884.

Oh, there were light snows and flurries from time to time during the winter, but nothing to get excited about, that's for sure.

The odd lack of snow has people in the Windy City a bit freaked out.

"I went out and played in the park with just like a fleece on instead of a winter jacket. It felt good, but it was just the feeling of you know something is wrong," Hannah Hampson, 10, told NPR.

It finally snowed Saturday morning, sort of, in Chicago. O'Hare Airport recorded a whopping 0.1 on an inch, which promptly melted, continuing the snow drought. It's now been 77 days since the last time Chicago got an inch of snow in one day.

It's still possible Chicago will get nailed by a snowstorm before spring really gets here. However, for the next week or so, Chicago can expect occasional bouts of rain, but no snow.

Watch These Wild Lightning Strikes

There were quite a few big thunderstorms around eastern half of the United States over the past couple days.

Here's one taken by a dash camner of a utility pole being blown apart by a lightning strike in Chicago. Stick around in this video for the slow mo version in the last half:



Another lightning strike during the same Chicago storm set off a wild electrical chain reaction at a subway station that ultimately partly collapsed it. Watch the video of that big moment:



Monday, in New York City, the Empire State Building got hit. Interesting that it hit the side, not the top of the skyscraper. I bet the people in the office where lightning struck just outside got a startle:

Saturday Was The Day Of The Waterspout

Waterspouts often form in coastal waters, especially around Florida this time of year.

One of several waterspouts offshore from Chicago Saturday.  

Yesterday, though, was off the charts as far as the geographic range of where these waterspouts showed up.

They were reported in Florida, naturally, especially near Tampa.

But they were also spotted in Lake Michigan just offshore from Chicago; in Lake Erie north of Ohio; just off the coast of Maryland, and around Long Island, New York, among other places.

Waterspouts are basically tornadoes over water, but almost always, they are weaker than tornadoes on land.

Still, you want to avoid them, because they can overturn boats and cause other havoc. Every once in awhile, they come ashore, injuring beach goers and damaging property.

Saturday was an extremely busy day for waterspouts because autumn was finally invading summer.

Someone unwisely goes swimming
as a waterspout swirls nearby on
Long Island, N.Y. Saturday. 

Cold air aloft sinking all the way to the Gulf of Mexico from Canada triggered the waterspouts near Florida.

The contrast between the warm humid air to the east and the chillier, autumnal air coming in from the northwest helped to develop a pretty dynamic cold front and storm system, which in turn helped trigger the waterspouts on the Atlantic Coast from Maryland to New England.

The waterspouts over the Great Lakes came in part because of the large contrast between the warm lake water, heated up by a toasty summer, and the autumnal air spilling south across the lakes.

Waterspouts are less likely today, though there might be some around the coastal waters of New England.

A waterspout near Tampa, Florida Saturday.  

The cold air that came in from Canada is modifying and becoming more stable, so the Great Lakes shouldn't have any spouts today.

I suppose there might be more around Florida, we'll see.

But if you are a waterspout fan, you hit the jackpot on Saturday.

Colorful Igloo Is One Antidote To Never Ending Winter

Jostein Alvestad's colorful igloo in suburban Chicago.  

More record lows were set across a vast area of the eastern United States today as the never ending winter drags on.

True, temperatures will ease up this weekend and next week over much of the nation, but this is a bit much.

I'll get to one guy's solution to the unrelenting cold in a minute, but first, some low temperatures.

I'm writing this at dawn, and a complete list of records and low temperatures won't be available until late this morning (when I'll be largely unavailable to update this, oh well.)

We do have some stats: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania hit its all time record low for the month of March with a reading of 2 below. That beats the old record for the month of minus 1 set in 1980. Temperatures were still falling in Pittsburgh when the record was set, so it might end up colder.

Lexington, Kentucky was flirting with its all time March low of -2, set in 1960. Before dawn, it was zero and Lexington, and the temperature was still slowly falling.

Alvestad's igloo under construction.  

Freeze warnings extended all the way to the Gulf Coast, which is normally into spring by now. Mobile,  on the Gulf Coast of Alabama, was at 27 degrees before dawn, flirting with a record low of 26 degrees.

Below zero readings were as far south as Virginia, where it was 6 below in New Market.

It was frigid in New York's Adirondacks and northern New England. At last check, it was 27 below in Saranac Lake, New York and Canaan, Vermont.  

It was 24 below in Whitefield, New Hampshire and 22 below in Berlin, New Hampshire.  I wouldn't be surprised to find some readings in the 30s below in northern New England today.

Those readings are pretty low for January. For March, Yikes!

As I said, it will warm up, but not fast enough.

So a guy in the Chicago area named Jostein Alvestad made the darkness of the winter cold brighter with an ingenious idea, says Chicago Magazine.

He decided to build an igloo in his yard. But not any igloo. This one is gorgeous.

The view from inside Alvestad's igloo.  

Every cold night, he'd take a bunch of plastic tubs - 32 of them to be precise - fill them with colored water and let them freeze overnight.

He used the colorful blocks of ice from the plastic tubs as bricks for his igloo.

Says Chicago Magazine:

"Once a sufficient stockpile (of bricks) ws built up, he would slide them into place and use a slush slurry of snow and water for mortar. Finally, he would coast it all with water from a garden hose to form an icy exterior."

Despite a couple of setbacks, like a January thaw and a repeatedly freezing garden hose, he's got his beautiful igloo.

"You'd be surprised how warm it gets in there. You're using candles and it's totally insulated inside, and your body heats it up, so it's much warmer than outside," Alvestad said.

Nice, but I bet a lot of people in Chicagoland are ready for some non-igloo weather.  Temperatures are expected to reach to about 50 degrees in Chicago by Tuesday. 

New England's Turn To Get Hammered With Snow Today

Digging out in Chicago on Sunday.
Photo by Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune.  

As expected, that heavy snowstorm rolled through the Midwest Sunday, dropping incredible amounts of snow in just a day in some areas.

Chicago, for instance, got 19.3 inches of snow out of the storm, good enough to become its fifth biggest snowstorm on record.

Things are tapering off in the Midwest now, but New York and New England are getting the brunt of this today.

All of that region, except around New York City and the southern reaches of New England, are getting some pretty heavy snow this morning. The areas I just mentioned are getting an ugly mix of precipitation.

Speaking of ugly, the morning commute this morning is a mess in the Northeast. Including in the normally winter-hardy reaches of northern New England.

According to what is known as a mesoscale discussion from the Storm Prediction Center, eastern New York, pretty much all of Vermont, and parts of western Massachusetts are under the gun for the heaviest snow this morning.

The Storm Prediction Center, which normally deals with severe thunderstorms and tornados, says snowfall rates in the area I just described will be on the order of 1.5 inches per hour, which is pretty impressive.

I can tell you as of 7:30 a.m., snow had intensified noticeably at my house in St. Albans, Vermont over the previous half hour. It's probably worse furthern south in Vermont, where the very heaviest snow is expected.

Another unusual aspect of this storm is how cold it is in northern New York and northern New England. It was still below zero in most spots in the region at dawn, which is unusual, but not unheard of in a winter storm.

Web cam grab of Vermont Agency of Transportatoin
image along Interstate 89 in Bolton, Vermont
shows heavy snow around 8:15 a.m. Monday.  

Temperatures won't get out of the single numbers today up in northern New England. Gusty winds this afternoon will drop the wind chills, making it ridiculous, and will blow all that fluffy new snow around.

In northern New York and most of New England, total snow accumulations will be four to 10 inches near the Canadian border and eight to 16 inches elsewhere.

Pretty much every school in New England is closed today. I guess you can stay home and celebrate the Patriots' Superbowl win last night.

Down around New York City, it is a gawdawful mess this morning. Earlier snow has changed to freezing rain, and that freezing rain is coming down pretty hard. The roads are horrible, and there might be enough freezing rain in parts of the New York metro area and New Jersey to bring down tree branches and power lines.

Out on Long Island, where there was about 20 inches of snow in that blizzard last week, it was pouring rain, really hard with temperatures in the mid-30s. Awful.

And guess what? When the storm's cold front blasts through later today, there's going to be a flash freeze in that region. Hard, awful, rough ice freezing onto everything. Have I depressed you enough yet?

In southern New England, the precipitation should remain all snow north of the Mass Pike, but mix with or change to sleet and freezing rain to the south. The changeover will be brief close to the Mass Pike, and a little longer down on the south coast.

Still, they're getting a few hours of heavy snow before the changeover even in the south, so even down toward Rhode Island and the Cape, they'll get a good six inches of snow, probably, then some ice.

Near and north and just west of Boston, they could easily pick up about a foot of snow atop the three feet they got last week. Winds gusting over 40 mph will cause a LOT of blowing and drifting.

Roads are basically canyons between tall snowbanks in that neck of the woods, so the wind will easily fill these "canyons" with windblown snow in very short periods of time. What a mess!

Maine is screwed, too, with another 8 to 15 inches expected atop the nearly two feet of snow they got a week ago, AND the nearly one foot of snow they got Friday and Saturday.

I'd love to go up to Portland and watch them figure out where they're going to PUT all that snow.

The good news, I guess,  is that this storm is moving right along, and should be mostly done tonight.

But bitter cold Arctic air is settling over the Northeast. And there are several chances of snow in New England over the next 10 days or so, though it's still not possible to say whether any of those storms will be blockbusters or nuisance flurries.

At least two more Arctic outbreaks of subzero weather are coming, too. One comes in around Thursday, and another, potentially stronger one next Sunday.

They say New Englanders are hardy. Here's the test, I guess.

Enormous Part Of Nation Blasted By Winter Storm Today, Tomorrow

A huge part of the nation (in pink) is under
a winter storm warning.  

UPDATE: 2:30 p.m. SUNDAY:

Some changes to the forecast with this storm
are becoming apparent in New England.

It seems like the storm, and the overrunning
of warm air over cold is going to be a bit more to the north than earlier forecast.

This continues a trend with this storm we've
repeatedly seen since Friday. More and more to the north.

This change means winter storm warnings have been extended north to cover all of Vermont and New Hampshire, and more of northern New York. 

Instead of two to five inches near the Canadian border of those states, it looks like it'll be more like four to ten inches.

It'll still have a high fluff factor in those regions because the forecast for temperatures only in the single numbers during Monday, the height of the storm, still hold.

The mixed precipitation that is forecast to creep north into the New York metro area and southern New England is still expected to happen for a time during this storm, but might get a tad more to the north than first thought.

Maybe as far north briefly as the Mass Pike. Still, there will be a boatload of snow in most of New England with this, including most areas hit hard by the blizzard a week ago.


PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

That's quite an area covered by winter storm warnings as of Sunday morning.

By my back of the envelope guess, it looks like about a 300 mile or more wide, 1,800 plus mile long stretch of the nation from Nebraska to Maine is covered by a winter storm warning.

Except for a "gap" around Chicago, which is under a more serious blizzard warning.

Perhaps 550,000 square miles is under the storm warnings. Reportedly, almost 100 million people live in the storm zone.

That's awfully impressive.

There's not much change between yesterday at this time and today regarding who gets nailed by this storm.

The only major difference is in New England, where a bigger chunk of the region will get hit. Yesterday, the computer forecasting models seemed to indicate the northwestern third of New England, meaning most of Vermont and northern New Hampshire, along with the Adirondacks, would pretty much miss out on this.

Not any more. True, way up within 20 miles of the Canadian border in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and much of Maine, they'll probably get only 2 to 5 inches of snow. But the rest of the region gets hit by 5 to 15 inches of snow with this, depending on where you are in the region.

Another interesting change is, as I've mentioned they upgraded the winter storm warning around Chicago to a blizzard warning.

A woman shovels snow Sunday morning in Elgin, Ill.
The storm is expected to worsen in the area this afternoon.
Photo by Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune.

Winds will frequently gust to or above 40 mph during much of the storm, especially near Lake Michigan and in open areas in southeastern Wisconsin, Chicagoland, and in places like Gary, Indiana.

They'll get up to 18 inches of snow around there.  The National Weather Service tells Chicago and environs that later today and tonight, "the combination of the snow and very strong winds will make travel extraordinarily dangerous."

I'm glad it's Sunday, which would reduce the chances people will get stranded for hours on Lakeshore Drive and other highways like they did during the 2011 Chicago blizzard. 

Out in places like Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and parts of Ohio, it was fairly warm early this morning, in the upper 20s to mid 30s, so there is some mixed precipitation. But temperatures will fall, and places that weren't getting pure snow out that way would change over very soon. Probably by the time you're reading this.

It's interesting that the snow belt areas around Buffalo, Syracuse and Rochester, New York are also under winter storm warnings for 8 to 12 inches of snow. This time, the snow has nothing to do with lake effect. It's purely the storm. Winds will come from the wrong direction for lake effect, and Lake Erie is largely frozen over, minimizing the chances for lake effect.

Later on, after the storm, there might be some lake effect snows off Lake Ontario, but nothing huge.

The closer you get to New England, the closer you get into some deep Arctic cold. A reinforcing sot of cold air came into New England late last night, keeping temperatures below zero and dropping a largely unexpected dusting to three inches of very fluffy snow in the Adirondacks and parts of northern Vermont and New Hampshire.

This entrenched cold up in New England is causing some of the greatest uncertainty with this storm.

The cold is bleeding southward, no problem. But aloft, strong winds from the south ahead of the storm will lift warm, moist air up and over the cold air.

In central New York and central New England, that warm air moving in aloft will enhance the rate of snowfall, but won't get so warm that it will change precipitation to sleet or freezing rain.

Meteorologists around New York City are coming off a tough forecast with the blizzard last week, where a slight difference in the the location of the western edge of the heaviest snow created some inaccurate forecasts for a "historic" blizzard.

The call with this storm is even tougher around New York. The National Weather Service is pretty sure, based on the projected path of the storm, that snow will go over to sleet and freezing rain in much of the New York metro area.

But precisely where in the region? Will a lot of snow pile up before the changeover? Or will it be more sleet and freezing rain? Will the storm's warm front make it as far north as Long Island, boosting temperatures into the 40s there with rain for a time?

There is a winter storm warning for most of the area, but how that winter storm will act is an open question.

I agree with the National Weather Service in the New York area to not get too hung up on the forecasted snow accumulations. Just assume the weather will be messy during the Monday morning commute, with snow, freezing rain, sleet and glop being a very good bet.

Forecasters in southern New England have a similar problem to those in New York.  Snow will mix with or change to sleet, freezing rain or even rain near the southernmost coasts, and on Cape Cod and the Islands.

But any subtle shift in the path of the storm, I'm talking just a few miles, will have a huge effect on who in southern New England gets all snow, and who gets an ugly mix.

The best bet right now is anything north of the Mass Pike stays all snow, with chances of a mix, at least for a time, increasing the more south you go.

The National Weather Service's winter storm warning is going with 6 to 10 inches of snow in southeastern Massachusetts where a mix is more likely, and around a foot in the rest of Massachusetts and the northern half of Connecticut.

It won't quite be a blizzard, like last time, but it will be windy, with plenty of blowing and drifting snow, especially near the coast. So blizzard-like conditions are likely Monday. Stay home.

On the bright side, this storm won't cause the massive coastal flooding and damage we saw in New England last week. There might be some coastal flooding, but nothing on the scale we saw last Tuesday.

Up in central and northern New England, where the Arctic air is entrenched, this is going to be a very cold storm, with high temperatures Monday during the storm mostly staying between 0 and 10 above, with temperatures crashing below zero Monday night.

The expected track of the storm has edged northward since yesterday, so many of the Adirondack, Vermont and New Hampshire ski areas could  get up to a foot of snow out of this.

There have been a series of many small storms, and no real thaws since early January, so the ski areas are in good shape. But this will cheer them up more, especially since no thaws are expected before the Presidents Day holiday at mid-month.

Winter storm warnings are up for the central and southern Adirondacks, the southern two thirds of Vermont and all but far northern New Hampshire.

As I noted, even the far north will get into the act, with places along the Canadian border in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire in for 2 to 5 inches of snow. Not much, but repeatedly light snows there have also built up a snowpack.

The only concern I have is that this Arctic air over northern New England is very dry. It could feed into the storm system and really cut back on expected snow accumulations. That's something we have to watch. We don't want to get the winter sports fans all excited, then disappoint them with a paltry snowfall.

The southeastern half of Maine is in for it with this storm, and the don't need it. They got about two feet of snow during last Monday and Tuesday's blizzard, and another 6 to 12 inches Friday and Saturday.

Many of these areas can expect six to 12 inches additional snow out of this and they don't need it.

An example: I looked at Bangor, Maine. As of yesterday, there was 29 inches of snow on the ground. They've had 74.7 inches of snow so far this winter. That's a bit more than double the amount they normally have by now

A side note: With all this snow piling up in Maine, I do worry about spring flooding in parts of that state when and if it warms up toward March and April.

After this storm, I'm not seeing any more big storms, at least according to current projections, in the coming days. It'll stay cold into mid-month, with only brief spikes in temperature to near normal readings.

There will be small storms coming through, so some areas, especially the Great Lakes, northern New York and northern New England, can expect light snowfalls every other day, or every third day coming up after this storm.

Frozen Chicago Drone Flight Almost Makes You Like Winter

Some people put a camera on a drone and flew it around frigid Chicago last week as a cold wave embraced the Windy City.  

A beautiful but frigid drone view of Chicago
from Soaring Badger Productions.  

The people who did it are from an outfit called Soaring Badger Productions. They said all the drone trips were done while temperatures were below 10 degrees.

The makers of the video changed the name of the city they were filming from "Chicago" to "Chiberia."

Everything held up rather well, except the batteries in the camera kept dying with 10 minutes or so because of the cold.

The drone fights went over the half frozen shores of Lake Michigan, snow covered industrial areas, parks with hardly any people in them because of the cold, and expressways with light traffic. Nobody seemed to want to go out in that.

I don't blame them, but it is a pretty view from up there in that drone. Stark and bone chilling, but pretty

Watch:

Update: Scenes From A Record Early Southern Snow. And Maine's Still Screwed.

Snow on palm trees in Lexington, SC
Saturday. Photo by Lisa Grise via Twitter.

Today was an incredible day in the Carolinas.  

They had their first snow of the season, and in many cases, it broke the record for earliest snowfall by many days or even a couple weeks.

More incredibly, some areas got several inches of snow. A few places in the higher elevations were closing in on two feet as of late Saturday afternoon.

Up to 22 inches of snow as reported near the North Carolina/Tennessee border. Columbia and Greenville, South Carolina had by far their earliest snowfall on record.

This is one of the most extreme, bizarre storms I've ever seen.

The snow around Greenville and Columbia is particularly incredible because the South Carolina cities are at low elevations. It's only snowed a couple times in those cities in November since the 1880s, and those cases were much later in the month.

Both of these South Carolina cities had their first snowfall of the winter earlier than cold northern wintry cities as Bismarck, North Dakota, Buffalo, New York and Burlington, Vermont.

Snow and foliage in the southeastern U.S.
Photo by Ted Overbay via Twitter

This storm isn't done. The snow in the Carolinas was caused by an incredibly strong upper level disturbance that dove due south from the Arctic, through the Great Lakes and into the Carolinas.

On it's way through the Great Lakes, the disturbance unleashed very strong winds on Chicago, causing high waves and flooding along the shores of Lake Michigan.

The strong upper level disturbance had so much cold air with it, and and so much energy, that it dropped temperatures to near record low levels.

The heavy precipitation with the disturbance further cooled the air, and the result was snow.

As a strong weather disturbance that was an
ingredient for today's southern snow passed
Chicago Friday, it stirred up big waves
on Lake Michigan. Photo by Nick Ulivieri via Twitter

The upper disturbance finally made it to the coast northeast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina at mid afternoon Saturday. Interactions with another, southern disturbance, and the warm waters of the Gulf Stream are making a nor'easter develop explosively.

A bomb is what we call these things, since they get going so fast and so extensively.

This "bomb" will move north, meaning New England is screwed. At least parts of New England, anyway.

As I said this morning, we're lucky the storm is tracking quite a ways offshore, so the worst effects will miss much of New England.

Still, a high wind warning is still up for Cape Cod and the islands. Coastal flood warnings are up along much of the New England coast, too. especially on north facing beaches where the strong winds will push ocean water ashore.

Harlan County, Kentucky on Saturday.
Photo by Debra Callahan via Twitter.  

The big part of this storm still looks to hit the eastern half of Maine. The storm is going to move more north, rather than northeast, once it gets past Cape Cod, so it will really affect that part of Maine.

Up to 14 inches of snow is likely to fall there, and it could drift quite a bit as winds will gust over 40 mph.

Very heavy snow, a foot or more in some areas, will hit parts of New Brunswick, Canada Sunday.

Inland areas of the Northeast, including western New England and northern New York, are in for a blustery Sunday, with some snow flurries, especially early in the day.

It was already snowing steadily in some mountainous areas of Vermont Saturday afternoon, but accumulations will generally be less than 3 inches in the mountains, and no more than a dusting in the valleys.

At my house at a low elevation St. Albans, near Lake Champlain in northwestern Vermont, I was treated to the joy of doing yard work this afternoon in a drizzle that was mixed with bits of sleet and slush. Yummy!

I still think the weather in the eastern United States will settle down this week and become much more seasonable. However, frequent rain showers will probably affect much of the Northeast.

However, the weather pattern remains dynamic, and there's still a greater than usual chance that other strong storms could hit hit the Northeast between November 5 and 15. That's no guarantee, of course, but it's something to watch.

Derecho Scared Bejeezus Out of Chicago White Sox Fans, And A Team in Iowa

The tarp blows away in the face of severe thunderstorm
winds in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Monday. 3 were injured.  

Last night's matchup between the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels was postponed due to that destruction derecho that swept across the Midwest yesterday and last night.

And in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, they waited a little too long to put a tarp out on the field ahead of the approaching storm, and chaos ensued.

Unfortunately, at least three people were hurt, but are expected to recover

In Chicago, before the White Sox game was called, people were waiting the storm out, but then this happened:



The scene in Cedar Rapids was worse, as the crew for the Kernels team had the tarp taken away from
tthem by winds of up to 70 mph. One person had the tarp roll right over him.

Lesson here: When there's a severe storm warning, it's better to take precautions well in advance of the storm actually arriving.

Here's the video: