Hurricane Hanna Causes A Mess, Hot Atlantic Water Spells More Trouble

Debris scattered in Texas due to Hurricane Hanna 

A quick Vermont update at the bottom of this post, but since it's hurricane season and hurricanes are quite appropriately on everybody's mind....  

HURRICANE HANNA:

Hurricane Hanna showed what unusually warm water can do to a developing hurricane.

It's basically jet fuel for such storms.

Such was the case with Hurricane Hanna, which kept getting stronger all the way until it made landfall on the southern Texas coast.

Peak sustained winds were 90 mph, stronger than pretty much everybody anticipated just a day or two earlier.

The storm caused the type of damage you'd expect from such a storm. High winds damaged some structures, more than 280,000 homes and businesses were without power, widespread flooding damaged many other buildings, and embedded tornadoes caused added trouble. A large pier along the coast collapsed. Storm surges flooded parts of downtown Corpus Christi, Texas.

Hanna videos at bottom of this post.

Hanna, now well inland, is fading fast, but still dumping torrential rains and causing a lot more flooding.

OTHER STORMS:

Hanna was no doubt powered by warmer than normal water temperatures, but that's not the only ingredient you need. It's just one of the more important ones.

Case in point is former Tropical Storm Gonzalo. It fired up awfully quickly amid super warm ocean waters, but the sputtered. That's because dry air aloft got pulled into the tiny system and choked off its thunderstorms.  Former Gonzalo is now just a few scattered showers and storms heading into the Caribbean Sea.

So you see, hot water isn't everything.  It is hurricane jet fuel, but only if everthing works on all cylinders, so to speak.

It's certainly early in the hurricane season and forecasters are already watching the next potential Atlantic troublemaker. A growing disturbance way out in the central Atlantic will probably become Tropical Storm Isaias.

Damn name is impossible to spell and even worse to pronounce, but oh well.

Computer models - at least for now - take Wannabe Isaias to near or just off the southeastern United States coast in about a week or so.  The majority of models  seem to take this system out to sea, just missing the U.S., but these long range models are notoriously unreliable.  Anything could happen, so we'll just have to wait and see.

And let's not forget about Hurricane Douglas out in the Pacific!

Hurricane warnings are up for many of the Hawaiian Island.  Douglas this morning was a little more tha 200 mies east of Honolulu with top sustained winds of 90 mph.

It'll continue to slowly weaken as it approaches the islands, but will probably still be a hurricane as it passes through Hawaii. It's not weakening that fast because, in part, water temperatures heading toward the islands are not as cool as they usually are.

Trees and infrastructure aren't really designed to hold up against strong winds in much of Hawaii, so this could be a real troublemaker

Even if Douglas doesn't go directly over any of the islands, it will be close enough to cause hurricane force gusts through downsloping forces along mountains, or winds funnel through valleys.  The upper floors of Honolulu high rises risk lots of shattered windows, too, because winds near the top floors will be stronger than at street level.

Flash flooding will be a real hazard, too at least for the rest of the day

VERMONT UPDATE

Yeah, it's pretty hot out there, despite some morning clouds in the northern  half of the state that temporarily slowed today's warming. Warmer valleys still  have a shot of getting to 90 degrees today, despite some lingering partial clouds.

We'll need to watch a so-called "ridge runner" late this afternoon and early evening along the International Border. This is a disturbance that is running over the top of a hot dome of air in the middle of the nation through the Great Lakes and into Ontario.

It'll move east to southeastward into southern Quebec and eventually western Maine later today. Some of the thunderstorms with this thing could creep south to just along the border between Quebec and Vermont later today, and a couple storms could be strong, especially in the Northeast Kingsdom.

Other little "ridge runners" might affect us with scattered showers and storms late tonight and again Monday afternoon and evening.  The biggest "threat" from these will probably be locally torrential downpours. Some places won't get any rain and all. It'll be the usual hit and miss type stuff.

It's possible clouds tomorrow will hold temperatures below 90 in the north, but even if that happens, it'll be ridiculously humid, so it will be uncomfortable.

Just like last Tuesday, a weak cold front will come through this Tuesday with a risk of some showers and storms, and gradually lowering humidity starting later on Tuesday. We hope.

Videos:

News video summarizing the storm.  Love the transition from official telling people to stay inside during the storm and then cutting immediately to ABC report in the eye of the storm:



Lots of debris in the water on the Corpus Christi waterfront:

Hanna, Now A Hurricane, Steals The Show. Also: Vermont Heat AGAIN!

Radar of Hurricane Hanna east of Corpus Christi, Texas this
morning. Powerful winds and storms now completelu
encircle Hanna's eye, which means further
strenthening is likely until the storm
makes landfall this afternoon. 

A few days ago, it looked like we would spend the rest of the week talking about a would-be hurricane named Gonzalo, while ignoring a nothingburger in the Gulf of Mexico.

As more proof that the tropics can be unpredictable, the "nothingburger" is now Hurricane Hanna, and it's about to strike southern Texas. And cause lots of problems.

Satellite views of Hanna overnight showed it organizing quite well, forming an eye with curved bands of intense thunderstorms surrounding that center.

The National Hurricane Center confirmed that as of around 7 a.m. this morning, top sustained winds in Hanna had reached 75 mph, enough to be the first Atlantic hurricane of the season.

It looks like Hanna will keep strengthening until it hits the southern Texas coast this afternoon.  The only thing keeping Hanna from become an even bigger monster is it doesn't have much time to get more powerful before it makes landfall.

However, powerful thunderstorms managed to completely surround the eye of Hanna as its central air pressure lowered. That's certainly a great recipe for further strengthening. Some observers  this morning were wondering if top winds could reach 90-100 mph.

Don't think for a minute so called "weaker" Category 1 hurricanes don't cause a lot of problems. This one will create a lot of difficulties, as most Cat 1's do.  It will cause wind damage. Even worse, storm surges of three to five feet above normal sea levels are expected around and south of Corpus Christi.  It's a low coast line, so that will cause lots of flooding.

Worse still, Hanna will dump between six and 12 inches of rain on far southern Texas, which will cause a lot of flash flooding.

There's more bad news with this:  A hurricane that is growing stronger as it nears the coast is especially bad because it catches people off-guard.  Some people in southern Texas might have been saying yesterday, "Oh, a tropical storm. I guess we won't have a beach day on Saturday."

Now, they have little time to get out of the way of wind, storm surgest and inland flooding.  I was, however, heartened to see news video of LOTS of cars driving away from the southern Texas coastline Friday evening.

Additionally, as we've all heard on the news, Texas is enduring a terrible spike in illnesses, deaths and hospitalizations due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  So on top of the extreme health crisis, southern Texas has to deal with a hurricane.

How do you socially distance in evacutation centers?  What if people are hurt or need to be rescued during Hurricane Hanna when medical and emergency teams are already stretched so thin?

They told us way back in the spring this would be a difficult hurricane season.  This is the opening salvo, and it's certainly not a good one.

Going back to the other tropical storm, Gonzalo, it's falling apart.  It will bring tropical storm conditions to some of the Windward Islands, and it's still expected to dissipate in the Caribbean Sea.  You never know what will happen to Gonzalo's remnants in a few days, so its currently disorganized mass of clouds could come back from the dead in a week or so.

VERMONT HEAT OVERPERFORMS AGAIN

Speaking of things that keep rising from the dead, another hot spell is coming to Vermont, especially Sunday and Monday.

There had been hope earlier in the week, that temperatures would stay pretty close to normal, continuing a trend that started Tuesday and continued through Friday. All four of those days were only slightly warmer than average, instead of torrid.

It's back to hot again for a few days. Today won't be too bad, because humidity levels are pretty comfortable. Still, afternoon highs will get into the 80s pretty much statewide.  The broader, wider valleys will probably get into the upper 80s

The humidity will increase by Sunday, along with the temperatures. Burlington could easily see its 16th 90 degree reading of the year tomorrow, and we might make it to #17 on Monday.

It doesn't look like there will be any cooling thunderstorms Sunday. However, on a very muggy Sunday night, and early Monday, some weather disturbances riding over the northern edge of the Northeast U.S. heat ridge could bring showers and thunderstorms to Vermont. If they happen, it's most likely north of Route 2.

Scattered hit and miss  showers and storms could punctuate the heat and humidity Monday.  A cold front slowly sagging south through northern New England will gradually bring relief to us later Tuesday and especially Wednesday, when temperatures will fall - and I use that term loosely - to readings that are similar to what we've had the past three or four days.

Hanna And Her Siblings

As expected, Tropical Storm Hanna formed in the Gulf of Mexico and is going to cause some mischief along the southern coast of Texas.

Hanna looked pretty healthy on satellite images this morning. As of 4 a.m., the storm only had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, but I'm sure they'll find that it will have strengthened by later this morning.

Luckily, Hanna likely won't have time to strengthen all that much as it heads west towards Texas.  As of early this morning, it was only about 280 miles east of Corpus Christi, Texas and will make landfall by early Saturday afternoon.

Still, a well-organized system like Hanna sitting over very toasty Gulf of Mexico waters can strengthen fast. There's a chance that Hanna could become a hurricane even though it's already fairly close to land. Only after landfall is it guaranteed to weaken.

Pretty much all tropical storms and hurricanes weaken upon landfall.

It looks like Hanna might dump upwards of a half foot of rain in some sections of southern Texas, certainly enough to raise a flood risk.  It will have gotten stronger by the time it reaches Texas. It probably won't be all the way up to hurricane strength, but it might get close.

Meanwhile, Hanna's unreliable little brother Tropical Storm Gonzalo continues to churn east of the Lesser Antilles. That storm is a wild card, because it's small and unpredictable.   Smaller storms can strengthen or fall apart on a dime, and that's the kind of thing we're seeing with Gonzalo.

A little dry air intruded on Gonzalo yesterday, disrupting its circulation.  It still might get stronger as it moves into the Lesser Antilles by the weekend.  It's then expected to get weaker again once it's into the eastern Caribbean.

But little Gonzalo probably isn't done with surprises yet, so  the National Hurricane Center will certainly keep a close eye on the little devil.

Meanwhile, out in the Pacific, Hanna's big brother Hurricane Douglas continues to spin toward Hawaii. Douglas was a Category 4 monster early this morning with top sustained wind of 130 mph. Luckily, Douglas isn't near any land at the moment, so it's not wrecking anything.

However, Douglas is still headed toward Hawaii.  Cooler water in its path and strong winds aloft will surely weaken Douglas. It will still be a borderline hurricane/tropical storm with winds of 75 mph as it gets near the Big Island of Hawaii over the weekend, according to current forecasts.

Back in the Atlantic Ocean, a strong weather disturbance is coming off the west coast of Africa and will start to head west far out there.  This one could also eventually turn into a tropical storm or hurricane, so stay tuned!

California Fires, Texas Snow: Another Oddball Week

Amarillo, Texas got its first snowfall of the season yesterday, before
we in Vermont have gotten anything substantial

So far this week, I've talked about, among other things, wildfires in California and the prospects for snow, or lack thereof in the near future here in Vermont.

Today, the news is still full of wildfires and snow.

I'll start with the less disastrous stuff first.  Texas and Oklahoma have managed to get a bunch of snow before we here in Vermont have gotten any.  Yes, it's snowed on the peaks of the Green Mountains, but most of us Vermonters have not seen anything yet.  

Boy, the Texas Panhandle sure did, though. Amarillo, Texas picked up 2.6 inches of snow. It occasionally fell heavily, with thunder and lightning, winds gusting past 40 mph and occasional near whiteout conditions. A town in far western Oklahoma reportedly picked up nine inches.

Snow in the Texas Panhandles is of course rare this time of year, but not unheard of. As CNN reports, Amarillo once got measureable snow as early as September 29, 1984. The earliest one inch or greater snow there was on October 15, 1970.

Amarillo sits at about 3,600 feet in elevation. So somewhat like mile-high Denver, Colorado, it is often hot and dry, but under certain conditions the relatively high elevation can bring enough cold for seemingly out of season snows.

CALIFORNIA FIRES

People fleeing through fire and live ashes during wildfires
in northern California on Thursday.

The big news is how things are going from bad to worse in California. A fast-spreading blaze broke out in the hills above the California wine country, north of San Francisco late Wednesday or early Thursday.

That fire has destroyed an as yet undetermined number of homes. KQED says CalFire is estimating 49 structures lost so far. About 2,000 people have been evacuated.

Winds have temporarily died down in northern California, but the worst is yet to come. Over the weekend, extremely strong winds and low humidity will make for a critical fire risk.  Winds could gust to over 45 mph in the valleys and 75 mph in the mountains.   This is certainly a recipe for disaster.  The conditions will be similar to 2017, when a wildfire chewed through a large section of Santa Rosa, California.  
 
Pacific Gas & Electric, which cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses to help prevent fires from falling power lines, plans to do so again on a larger scale this weekend. The thought is if the wind breaks power lines, they won't cause fires because no electricity will be flowing.

In southern California, another fire, called the Tick Fire, is burning through canyons north of Los Angeles. It kept spreading early this morning amid gusty winds and jumped the 14 Freeway, prompting more evacuations. Several buildings have burned and the fire is far from contained.

The chances of high winds this weekend are slightly less in southern California than in northern parts of the state, but the risk is still real.  It's turning out to be another ugly fire season in California.

Dramatic Video: Man Struck By Lightning While Walking Dogs

A still shot from a surveillance video of a man being struck
by lightning in Texas.  He was found with no pulse, but bystanders
performed CPR and he is now recovering.  The dogs ran off
but police found them and gave them back to the man
after he was released from the hospital.

I guess this is an extreme example of why you shouldn't be out in thunderstorms.

A man walking his dogs recently in Spring, Texas was struck by lightning as he crossed a parking lot. It was all caught on a security camera. Video is at the bottom of this post.

Thankfully, there were a number of bystanders who saw it happen and rushed to the man's aid. When they got to the victim, he was not breathing, some of his clothes were charred and his shoes and socks had been blown off,  ABC13 in Houston reported.

The Good Samaritans performed CPR and called 911, saving the man's life. The man, Alex Coreas, spent four days in the hospital but is now at home.

Coreas told ABC13 that he was walking his dogs and noticed a thunderstorm pop up suddenly. He started walking faster to make it home when he was struck.

When the lightning struck, the man's dogs ran off into the woods, but police later found them uninjured.  Coreas was reunited with the dogs on Sunday.

Here's the video:

Sept. Weather Pattern Gorgeous For New England; But For Rest Of Nation, Not So Much

Gorgeous sunset over northwestern Vermont last Sunday. This is a photo
I took from a hot air balloon.

We here in Vermont and the rest of the New England have been blessed by what has so far been a gorgeous September.

With few exceptions, we've had lots of sunny, pleasant days. Temperatures have generally been a tad cooler than normal, but not by much. Aside from a couple windy days that brought down a few branches, nothing bad has happened. 

This pattern is going to continue, except with some re-arrangements that will make warmer than normal temperatures more likely into early October. There will be episodes of rain and or wind thrown in for the next couple of weeks, but the sunshine seems like it might dominate.

This weather situation has been great for us. For much of the rest of the nation, not so much. On two occasions already this month, the pattern has steered two tropical systems into the United States, with destructive results.

After leveling the northern Bahamas, Hurricane Dorian sideswiped coastal North Carolina, causing a major storm surge flood on Oracoake Island. Then, as we've been talking about all week, Tropical Storm Imelda unleashed another epic flood disaster in Houston and other parts of eastern Texas.

The pattern has also emphasized storminess in the central and northern Plains. Record flooding hitting parts of South Dakota and Iowa earlier this month, and tornadoes swept through Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

It's not getting any better out in that part of the nation. The remnants of Isabel, plus moisture from tropical storms off the west coast of Mexico, combined with a cold front, are expected to unleash more dangerous flash floods today in the central United States, especially in parts of Kansas and Missouri.

Flash flooding and a possible tornado hit eastern North Dakota overnight. Meanwhile, the remnants of now-Hurricane Lorena, which is near Baja California, could unleash flash floods and severe thunderstorms in Arizona early next week.

A big, fat ridge of high pressure mostly centered in the east-central United States has been responsible for this pattern. Under this ridge, in the South and Tennessee Valleys, heat has broken hundreds of records and many cities look like they will have their hottest September on record.

(The fact that the high pressure ridge in the jet stream has been generally centered just west and south of New England has allowed cooler pushes of air to sneak down the front side of the ridge through Quebec and Ontario and on into New England).

With the ridge in the east, there's a corresponding dip in the jet stream over the western United States. That has produced some rare thunderstorms in places like Seattle this month.

There are signs that the jet stream dip in the West could sharpen in the coming days, opening up the possibillity of unusually strong rain storms for this early in the season, and an odd amount of early season snow in parts of the Rockies.

So yeah, us Vermonters can really rejoice in the great weather we've had,  considering we've been almost surrounded by all kinds of yucky and even dangerous conditions.

Enjoy it while you can, because I have an adage that has always worked: No great weather in Vermont goes unpunished. We will get our comeuppance soon enough. What form that will take is anybody's guess.

Houston's Misery: Another East Texas Flood Calamity

Vehicles stuck in the latest Houston flood disaster. Photo by
Elizabeth Corley/Houston Chronicle 

They knew parts of eastern Texas were going to be in trouble days before Tropical Storm Imelda came along this week.

I think few people believed it would be this bad.

Up to 42 inches of rain deluged some East Texas communities as what became Tropical Storm Imelda sat over the region Wednesday and Thursday.

The area, still suffering PTSD from the epic floods of Hurricane Harvey two years ago, had to live through the same thing again.

Enough is enough.

Two deaths have been blamed on the storm so far.  I imagine spirits are crushed, too.  People who barely got their homes back after the inundations of Harvey lost them again.

Houston meteorologist Matt Lanza @mattlanza has a great Twitter thread about how heavy these repeated floods are for the people of a city he loves.  The thread is definitely worth the read, but here's a snipped:

"I feel soul-crushed. For us in Houston (and the Golden Triangle) the last 4-5 years have been a never ending hell for so many people. It's cruel. It's depressing. It's weather, and sometimes it sucks. At some point it becomes an existential problem for SE Texas."

It looks to me like Imelda took Houston and other areas by surprise. At least more than Harvey managed to do..

As the day began, areas northeast of Houston, towns like Beaumont and Winnie were inundated as rain fell for hours at a rate of one, two, three even four or five inches per hour.

Things weren't as bad in Houston proper to start. It was raining, but no biggie. There were forecasts that it would get worse, but people headed off to work. Schools weren't canceled so the kids all left.

Then the thunderstorms with their incredible rains moved south and enveloped Houston. Several inches of rain came down in two or three hours. It was all over. The roads all flooded. People were trapped at work or school. Or they had to be rescued from suddenly flooded cars on the freeways and service roads.

I guess we now live in a climate world in which the weather will take us all by surprise much more frequently. I certainly don't know to what extent climate change influenced this latest disaster in Houston. Other factors are certainly at work, such as poor land use, poor drainage and just plain bad weather luck.

As worse-than-expected disasters keep piling up, I guess we have to be more and more on guard for when the weather turns on us in deadly and catastrophic fashion.

It's not a great feeling.

Videos:

An overview of the flooding via ABC 13 in Houston:



An even more eye-popping video from the same television station, showing aerial views of the traffic
nightmares in Houston from the flash flooding. Note the many cars and trucks flooded, and the many thousands of other vehicles stranded behind them on higher ground. But they certainly weren't going anywhere:



KHOU-TV reported on a freeway that took on water so fast that people were trapped in their cars. Good Samaritans carried people from the cars to temporary refuge on a flatbed truck. Then, others on an overpass flagged down a truck with a long ladder, so people were able to climb to safety:



Also from KHOU, havoc in Winnie, Texas. In some of the clips in this video, notice how incredibly torrential the rain is.

Epic Flooding In Texas As History Repeats Itself

A television station in Beaumont Texas was evacuated due to
extreme overnight flooding.

Once again, a slow, slow moving tropical system has unleashed another huge flood disaster.

It seems to be happening more frequently, and the results are catastrophic.

This time, it's in and around the suffering city of Beaumont, Texas.  Houston got most of the headlines from the immense rains and inundations of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. But Harvey also badly buried Beaumont in water.

In a scene reminiscent of Harvey when television station KHOU had to be evacuated mid-broadcast due to rising waters, television station KBMT, 12 News Now in Beaumont, was evacuated early this morning as water poured into offices and studios.

Television stations are often a lifeline during disasters because of the information they broadcast, so this isn't good at all.  The town of Winnie is reportedly almost entirely under water.

Rainfall rates this morning have been as high as five inches per hour in parts of the area. Rainfall totals early this morning were closing in on 30 inches.  Beaumont Police early this morning reported at least 250 water rescues and 270 requests for evacuation. They urged people to call 911 only for dire emergencies since they are so swamped with calls.

The remains of Imelda were inland over northeastern Texas this morning. It was pulling in bands of deep moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. The airflow with these bands was converging toward each other, increasing the lift in the atmosphere, intensifying the thunderstorms and unleashing incredible rains.

Early this morning, forecasts called for this situation to continue for several more hours, dropping as much as ten additional inches of rain on the flooded Beaumont area and environs.

This is the second time this hurricane season we've had a stall, with disastrous results. You'll remember Hurricane Dorian coming to a halt over the northern Bahamas, blasting them with as much as Category 5 winds for more than a day, instead of just a few hours like most hurricanes.

We had Hurricane Harvey stall in Texas two years ago, as mentioned. Florence stalled near the Carolinas in 2018, creating another flood disaster. A no-named storm in 2016 sat in Louisiana, causing record floods.

The Independent reports that NOAA and NASA researchers have seen a decrease of 17 percent in forward speed of North Atlantic tropical systems. The used to travel at a rate of 11.5 mph in 1944, but they were down to 9.6 mph by 2017.

Scientists are trying to figure out to what extent, if any, these slower storms are due to climate change. Some studies hint that the fact the Arctic is warming faster than lower latitudes is slowing upper level wind speeds, and thus slowing tropical storms, notes the Independent. 

In any event, this is the latest in a string of major flood events that have savaged parts of the nation in recent years.

Oh, by the way, flash flooding was happening again this morning in parts of Nebraska and Iowa.

Tropical Trouble All Over The Place: Texas Now The Focus

Gorgeous but dangerous Hurricane Humberto approaching Bermuda
this morning.

Tropical storms and hurricanes seem to be popping up all over the place, so I'm sure the people at the National Hurricane Center are wicked busy!

With the glaring exception of the upper Texas coast, there is no immediate threat to land in the United States, but plenty to watch. 

IMELDA

First let's get to that situation in Texas. As I mentioned a few days ago, it has been rather dry in and around Houston, Texas lately, so residents there at first were gratefully watching a weather disturbance move westward across the Gulf of Mexico toward them, promising some drought-busting rains.

However they do things big in Texas and the rain has become way too much of a good thing.

As the disturbance neared the Texas coast in the past couple of days, it looked more and more like a tropical storm trying to form. Things escalated quickly on Tuesday, even with prior forecasts warning of heavy rains and floods with this thing.

At around noon Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center noted the definite circulation of the storm just off the Texas coast and declared it a tropical depression. Within 45 minutes, it strengthened enough, with top winds of 40 mph, to be declared Tropical Storm Imelda.

Less than an hour after that, Imelda made landfall near Freeport, Texas.  Since it went inland, the winds weakened and it soon was back to being a tropical depression. So this was one of the shortest lives I've seen for a tropical storm in a long time.

But Imelda's rains are lasting a long time, and that's the problem.  People in Houston and much of the rest of coastal Texas are always jittery when there are flood alerts, given the extreme havoc Hurricane Harvey caused in 2017.

This situation is no Harvey, but the flooding from ex-Imelda is definitely ramping up.

According to Houston meteorologist Matt Lanza (@mattlanza) Houston as of early this morning has escaped with little flooding, though areas south of the city have had torrential rains and flash flooding.  A few spots received up to five inches of rain in an hour. Reports out of Matagorda County indicate up to 20 inches of rain already.

The rain could ramp up in Houston itself later today.

There is a flood risk in eastern Texas from the former Imelda through tomorrow.

HUMBERTO

Hurricane Humberto has really cranked up with top winds of 115 mph. It looks like it will come very close to Bermuda tonight or early tomorrow, blasting them with hurricane force winds. Then it will thankfully keep heading northeastward, further and further away from us. Good riddance!

This is a large storm, with hurricane force winds extending out 60 miles from its eye. Tropical storm-force winds go out 175 miles. Despite the fact it's missing the United States by a wide margin, there will be dangerous swells and rip currents for the next few days.

JERRY

Tropical storm Jerry formed overnight way out over the central Atlantic, way east of the Leeward Islands. It is expected to grow into a hurricane and could threaten those islands in a couple days. Beyond that, it's not known yet where it will head. Earlier indications are it will turn north before reaching the United States, but that is definitely not guaranteed.

Another Summer, And Record Heat Waves In World Are Starting To Pop

People in India wilting in this months record heat.
Photo via Getty Images.

Here in Vermont, we haven't had much in the way of summer heat. At least not yet.

The hottest it's been in Burlington so far this young summer is 85 degrees. And there is no sign yet of any sustained hot weather. It's actually going to be a bit cooler than normal over the next few days.

Last summer, heat waves blossomed in many, many areas of the Northern Hemisphere, including Vermont.  At least six deaths were attributed to the Vermont heat last July, making the hot spell the state's worst weather disaster since Hurricane Irene in 2011.

A lot of the heat waves around the world last year were  attributed to climate change.  At the time, I wondered if this year would be a repeat of those frequent, record setting heat waves.

You wouldn't know it here in Vermont with the cool weather, but the summer is off to a rough start in the Northern Hemisphere. There have already been some big, record setting, dangerous heat waves.

Much of India normally broils in May and June, before the seasonal monsoons hit. This year is no exception, except the heat there is even worse and more dangerous than anyone has seen.  New Delhi reached 118 degrees, the city's hottest reading on record.

In the lower elevations of India,  a heat wave is declared if daily temperatures reach or exceed 104 degrees. This heat wave is threatening to become the longest on record. The Hindustan Times said this hot spell has lasted 32 days so far.  The record longest heat wave lasted 33 days, so they're very close.

Elsewhere, Finland and parts of Russia just recorded the hottest weather on record for so early in the season.

Record heat has engulfed the West Coast, too. For three days in a row, numerous towns and cities in the San Francisco Bay Area have seen record high temperatures.  It got up to 100 degrees at the San Francisco airport Monday, tying the record for the fifth hottest day on record there.

That 100 degree reading is also the first time it's been that hot in San Francisco in a month other than September, which is when the Bay Area gets its most intense heat waves.  Monterey, California reached 97 degrees, the hottest day on record for meteorological summer (June-August.)

The heat is extending northward into Oregon and Washington, too.

In far southern Texas, record heat combined wit stifling humidity to create a heat index of 128 degrees, which of course is damn dangerous.

It looks like it will be a long, hot summer. If not in Vermont, then elsewhere

Rare Haboob Blasts Lubbock, Texas

The haboob entering a neighborhood near Amarillo. Photo by
Jaci Herrera via Twitter. 

One of the most visually striking meteorological phenomena are haboobs.

Haboobs are walls of dust that roar across usually desert landscapes. They form when strong downdrafts and wind gusts from thunderstorms stir up the dust.

The walls of dust are amazing to look at, but also dangerous. They cut down on visibility on highways, often leading to fatal crashes.

And who wants to clean up after all that dust settles over everything?

Haboobs are common in places like Saudi Arabia and Arizona. Phoenix, Arizona frequently gets them.

They're not as common elsewhere. But yesterday, Lubbock, Texas had an absolutely spectacular haboob. 

The haboob crashing through the Texas panhandle near Lubbock, Texas
yesterday. Photo by Joe Scott, via Twitter. 

A line of severe thunderstorms packing winds of at least 60 mph formed west of Lubbock Wednesday.

The outflow from these storms created this spectacular haboob. No injuries were reported, even as visibility fell to zero on Interstate 27 north of Lubbock.

The National Weather Service issued dust storm warnings for a long strip of the Texas panhandle as the haboob progressed eastward.  Videos are below.

On the bright side, after the haboob moved through, the thunderstorms that caused them also moved through, dumping rain and washing some of the dust away.

Haboobs are rare in Lubbock, but they do happen. Another spectacular one occurred there in October, 2011. 

It's been a wild week in the Texas panhandle. Over the weekend, another, wetter thunderstorm caused extensive flash flooding in Amarillo, about 120 miles north of Lubbock.

In the videos below, you can see the dark parent thunderstorm behind the haboob.  Some clouds along the gust front seem to be interacting with the haboob.

The National Weather Service office in Lubbock issued this time lapse video of the haboob.



The haboob came through during television station KAMC's newscast. They fortunately kept the view from their sky tower camera on, interrupting the normal news program:

Today: Some Severe Risk New England; Ominous Tornado Threat Southern Plains

Areas in dark green have a chance of a
few isolated severe thunderstorms today.
Area in yellow has a somewhat greater
chance of severe storms, but this won't
be nearly as widespread as the dangerous
weather in the southern Plains today. 

1:15 p.m. Update

Maybe it's because I'm from rather tornado-free Vermont, but I'd be scared right now if I lived in Oklahoma.

As of this writing the National Weather Service was just about to issue a rare "Particularly Dangerous Situation" tornado watch for western and central Oklahoma.

Supercells are expected to explosive develop there in the next couple of hours in an atmosphere that has a rare combination of extreme factors that can form violent and long lasting tornadoes.

This kind of thing happens only once every few years, so forecasters are right that this is a very dangerous situation. Everyone in this region should be on high alert for the rest of this afternoon and evening. 

Here in the Northeast, things still aren't too bad as of 1 p.m. There are a couple of broken lines of storms forming, the most well developed one so far in east central New York and starting to run into southwestern Vermont.

This line will continue to develop and might cause some severe storms later this afternoon.  Other storms will develop, and some might still become severe, especially from the Green Mountains east.

Some storms were already developing near Burlington and near the Canadian border as of 1 p.m. Keep a watchful eye to the skies this afternoon for scattered strong to locally severe storms. We're still in line to get this.

At least it's not remotely comparable to the situation in Oklahoma.

UPDATE 10:15 a.m. Monday:

The first hints of a line of storms looks like they are about to form in the northwestern Adirondacks and then head east. There's still a chance of some scattered severe thunderstorms in Vermont and the rest of New England, starting in the northwest in about an hour or two.

The storms should be through Vermont by late afternoon, with the greatest but still uncertain risk of strong to severe storms in the eastern half of Vermont.

I'm thinking the Champlain Valley should be through the brief window of severe thunderstorm risk by about 3 p.m. or so.

Meanwhile, that high risk zone of potentially dangerous tornadoes today has been expanded slightly east to encompass the Oklahoma City metro area.

Earlier, Oklahoma City was still in a serious, but ever so slightly less dire Moderate Risk. People in Oklahoma and Texas should be ready to seek shelter at a moment's notice today. It's still a dangerous situation out there today.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION:

The chances of some very, very dangerous tornadoes is high in the southern Plains today as the atmospheric conditions are almost off the charts to create such an ominous hazard.

That, of course, is the big weather headline of the day, and I'll get into the major threats in Oklahoma and Texas in a bit. But since we're in New England, I'll talk about a lesser, but still real threat of severe thunderstorms in our neck of the woods today.

I was surprised by the amount of severe weather in New York and Pennsylvania yesterday.  There were quite a few tornado warnings, though I don't know yet if any touched down in those states.

The severe weather made a run at southwestern Vermont, but the storms weakened a little just before reaching the Green Mountain State.

But it was a close call. There are no reports of significant damage in Vermont, but just over the western border into Fort Edward, New York and the Glens Falls area, it was something! Tornado warning went up west of Glens Falls, a roof blew off a house in South Glens Falls, and there was a ot of damage in Fort Edward.

Some of the storms in Vermont overnight produced torrential downpours, with up to three inches of rain reported near Worcester. That caused minor flooding and some areas of road washouts.

It's possible some of today's storms, if they're persistent, could cause some local flash flooding, but that problem won't be widespread.

We're still in a severe thunderstorm threat today in Vermont and the rest of New England. As always, only a few people will receive any severe storms, but stay weather alert.

A cold front will be intruding on warm, humid air in place right now. There was a round of thunderstorms early this morning, which often tends to stabilize the air and reduce the chances of severe weather.

But there will be some sun during the rest of this morning, and that will destabilize the air again enough to raise the threat of storms.

While anyplace in Vermont and the rest of New England could get a strong storm today, the best chances seem to be in the southeastern third of Vermont, most of New Hampshire, and western Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

The biggest threat from today's storms would be strong straight line winds. There is actually a very minimal but still real threat of a brief tornado in southeastern Vermont, western Massachusetts and New Hampshire. But nothing like what the southern Plains will experience today.

Conditions in Vermont will quickly calm down this evening and in the early part of tonight further east into New England.

So just go about your business, and if you hear a severe thunderstorm warning, just get into a sturdy house or building and wait it out. It won't last long.

SOUTHERN PLAINS DANGER

A rare high risk zone (in pink) today for potentially strong,
violent, long-lived tornadoes. Areas in red, including
Oklahoma City are at nearly as high of risk as the pink zone.

I can certain understand why a lot of people are worried about the weather today in northern Texas and Oklahoma. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has declared a pretty rare high risk zone for significant and very dangerous tornadoes in much of that region, including the cities of Lawton, Altus and El Reno, Oklahoma.

This is the first high risk alert the Storm Prediction Center has issued for anywhere in the nation since May 18, 2017.

The much larger metro area of Oklahoma City is just outside the edge of the high risk zone, but still in a moderate risk zone for big tornadoes, which is something to take super seriously.

A lot of schools are closed in the Oklahoma City metro area today so that kids are not stuck in potentially unsafe schools, or worse, out on the road in school buses when dangerous weather hits.

Tornado outbreaks often peak around the time of the evening rush hour, so I imagine a lot of people in that region are calling in "sick" to work today, so they're not caught out on jam packed roads if dangerous weather hits.

Nobody knows for sure whether Oklahoma City and its populous suburbs wil get nailed today, but somebody will probably see a very bad tornado. Everyone hopes, of course, the worst tornadoes stay out in open country.

The wording on the Storm Prediction Center's advisory this morning isn't pretty: "This event should result in a significant threat to life and property," says the advisory. It adds that conditions are favorable for "long-track strong tornadoes and possibly violent tornadoes."

There will be at least two rounds of bad storms with this unusually strong storm system. The first is already creating severe thunderstorms in western Texas and those should grow and sweep across northern Texas and Oklahoma this morning and early afternoon. These storms will carry the risk of some tornadoes and large hail.

There have already been reports of baseball sized hail early this morning in northwestern Texas. Usually, you don't see hailstones that big with early morning thunderstorm. That gives you an idea of how volatile this situation is.

Then the second, most serious round gets going this afternoon into the evening. That's when the region I described is under the gun for violent tornadoes, hail up to the size of softballs and straight line winds of 80 mph or even more.

Not everybody in this area will get some extreme weather, but a few places probably will. This will be in the news headlines tonight and tomorrow.

Tornadoes obviously capture attention, but another big threat is looming with these storms, especially up in Oklahoma and in particular the Oklahoma City area.

It's been wet there, and extreme amounts of rain will accompany these dangerous, tornadic thunderstorms. There's a high risk of flash flooding in central Oklahoma today, says NOAA's Weather Prediction Center.

It's only somewhat more common to have a high risk zone for flash floods than a high risk zone for tornadoes. Whatever the case, Oklahoma and some surrounding areas are in for a very, very rough day.

Nation Might Just Have Its Busiest Severe Weather/Tornado Week Of The Year

Photographer/chaser Max Olson (Twitter handle @MesoMax919) captured
  this big Texas tornado over the weekend

Things are setting up in the middle of the nation in such a way that it looks like this week could be the busiest one of the year in terms of tornadoes and other severe weather.

Nothing's guaranteed, of course, but a slow moving storm, a clash of air masses (cold to the northwest, humid to the southeast, dry to the west) are setting the stage for some wild weather.

Things got off to a bang Sunday, with 22 reports of tornadoes from Nebraska to Texas. Most of them happened over open country, so there were no major injuries and not a lot of damage, so that's good. 

It might well be a little quieter today, as the next storm is still organizing. Still, severe weather is possible, centered in Kansas. There might be a tornado or two, but it doesn't look like a widespread outbreak today

A dry line is expected to develop in western Texas. A dry line is just what the name implies. To the east of the dry line, the air is very humid. When the dry line passes through from the west, the humidity crashed downward abruptly. Supercells often form just to the east of dry lines.

Which is what is expected to happen Tuesday. I'm sure there will be LOTS of storm chasers in the Texas Panhandle Tuesday afternoon and evening. Forecasters say there is a high chance of supercells, which could easily drop tornadoes and enormous hailstones.

With visibility great across the flat Texas plains, I'm sure the storm chasers will provide plenty of photos and videos of the action.

Wednesday has the potential to be a classic Tornado Alley twister day. That dry line I talked about will be somewhere in southwestern Oklahoma and northwestern Texas.  Strong winds aloft and a developing storm system will help start up some more quickly developing supercells in Oklahoma and Texas.

At this point, large metro areas like Oklahoma City and Dallas-Fort Worth ought to keep an eye on this. The area that seems to be the Wednesday target is the classic spot in early May for big tornadoes. As I've said below, things could change, but this is almost a textbook example of tornado weather setting up in this area.

I always worry about Moore, Oklahoma, a highly populated suburb of Oklahoma City. For some reason, Moore has a target on its back. In the past 25 years, Moore has suffered through eight tornadoes. Four of those were EF4's or EF5's, the strongest, most dangerous tornadoes possible.

Thursday, as the parent storm system reaches maturity, the severe storm and possible tornado risk will probably extend over a broad region from eastern Texas to the southern Great Lakes.

Sometimes, the tail end of  Midwestern severe outbreaks result in strong thunderstorms here in Vermont. It looks like that will NOT be the case this time. The storm causing the expected tornadoes this week will probably send a good slug of rain through the Green Mountain State Thursday and Friday, but at this point, it looks there will be nothing stronger than a rumble of thunder or two.

Tornado Season Naturally Yields Tornado Videos, Storm Photos

Wedding photographer Brittani Preece captured these newlyweds
under the "mothership" cloud of a rotating supercell
thunderstorm in Amarillo, Texas.

It's tornado season, so it's time for a flurry of tornado videos to come out.

As always there are teams of storm chasers out there in the middle of the country, drawn like flies to every supercell thunderstorm that even hints that it might drop a twister.

It's a little unfair to a lot of stormchaser videos without permission. It's better to make you click on them yourself, so the videographers get the ad revenue. That's part of why they chase. Income. Can't blame them a bit.

So you're free to look at the videos on YouTube, and I'll have some hyperlinks in this post to a couple good ones.

One of the most intriguing is a drone video from Live Storm Media of a tornado zipping across open country in Oklahoma this week. If you look closely you can occassionally see little mini vortices on the ground amid the main swirl.

SevereStudios captured a lot of footage of a tornado near Dean, Texas. Tornadoes often don't have visible funnels that entirely reach the ground, though the actual tornado is on the ground. This one, like the Live Storm Media drone, has several vortexes within the main tornado. That's pretty common , to.

So in some of the the SevereStudios footage, you can see what appears to be maybe a weak tornado, punctuated by what looks like brief, intense spin-ups with in. Those are the vortices, and this type of tornado is known, naturally, as a multi-vortex tornado.

Still photography is often a big winner, too.

Wedding photographer Brittani Preece got some great shots of Morgan LeeAnn Monteiro and Manuel Monteiro, who had just tied the knot a couple weeks ago in Amarillo, Texas.

After the ceremony, a supercell thunderstorm loomed overhead. As we know, these storms can be dangerous, unleashing giant hail, damaging winds and tornadoes.

This particular supercell thunderstorm had something coveted by storm chasers: A mothership feature.

It's a large, rotating, layered part of a supercell, that, if the view is not blocked by rain, resembles a giant alien spaceship invading Planet Earth. Preece, being from Texas, is no dummy when it comes to Lone Star State storms, had the happy couple pose under the mothership clouds and got some spectacular shots, one of which you can see in the photo in this post.

Preece had to move quickly. High winds and heavy rain were fast approaching, so she got off some quick shots before everyone hustled indoors to continue the celebration, says the Houston Chronicle.

One more video we can show: This one shows a spectacular tornado in Romania this week that overturned a bus. It's dash cam footage:

That Blizzard In The Midwest Was Bizarre. Here's Why

If you look closely at this fresh-fallen snow in Mankato, Minnesota
Thursday, you can see brown from Texas dust blown into the storm system
Photo via Twitter, Mark Tarello @mark_tarello

Minnesota Public Radio is calling it the Tex-Mex blizzard.

In some parts of Minnesota and South Dakota, some of the snow that fell with the blizzard that hit the region over the past couple of days had a tan, brown or orange tint to it.

You couldn't use the phrase "pure as the driven snow" in this case.

The storm system was so strong that dust from New Mexico and Texas was drawn up from the south into the cold northern flank of the storm.

The dust mixed with the falling snow to produce the off-color snow. Voila! The Tex-Mex blizzard.

Hmmm. A mix of snow and dirt. I guess you can say it was snirting in Minnesota on Thursday.

Satellite images of the vast storm system showed winds gusting to 70 mph lifting huge clouds of dust in West Texas and propelling it northward.

This storm reminded me of the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. My late father remembered brown snow in Vermont in the 1930s as dust from the Great Plains came all the way to New England, mixing with the falling snow to give the drifts  a brown hue.

The National Weather Service/Twin Cities, Minnesota shared this
satellite image snowing blowind dust Wenesday over Texas that
drifted northward, causing brown snow in Minneota.

My husband Jeff grew up in South Dakota and he says he can remember a time or two when "snirt" fell - leaving a brownish wintry landscape. Still, this event was rare

There were other weird aspects of this storm. There is often thundersnow with this type of Plains storm. The parent system gets so strong that thunderstorms develop in the heavy snow bands.

However, this storm had an incredible amount of lightning, and there were reports of thundersnow with frequent lightning for two days.

The National Weather Service office in Aberdeen, South Dakota urged people to stay indoors there was so much lightning.

Severe thunderstorms are common during strong Plains systems like this one, but the severe weather almost always happen in the warm, moist air to the southeast of the storm's center.

In this case, there weren't that many severe thunderstorms in the warm sector. But very oddly, some severe thunderstorm warnings for large hail and gusts to 60 mph were issued in areas getting snow and sleet. That's very strange.  There were some reports of one-inch diamter hail in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

NEXT STORM OMINOUS

Areas in yellow, orange and especially red are at risk of severe thunderstorms
and tornadoes Saturday. Some of the tornadoes might be strong
and long-lasting. 

The next big storm system will develop tonight and tomorrow in Texas. This one looks more conventional, for the lack of a better word, than the last one with the "snirt" blizzard in the Plains. But this new storm seems much more dangerous.

As mentioned yesterday, this storm threatens a nasty tornado outbreak in the South over the weekend.  

If anything, latest forecasts up the chances of tornadoes, some possibly strong this weekend. The lower Mississippi Valley is the target Saturday, with the highest risk in northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas. 

Severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes will spread into the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and the Southeast Sunday. It's Palm Sunday and churches will be busy. I'm no theologian, but I think God would want churches in these areas to have weather radio tuned in during services. God would also want congregations to have a plan to get to a safe area if a tornado warning is issued.

The storm system will reach New England Sunday night and Monday. Here in Vermont, it still looks like the storm could dump an inch or so of rain on us, and melting snow from the mountains will add to the runoff.

I suspect the National Weather Service will issue flood watches for the region that will go into effect Monday.

Selfish People Think It's OK To Let People DIe To Avoid Hail Dings On Their Cars

In this image from The Weather Channel, parked cars beneath an
Oklahoma overpass block traffic during a weekend hail storm. 

UPDATE:

Kudos to the Twittersphere, namely Becks DePodwin and Nevin deMelliano for pointing out that some insurance companies actually encourage people to park beneath overpasses when it hails.

Yes, as the discussion below shows, doing that endangers other people. But apparently as long as insurance companies don't have to file claims for their own customers, who cares if other people get hurt or killed?

It's all right there. Nationwide's web site tells people to "help protect your car by seeking shelter under an overpass or in a structure with a strong roof."

Not all insurance companies suggest this. Progressive, for instance, tells people who don't have garages or are worried about hail to temporarily stow their car in a covered parking garage at the local mall, which is reasonable enough. No mention of overpasses on the Progressive web site, though I would suggest a disclaimer NOT to do that.

This is an improvement over a couple years ago, when I reported in 2017 that Progressive advised people to stop beneath overpasses. From what I can tell, Progressive has mercifully dropped that advice.

Geico tells people to "pull over to the side of the road and wait out the storm." Fine, but people should pull over well off travel lanes.

The advice from Esurance is actually pretty good: "If you can, pull over into a covered parking area. Pull over to the side of the road (provided its safe to do so."  My quibble: Esurance should say that the "covered parking area" does not include overpasses.

Clearly, despite the advice of weather and severe storm safety experts for the past few decades, the public, insurance companies and others still need a lot more education on the folly of trying to avoid hail and other hazards beneath overpasses.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

Cars block an underpass on a busy highway during a hailstorm
in this undated photo from Reuters. 

Some serious hail storms hit parts of Texas, Oklahoma and other places in the past few days severe thunderstorm season continues to ramp up.

Big hail causes a lot of damage, of course. I also get it that people don't want to get their cars all dented up by giant hail stones.

However, as usual, as we see every year, there are a number of thoughtless, selfish people who decide that the safety and lives of their fellow motorists are expendable if it means they can avoid a couple little hail dings on their cars.

So they park beneath overpasses. Which jams up the highways behind them.

 There's lots of "for instances." Like on Saturday, when parts of Interstate 44 in Oklahoma got jammed up because morons parked beneath bridges and overpasses during a hail storm.

There are so many reasons why parking beneath overpasses in hailstorms is is dangerous. Here are just a few:

1. Visibility is naturally very poor in a thunderstorm with heavy rain and large hail. People trying to manage driving through the hail and rain won't see the traffic jam until it's too late. This is a recipe for a deadly pileup.

2. Even while the hail is pounding down and you're beneath the overpass blocking traffic, the storm has probably already caused damage and maybe injuries up ahead. Emergency vehicles are already racing to the scene. And here the ambulances and firetrucks are coming up behind you and you're blocking their way.

Seconds count in emergencies. And you're wasting time by trying to keep a couple dings off your ride.

3. Thunderstorms with big hail often produce tornadoes. More often than not, as the tornadic thunderstorm approaches, the places affected first get a barrage of hail. Unseen through all this hail is the tornado. People sheltering beneath the overpass, and those trapped behind them, are sitting ducks for the tornado when it follows closely on the heels of the hail.

People are blocked in, so they can't flee the approaching tornado. So that's another way to kill people by parking beneath an overpass.

By the way, the myth still somehow exists that an overpass is a good place to shelter when a tornado approaches. The opposite is true. The structure of the overpass funnels strong winds, so the tornadic gusts are stronger beneath the overpass than elsewhere. Which means if you're sheltering there, you and your car will get blown way. Or sandblasted and impaled by debris. This will kill you. Or worse.

Andrew Pritchard (@skydrama) recently tweeted this recounting from the National Weather Service of people in Oklahoma who "sheltered" beneath an overpass as a strong tornado came in.  There were 12 people there. Only one died. Not so bad, right?

Here's a quote Pritchard repeated from a report of that 1999 tornado, which about what happened the remaining: "Unfortunately, what has not been well publicized is the horrific injuries suffered by all but one of the survivors under the bridge.......These injuries included but were not limited to compound fractures, shattered bones, missing fingers, missing ears, missing noses and being impaled by shingles, 2X4's etc."

So don't shelter under overpasses during severe weather. It's something out of a horror movie.

Not to mention the risk of killing others by stopping beneath these bridges. The 1999 bridge incident, described above was in part created by people stopping beneath that span. Some of the gruesome injuries were because people were blocking the road, and a quarter mile long traffic jam formed there as the EF-5 tornado passed over.

Even with that terrible story,  I know many of those entitled idiots will just flip me the bird and continue to stop at underpasses, not giving a damn if they hurt or kill others.  However, these tips are also great for those of us who want to do the right thing and not hog an overpass.

1. Pay attention to forecasts. If there's alerts, and especially if there's severe thunderstorm or tornado warnings, postpone driving if possible until the threat is over.

2. Watch the skies. If you see what looks like a bad thunderstorm a few miles up ahead, see if you can take the next exit and wait out the storm in a substantial shelter.  One sign that the thunderstorm up ahead might contain a lot of hail is if the storm clouds have a green or blue tint.

3. If caught driving in a hailstorm, slow down and put your blinkers on. By all means do NOT stop under that overpass. It's unsafe to pull to the side of a busy highway, too. But if conditions are so serious you can't see what you're doing, or if the hail breaks your windshield, definitely pull over as far off the roadway as possible. Also, do everything you can to protect your eyes if the car glass is breaking.

4. Remember, it's just a car. Insurance almost always covers the hail damage. Better to ding up your car than kill someone by blocking the highway.

We here in Vermont don't have giant hail or tornadoes as frequently as other places in the nation. But it can still happen. Plus, you might be driving somewhere else when this kind of weather happens.

Please don't be a jerk, and kill or hurt someone by parking beneath an overpass. I do think there's sometimes such a a thing as karma. If you look at it that way, the life you save might be your own.

Here's a harrowing video taken several years ago after an Oklahoma tornado hit an overpass where cars had parked beneath. One person died and several were injured:

Big Storm Update: Tornadoes Hit NM; More Wind, Floods, Blizzard, Severe Weather Today

The giant storm in the Plains already looked
really wound up shortly after dawn
this morning. 

That big storm we've been talking about continues to raise havoc over the middle of the nation.

The storm spun off a couple of relatively rare tornadoes in southeastern New Mexico, causing six injuries and a lot of damage in the town of Dexter. Another dramatic-looking tornado passed near the town of Loving.

Storms roared across Texas, creating 80 mph gusts in Grand Prairie, Texas and 78 mph at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport early this morning.

There is the risk of more severe weather today, this time in the lower Mississippi River valley. The main risk from this is damaging straight line winds. But there also might be a couple more tornadoes.

Today, the focus is on the Plains, from near the Front Range of the Rockies out to near the Mississippi River.

It'll be a blizzard to the west, transitioning to a flood further east. And a TON of wind.

Yesterday was actually a lovely day in eastern Colorado. Temperatures reached the 60s with at least a little sun.

Today, rain will change to snow in Colorado and a blizzard will set in across the northeastern part of the state, including the cities of Denver and Colorado Springs. Further out into the Colorado Plains, where winds during tonight's blizzard could gust to a whopping 75 mph.

The Denver Post reports this might be the the strongest Colorado blizzard in decades. Flights in and out of Denver are already canceled, even before the bulk of the storm arrives.

A rare, large tornado neaer Hagerman, in southeastern
New Mexico on Tuesday. 

Obviously, travel is not recommended later today and tonight in Colorado, and in other areas that will get an intense blizzard out of this.

This blizzard zone also includes the eastern half of Wyoming, western Nebraska, western and central South Dakota, central and eastern North Dakota and the northwestern tip of Minnesota.

In parts of western South Dakota, up to two feet of snow might fall with winds gusting to 60 mph. That's pretty damn extreme.

There won't be as much snow further east, but the wind will certainly howl as the storm reaches its deepest barometric pressure, which might set records in Kansas tonight. Winds gusting to at least 75 mph could hit portions of northern Texas, western Oklahoma and the western half of Kansas tonight.

Along and near the big storm's path, there's an ugly variety of weather planned.  As an example, let's look at Yankton, South Dakota, where many of my relatives live.

High winds overnight collapsed this communications tower near
Abilene, Texas. Photo by Joe Fry via Twitter.

This morning, Yankton and environs is under a flood warning, due to snow melt and an expected inch of rain.

Snow and rain mixed now will change to rain. The melting snow and wet air is also creating dense fog. The rain this afternoon and tonight will probably also be punctuated by thunderstorms.

Tomorrow, the cold air will rush into Yankton and change the precipitation to snow, which will probably accumulate to several inches.

Winds could gust to more than 55 mph. Yankton's not alone. A lot of places in the northern Plains along and path of the storm face these conditions.

Here in Vermont, we're still expecting nothing too dramatic from this storm. A minor weather disturbance this evening seems destined to throw another handful of unwelcome snowflakes on especially northern sections.

But this snow won't be as surprisingly big as what happened Monday night, when north central and northeastern Vermont got a surprise 3 to 10 inch snowstorm. This snow also brought the depth of the snow atop Mount Mansfield to 116 inches. This, or whatever paltry amount falls tonight, will almost certainly be the peak depth for the season up there.

Funnel cloud over Mesa, Arizona as the giant storm began
to organize in the desert Southwest Tuesday.
Photo by Jon Morley via Twitter.

The warmth then temporarily comes in Thursday and Friday to melt some of the snow. Rainfall with this larger system Friday will be relatively light, so that won't contribute much to run off from the snow melt.

Still, there's a lot of ice jams or potential ice jams around in the rivers, so that could cause problems Friday and Saturday.  

The warmth here in Vermont will be short-lived, as we'll get into a chilly pattern again for the beginning of next week. No full on spring yet!

The good news for the nation as a whole is that after this one, the weather pattern across the nation will change somewhat. There will be less of a propensity for large storms to crash onto the California shores, then cause snowstorms, floods, severe weather and whatnot across most of the rest of the nation.

There will be minor systems in the week after this one, but nothing really major. So most people definitely get a break.

Brief video of a large, relatively rare tornado in New Mexico Tuesday: