And You Thought The Mother's Day Weekend Snow In Vermont Was Weird

Traffic cam of Interstate 80 in Laramie, Wyoming. Yes, this was
taken this morning, June 9

It's June 9. Practically summer.

Imagine waking up to this on your morning weather report:

Winter storm warning....Heavy wet snow. Additional accumulations of 2 to 4 inches, Total accumulations of 5 to 8 inches. Winds gusting as high as 35 mph....Impacts: Some power lines and numerous tree branches will be down. Roads will be slushy and snowcapped, and icy in spots especially over bridges."

That was the state of affairs in Laramie Wyoming this morning, as very odd weather continues to hit the West and parts of the northern Plains.

Snow fell from Washington to Montana and south to Colorado over the past couple of days.  Snowfalls in the Rocky Mountains happen almost yearly in June, but this one is more extreme than usual, that's for sure.

Ski resorts in much of Colorado had fresh powder this morning. Snow plows were clearing slush and ice of Interstate 70 in Loveland Pass, Colorado, west of Denver.

This is all part of a very stormy pattern over the north central United States. The remnants of Cristobol continue moving through the Midwest toward the western Great Lakes and Canada, carrying a flood threat with it.

A separate storm that will eventually merge with former Cristobal is creating an odd wind storm in Kansas and Nebraska. Winter and early spring storms often carry widespread 60 to 70 mph wind gusts with them, but those storms don't happen in June.

This one IS  happening in June with forecasted wind gusts in that 60-75 mph range. Leafless trees in the winter don't fall as easily as ones with leaves.  The leaves act like little sails in strong winds, which will  pull down a lot of branches and trees in the central Plains today.

By the way, a few tornadoes are also likely today in parts of eastern Kansas and Nebraska, and in Illinois and surrounding states.

Back in Laramie, meanwhile winter redux will come to an abrupt end later this morning. They're expecting a high temperture of 57 degrees there today under increasing sunshine.  That's still chilly for this time of year - normal highs this time of year in Laramie are around 70 degrees - but at least the snow will melt quickly.

Some videos:

Nighttime video of snow laden trees and power flashes from  branches falling on lines in or near Laramie:



In a rather high elevation spot in Colorado this morning:

Wild Wyoming Tornado Video Shows Even Small Tornadoes Are Incredible

Damage to the inside of a mobile home after a weak but
dramatic EF-0 tornado swept through Marbleton, Wyoming.
Photo by Nikki Williston. 

A resident of Marbleton, Wyoming captured video of a tornado on Friday that shows that even weak ones are nothing to be toyed with.

On paper, the tornado doesn't sound that awful at all. The tornado was measured as an EF-0, the weakest in a scale that goes up to EF-5, which is the strongest.

The Marbleton tornado had maximum winds of 80 mph. Its path on the ground went only a tenth of a mile. The thing was just 20 yards wide. Not exactly the Midwest tornado disaster we often see on the news.

Still, the video below captures the wild drama. (Note: Video is NSFW, as the videographer is understandably swearing.)  You see near the beginning of the brief video a mobile home flop over in the wind. Debris swirls in the air. Remarkably, a trampoline goes flying in a broad arc overhead.

The person shooting the video probably shouldn't have been watching the tornado from her front window with the tornado so close. Debris could have smashed through, injuring people. But still, it's a brief but wild ride. Watch:

WIndy And Wild In The Rockies

Very strong winds are pretty common along the front range of the Rockies in Montana, Wyoming and  Colorado during the winter.

Recently, a man stepped out onto the ice on Hogan Reservoir near Clark Forks, Wyoming. Here was the result:

Laramie Tornado Wows Just About Everybody

Tornado near Laramie,
Wyoming Wednesday.

Every year, there's at least one iconic tornado somewhere in the United States that is just amazing to watch and terribly beautiful.

To be clear the terribly beautiful ones are the twisters that don't hurt or kill anybody.

So it was near Laramie, Wyoming on Wednesday when long lived tornado touched down beneath a supercell thunderstorm.

It hit near a populated area, and many storm chasers had already congregated near the supercell, so you know this was going to be well photographed and lots of people would take videos.  Even a Wyoming Department of Transportation highway webcam caught a good image of the tornado.

Though it hit near a populated area, the tornado did not actually go through neighborhoods. It stayed mostly in open country. That's a great thing, since the twister was rated an EF-3.

A National Weather Service survey and analysis of the tornado indicated it had estimated winds were 150 mph, was 600 yards wide and tracked for 12 miles.  As noted, it caused little damage.

A satellite tornado briefly formed that had maximum winds of 120 mph. That one wasn't on the ground long at all, but it went through a subdivision, causing damage to several houses.

While weak tornadoes are fairly common in Wyoming, strong ones are rare. Until this year, Wyoming had not experienced a tornado rated  at EF-3 (winds of 136 to 165 mph) since 1987.  In the opening days of June this year, there have been two such tornadoes in Wyoming. The Laramie tornado and one near Gillette on June 1.

Here's one video of the twister:



And here's another series of views from Laramie Live:

Did Someone Say Snow? Relax, NOT For Us In New England

Sunset atop Mount Washington, New Hampshire Tuesday as
seen through a railing coverd with ice and frozen snow.
No more snow there in the foreseeable future, but the
mountains of northwestern United States look like they'll
get some over the next several days. 

As we head into summer, it seems all my nightime dreams involve snowfalls.

No, I'm not pining for snow right now, but it seems I've got snow on my brain.

Maybe it's because I've been watching the weather patterns and see signs of snow for the next few days - for the northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest, not for us, so relax.

It's true it did snow atop Mount Washington the other day, but the jet stream flow has changed and we can expect a few days of summer weather here in the Northeast and through most of the eastern two-thirds of the nation for that matter.

It's another story for the Cascades of Washington and Oregon, the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, and parts of the high country in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

A deep dip in the jet stream is drawing cold, stormy air from northwestern Canada, and the result will be some June snow in these mountains. 

It's actually not all that unusual for it to snow in the mountains in the part of the country in June, but still, people are worried about early season hikers and campers that aren't ready for cold temperatures and wet snow.

Already, a winter weather advisory - in June - is up for the Lassen Park area of California for four to eight inches of high elevation snow. Other advisories might go up for the northwestern United States mountains over the weekend and into early next week.

There was already a LOT of snow in many western mountains from a stormy winter. In Wyoming, things have gotten ugly, and the turn to colder weather toward Tuesday there could actually help.

Ahead of the approaching cold front it is quite warm in Wyoming and surrounding parts of Idaho and Montana. That has created some serious snow melt flooding and things will probably get worsre today and Saturday as thunderstorms unleash heavy rain atop this melting snow.

Forecasters are urging voluntary evacuations in some river valleys of central Wyoming. Also,  the Wind River at Riverton, Wyoming has reached a record crest.

Although people in this area will be relieved at the colder weather by Tuesday, I'm sure they won't appreciate the additional snowfall in the mountains, which will eventually have to melt.

Northeast Heat Overperforms; Wild Weather Everywhere Today

A busy weather day for much of the nation today. Areas in
yellow have a slight risk of severe storms. Dark green
is a marginal risk. That hot pink area in the middle of
the country is a risk for strong tornadoes today. 

Every once in awhile, you get a day where there's lots of wild weather everywhere.

One of those is today. Including here in Vermont and the rest of the Northeast, though it's not nearly as heart-pounding here as it is in a few other parts of the country.  

First, I owe you a bit of a mea culpa. I said in yesterday's post that record high temperatures would not be broken Wednesday in Vermont, as the peak of the odd early season heat blast would hit today, Thursday instead.

Well, that heat really overperformed on Wednesday. Burlington set a record high of 91 degrees Wednesday, besting the previous record of 90, set in 1977.

Montpelier made it to 87, beating the record of 85 degrees back in 1977. And St. Johnsbury reached 89, edging out the 88 in 1991.

The heat is on today, as you may have noticed with the stuffy night we had last night.

More record highs might be set today, depending on clouds and wind speeds, but a few records probably will fall. The record high today in Burlington is 89 set in 1989, and that mark is definitely in danger.

You'll notice it's windier today than yesterday, so at least there's a breeze. But it's more humid, too, so there's that.

The wind will be especially strong in New York's St. Lawrence Valley, were gusts could reach 50 mph. And that doesn't even include the thunderstorms that might develop later.

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has northern New York and the northwest tip of Vermont in the slight risk zone for severe thunderstorms.

A little disturbance ahead of a cold front might create a few isolated severe thunderstorms late this afternoon across the North Country. There won't be a lot of thunderstorms, but they'll be working with hot, gusty air, so a couple of those could get really strong.

Another line of storms ahead of a cold front will probably get into northern New York later this evening. Some of those will be severe, with high winds being the biggest threat. There's also the risk of big hail, and and even a teensy, tiny little chance of a brief tornado spin up, too. Heavy rains could accompany the storms.

This line of storms will likely start to weaken as they get into Vermont, but some might still be severe tonight, especially in western Vermont. So we'll watch that.

Yet another dramatic turnaround in the weather comes Friday, with much, much cooler weather. Highs will only be around 60 to 65 degrees, which is only a tad cooler than normal for this time of year, but it will feel dramatically different compared today.

I mentioned that this busy weather in Vermont is not as extreme as other areas of the country and that's surely true.

You'll probably hear on the news tonight and tomorrow of a very nasty tornado outbreak, especially in Kansas and Oklahoma. Conditions there are ripe today for strong, long lasting tornadoes, so that's certain a big danger. Hope the big tornadoes stay out in open country, and not blast through cities like Topeka, Wichita and Oklahoma City.

Meanwhile, in Wyoming and Colorado, a HUGE late season snowstorm was getting underway this morning.  Up to three feet of snow is forecast in the high elevations of Wyoming by Saturday. Areas around Laramie, Wyoming could see 20 inches of snow out of this, which is really something.

In Denver, a few inches of wet snow might accumulate tonight on fully leafed out trees. The weight of that snow would break quite a few branches and power lines.

So far at least, I haven't heard of any forecasts of maurading locusts.

Stormscapes Video by Nicolaus Wegner Is Beyond Awesome

An ominous, beautiful wall cloud in a severe storm,
photographed by Nicolaus Wegner.  

Those of you who read this here blog thing know I like weather porn.

So do a lot of other weather geeks. Weather porn is totally safe for work.

It's images and videos of storms and other extreme weather that is thrilling to watch, dramatic to see. It's kind of a rush.

I'm always looking for "weather porn videos" like some sort of creep in a scary adult video parlor in a bad part of town.

Except, since it's innocent enough (No sex! No nudity! No weirdness!) I can be open about it, and can just enjoy this little foible I have. And share it.

I think I found what is maybe the best weather porn video I've ever come across.

It's time lapse videos of storms, tornadoes and other violent weather in Wyoming and surrounding states.

It was put together by Nicolaus Wegner, who, with his wife Daow, run LightAlive photography in Wyoming. 

Nicolaus Wegner captured his wife Daow, confronting
a beautiful, severe storm.  

The video, Stormscapes 2, is meticulously edited to music, and it's just an awesome concert of nature at its most violent and beautiful.

Wegner spent a lot of time driving around Wyoming, South Dakota and nearby other states to capture these big storms.

Just an amazing video to watch. And pop on over to the LightAlive photography web site, because he's got awesome still images of storms and other nature pics.

They do a lot of great portraiture and wedding photography, too, but their nature images are absolutely amazing.

Wegner's weather art are (hint, hint) the perfect Christmas gift for the storm, nature and art lover.

Here's his amazing Stormscapes 2 video. (It's best to watch it in full screen mode):





Stormscapes 2 from Nicolaus Wegner on Vimeo.

That Rocky Mountain Cold Wave Is Something!

Traffic makes its way along a Wyoming highway
amid snow and record cold Wednesday. Photo
by Alan Rogers, Casper Star-Tribune.  

The highly anticipated cold snap in the eastern two thirds of the nation has arrived, with the initial cold front clearing the East Coast yesterday.

Everybody from the Rocky Mountains eastward will "enjoy" winter conditions for the next one to two weeks at least.

The frigid weather has been especially impressive in the Rocky Mountain states, especially Wyoming and Colorado.

The big news came out of Casper, Wyoming, where the temperature fell to 26 below Wednesday morning. That makes it by far the coldest November temperature on record for that city, beating 21 below on November 21, 1985.

That record is impressive because usually, if the coldest temperature of any day in the month is broken, it's usually by one degree, not five. That's incredible.

In November, normal temperatures are, of course on a downward swing, so you'd expect the coldest temperatures to be at the end of the month, not sort of near the beginning.

Laramie, Wyoming was "warmer" yesterday with a low of 22 below.

In Denver, winter hit with a vengeance, too. The "high" temperature there Wednesday was just 6 degrees above zero, and the temperature had fallen to 5 below later in the evening, a record low for the date.

The cold will relax in Wyoming and Colorado a bit over the next few days, but it will still be plenty chilly.

Winter cold will also linger in most of the rest of the country for a week or two.

There are hints of a warm up for most places in the nation toward the end of the month, but that's something I can't firmly promise. Long range forecasts are notoriously iffy.

So stay tuned on that one.

Amazing "Tree Trunk" Spinning Storm in Wyoming Sunday Is Tops In "Weather Porn"

Severe weather broke out in the High Plains of Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska Sunday.

The rough weather, which included a couple of small tornadoes, hit mostly remote, sparsely populated areas. The exception was Billings, Montana, which got some large hail.

But Sunday's biggest drama was the cloud you see in the photo. It was a spinning supercell in the middle of nowhere, basically, near Clareton, Wyoming.

I got it from Basehunters Chasing, who are storm chasers with a penchant for capturing beautiful, incredible Tornado Alley storms.

This is probably they're best shot yet. Find them: @basehunters via Twitter.

Also, click on their Facebook page for much more. 

The storm didn't produce a tornado, but it is surely one scary cloud. Like an alien mother ship ready to take over the world, or a giant elephant ready to stomp the hell out of us.

Basehunters were also kind enough to take this time lapse video of this supercell storm. Watch this incredible, high quality weather porn:





For good measure, here's a view of Sunday's hail storm in Billings, Montana: