Want Snow? Take A Gander At Gander (Newfoundland)

A road in Gander, Newfoundland this week after
record snows there. Photo by Nancy Warren

Here where I sit in Vermont, the snow is finally melting at a good clip. Just a few days ago, my property was completely snow covered.

Today, it's mostly snow free

Many of us are saying good riddance to winter and spring snow, but there are a few holdouts who love snow, no matter what.

If you're here in Vermont, we got a minor treat last night  with a quick dusting to two inches of fresh powder in the valleys and maybe a bit more than that in the mountains.

There were reports of three to six inches of snow in parts of northern Vermont this morning, with even more than than in some of the mountaiuns.

But that will very quickly melt Saturday and Sunday as the tempertures warm up again.

For those of you who want a very snowy experience, go all the way up to Newfoundland, Canada. And take a gander at the city of Gander.

This week, there was 87 inches of snow on the ground there, the most recorded in that region's history. They've had storm after storm after storm in recent weeks.

Fun fact: If you think you've heard of Gander in another subtext lately, you have. There's a hit Broadway musical called "Come From Away' about the hospitality the people of Gander gave when transcontinental planes had to land there on Sept 11, 2001, stranding nearly 7,000 people there.

As wonderful as the people of Gander clearly are, I wouldn't want to be there right now. We'll wait until the snow melts. If it does.

A house in Gander, Newfoundland buried in snow this week.

Some of the snowstorms we've had over the past few months have gone on to hit Newfoundland. So did some offshore ones that missed us. Plus, some of our recent rainstorms ended up in Newfoundland as snow.

Newfoundland has never exactly been tropical, but I bet they're really pining for spring up there.

It will come. Newfoundland is pretty far north, but it does get spring and summer. Normal high temperatures this time of year in Gander are well up in the 30s, and often reach the low 70s at least during the summer.

Let's hope they don't get much more snow. For the next few days, things are looking up in Gander. Environment Canada predicts no new snow, and daytime temperatures in the 40s for the next few days.

Flood Watch Eases, Brief Winter Flashback, Then Spring

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Rain has tapered off across Vermont and the rest of New England as of early this Friday morning, so most of the flood watches have been dropped. 

Rivers largely behaved themselves. There's minor flooding around, and there will be some fields and maybe some low lying roads under water today, but that will be mostly the extent of it.

I imagine a couple flood warnings might still pop up along some rivers in northern New England today.

Even so, it could have been worse.

You'll notice it will be raining almost all day today, so you'd think there would still be a rising chance of flooding.

But the risk won't increase much. Here's why:

First of all, it won't rain all that hard. Sure, there might be brief periods when it comes down at a good clip, but those heavier showers won't last long.

Plus, it'll be getting colder as the day wears on in the higher elevations, where most of the snow and potential snow melt runoff remains. So we won't get too much water coming off the mountains. Which leads me to the famous four -letter word.

SNOW!

Yes, it's going to snow again, but before you panic, it's not going to be another big setback to spring. Just nuisance stuff. As noted, it'll first start snowing in the high elevations during the day today and the snow will slowly spread to valley floors by later tonight.

Even down in the Champlain Valley, chances are you'll find a slushy coating to an inch or so of snow when you get up Saturday morning. The mountains could easily pick up a few inches from this. Places like Jay Peak could pick up, say, four inches of relatively late season snow.

In the valleys, any snow that accumulates will melt quickly. Though Saturday will be pretty cloudy, raw and breezy, snow showers will change to light rain showers in the valleys as temperatures get up into the upper 30s and low 40s. Not balmy, but OK.

Next up:

SPRING!

Sunday will be much better than Saturday in the weather department. The sun will be out, though some clouds might come in during the afternoon, especially toward northern New York

But those temperatures! After probably a frosty start, readings will soar well into the 50s to maybe low 60s on warmer valley floors. That'll feel good.

Then, to start off the week on Monday, we're still anticipating temperatures to get up to near 70 for the first time since, well, late February.

This time, 70 degrees won't be anywhere near a record high for this time of year, but it will feel glorious.

Showers move in amid continued mild weather Tuesday, but the rain won't be all that heavy. It'll cool down again later in the week, but not turn frigid. Just seasonably cool for April.

Flood Watch Continues, Southern Tornadoes, And, Snow?

As the rain began to fall in earnest today, the little brook
by my house was already muddy and high. 

Up here in New England, we're continuing with our flood watch for most of the region, as waves of rain move through today, as forecast.

Though there's still a flood risk for sure, the amount of rain we are now expected to get is just a smidge less than earlier forecasts, at least here in Vermont and the rest of the North Country.

The storm system causing this wet weather has gaps in its precipitation moving south to north up the East Coast.

That means it'll rain most, but not all of the time for the rest of the day and tonight. Sometimes the rain will come down quite heavily, sometimes it'll be pretty light.  As I write this at 12:45  p.m. Thursday, it's raining pretty hard in St. Albans, Vermont.

However, the rainfall, combined with snow melt and rain from a few days ago, is already raising water levels in area rivers.

Some will go over their banks by Friday.  If not sooner.

There are already some spotty flood warnings and advisories in parts of southern New England and New York State as rivers rise.

This isn't going to be a repeat of the devastating floods of Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, but you still want to take any flooding seriously.

That means you don't drive over flooded roads. The water might be too deep. It doesn't take much to float a car away. Even if the water is shallow, the flooding might have undermined the road, so you'll fall in if you try to drive over it.

It's always wiser to take a detour, even if it makes your trip a bit longer. Just deal with it, OK?

Rain will continue Friday, and gradually change to snow in the higher elevations later in the day. Some snow might reach valley floors Friday night, but there won't be a huge amount of accumulation if any.

So don't worry about a major return to winter. Plus, we're still expecting temperatures to get into the 60s to near 70 early next week for a brief, but welcome taste of full-on spring.

SNOW ELSEWHERE 

Places further west and even south did get some snow from this, or are about to. A few inches of snow piled up in Michigan during this storm, and accumulating snow is likely in the central Appalachians tonight.

Even there, the snow will quickly melt as spring keeps working to overwhelm the last vestiges of winter.

Also in the Great Lakes, high winds are pushing big crashing waves into many shorelines, including the Chicago lakefront today.

Out West, though, a major winter storm is going to hit the Sierra Nevada mountains again. (They often get heavy snows in April in the higher elevations of those mountains.)

This storm will be pretty hefty in California, with two to four feet of new snow expected at elevations above 6,000 feet.

Lower elevations of California can expect quite a bit of rain and wind out of this storm Friday and Saturday. After an incredibly wet winter, storms tapered off a bit in March, but it looks like California is going to get one or two last minute soakings in April to top off quite a water winter.

TORNADO UPDATE

Yesterday, I said we should hope for good luck in the Southeast with an expected tornado outbreak, and we kind of got that good luck, though not everybody would think so.

There was a lot of damage and some injuries, but no deaths that I know of. There was at least one very strong, long lasting tornado, the kind that people feared the most yesterday. But that tornado largely stayed out of large towns and cities. It also wasn't as wide and as long lasting as first reported.

That big tornado damaged many houses and trees in southwestern Georgia, though. And there were fewer tornadoes overall than there could have been, given the volatile weather situation. The Storm Prediction Center said there were 10 reports of tornadoes Wednesday, mostly in the Southeast.

Damage from tornadoes, flooding, high winds and hail were reported in several states from Missouri to South Carolina.

There is the chance for some severe thunderstorms in the Middle Atlantic States for the next few hours until the storm system's cold front passes off the coast.

Today's Southeast Tornado Outbreak Could Be Especially Nasty

The elementary school in Goodman, Missouri was trashed by
a tornado Tuesday evening, marking the start of the latest
tornado outbreak. Photo via Twitter, Fox 23 News. 

UPDATE: The Storm Prediction Center has upgraded the tornado risk in part of the Southeast to "High" which is the most dire level of alert

The High Risk zone extends through central Georgia into part of South Carolina. Large, destructive tornadoes are quite possible in this area.

Already, a large, catastrophic looking tornado was already reported on the ground in southwestern Georgia as of 12:45 p.m.

As of 1 p.m., there was reports of extensive damage in a half mile to mile wide path with this tornado, so this is about as big as they come. Extremely dangerous, too. And with this type of weather setup, this tornado,and others like it, could stay on the ground for a long time. Which of course is really, really bad.

This extremely dangerous tornado was headed toward Plains, Georgia as of 1 p.m.  That's Jimmy Carter's home town. It was also heading for the bigger town of Americus, Georgia, population 16,000+.

Scary

Areas surrounding the high risk area are also in danger of powerful, deadly tornadoes for pretty much the rest of the day.

It's also beginning to look like there will be a tornado risk extending up the East Coast to as far as Virginia tonight.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

As of early this Wednesday morning, there was already a tornado watch up for a most of Alabama, western Georgia and the Florida panhandle.

That they would issue tornado watches this early in the day is an ominous sign that this could be a particularly destructive day in the Southeast and parts of the Tennessee and Ohio river valleys.

Forecasters are definitely worried there could be numerous tornadoes today, and some of them could be quite strong.

The power of a particular tornado outbreak is hard to pinpoint even a few hours in advance. Sure, you often know a day or two in advance whether there's potential for lots of strong tornadoes, or just a couple weak spinups.

The potential is certainly there today for some carnage, but tornadoes are all a matter of luck.

Maybe we'll get lucky and the atmosphere won't come together quite perfectly enough to produce a lot of dangerous tornadoes.

Or, a few very strong tornadoes will develop, but they'll go over rural and forested countryside and not hit any towns or cities.

We could also get unlucky, and a tornado could maraude through a population center, like in April, 2011, when a super outbreak trashed Tuscaloosa, Alabama and other populated towns in the South, killing more than 300 people, injuring nearly 2,800 and causing over $10 billion in damage.

I'm sure today's outbreak won't be as bad as the cataclysm of 2011, which was arguably the worst tornado outbreak in U.S. history.

There won't be as many tornadoes this time, the dangerous weather won't last as long, and we'll probably be luckier than in 2011.

Still, in one respect, our nation's luck with tornadoes seems to have run out this year.

After the very tragic tornado year of 2011, each of the five years from 2012 to 2016 were relatively quiet in terms of tornadoes. Those years had their share of tornado deaths and destruction, but not on par with how bad it often gets in the United States in the spring.

However, this year, we're on a near-record pace for tornadoes. As of a couple days ago,  U.S. Tornadoes says that the United States has had a reported 474 tornadoes so far in 2017, with 27 deaths.

And the season is still young. Tornado season usually peaks in May.

What will become this latest outbreak of tornadoes actually started in Missouri last night, when the town of Goodman was hit by a twister that badly damaged its elementary school, a fire station and part of downtown. Luckily, no deaths with that one, but there were two injuries.

People in the Southeast are taking few chances with their luck today. The governor of Alabama has already declared a state of emergency, and many schools are closed across Alabama, Georgia and other states.

Everybody in the region is being told to know where to go very quickly to a basement or a tornado shelter within a moment's notice.

The latest anticipated tornado outbreak will end Thursday when dangerous thunderstorms exit the Mid-Atlantic coast. After a brief break, there's a chance of more tornadoes in the Midwest Sunday. After that, who knows?

Maybe we'll get lucky and the season will quiet down. Don't bet on it, though.

Flood Watches Now Up In Vermont, Much Of The Rest Of The Northeast

Floodwaters rush across Route 15 in Cambridge, Vermont
during spring flooding in April, 2014. I expect similar
scenes in Vermont later this week. 

As expected, flood watches are flying now for Thursday into Saturday in much of the Northeast, including Vermont.

The culprits are melting snow and a wet, windy storm that's due here Tuesday.

The storm is likely to cause a nasty tornado and severe thunderstorm outbreak in the southeastern United States Wednesday, as I mentioned this morning. 

The storm will consolidate into a large system which will bring lots of moisture in off the Atlantic Ocean into the Northeast.

The flood watches cover most of Vermont, most of the eastern half of New York, pretty much all of southern New England, southern New Hampshire and parts of northern New Jersey.

In places like New York City and far southern New England, the problem won't be melting snow as much as the downpours that will be coming down.

Here in Vermont, the flood watch covers the entire state except the Northeast Kingdom and Grand Isle County. The rain won't be as heavy around here as it will be closer to the coast, but it will combine with snow melt to raise river levels.

It doesn't help that it rained today and the snow has been melting, so rivers are already running high. Even though we'll probably only get an inch or so of rain, that precipitation, combined with melting snow and those already high rivers, will almost certainly result in flooding.

Spring flooding in Cambridge, Vermont in April, 2014.
Similar floods are likely later this week.

The Northeast Kingdom will probably have a little less rain than the rest of the state during the upcoming storm, but I still wonder if the flood watch might be extended to that part of the state by Friday.

In Grand Isle County, there is, of course, no major rivers to flood. And there's much less snow there to melt than in most other parts of the Green Mountain State.  

Still, even in Grand Isle County, I'm sure there will be some wet basements and some brooks that go out of their banks a bit

For the rest of us, the flooding threat will start with small brooks and streams Thursday as an intial slug of rain blows through.  Low spots on area roads will probably flood, too.

As we go into Thursday night and Friday, the bigger rivers across the North Country will probably start to see some flooding.

The National Weather Service in South Burlington says the rivers most likely to go over their banks Friday are the Ausable in New York and in Vermont, the Winooski and Mad rivers, plus the Otter Creek.

At the very least, I expect some of the traditional flood spots in Vermont to go under water by Friday, including low lying roads like Route 73 in southern Addison County, North Williston Road between Williston and Essex, the "Wrong Way Bridge" area in Cambridge, and Route 125 in Westford.

Beyond that, for those pining for spring, it's beginning to look like temperatures might make it into the 60s, possibly near 70 in Vermont toward the beginning or middle of next week.

Bring the spring greening on!

Tornadoes, Severe Weather, Floods Continue To Slam Much Of Nation

A fire station in Carrollton, Georgia lost its roof in a
tornado Monday. You can see a brief video of the roof
flying off at the bottom of this post. Photo from
Channel 2 Action News

Yesterday was another busy day in the nation's severe weather department, just as it was over the weekend and just as it will be in the next couple of days.

The worst of it yesterday was in Georgia, where there were 24 preliminary reports of tornadoes and widespread damage.

The storm system that spawned those tornadoes is what's giving much of New England a cold rain today, and Maine yet another winter storm. 

We're moving into the heart of the United States tornado season now, and we'll have plenty of dangerous weather in various parts of the nation during the severe weather season peak, now througn May and into June.

There's a bit of a lull in the action today between storms, though severe storms, hail and a few tornadoes could fire up later today in Oklahoma, Arkansas and parts of the Deep South. 

A very strong storm will ramp up the severe weather again on Wednesday with another widespread outbreak.

Once again, Georgia seems to be most at risk for tornadoes Wednesday, but a large area across the Ohio and Tennessee River Valleys, and most of the Southeast are also under the gun.

The storm will create a risk of severe weather  in the Mid-Atlantic states Thursday. Up here in the Northeast, we won't have much in the way of severe weather, but count on a bunch of rain, a flooding risk and strong, gusty winds here in Vermont and the rest of New England Thursday and Friday from this thing.

Below are some videos:

Here's security camera video of a narrow but intense tornado flipping a car at a Lafayette, Louisiana car repair shop:




Here's a very brief view of a tornado tearing the roof off a fire station:


And, Ooops! A tornado uncovered a pot growing operation in a state where growing pot is illegal. Watch:

There Are "New" Clouds In The Sky - 11 Of 'Em

A really cool type of cloud called aspirates. The International
Cloud Atlas has deemed these a "new" type of cloud
classification, though these clouds have existed forever.
Bonus: These clouds are really cool, but not dangerous.

As a weather geek, I'm always obnoxiously looking up at the sky checking out the shapes, formations and ever-changing cloud movements up there.

Apparently, there's a lot of people like me, because there's something called the International Cloud Atlas, that lists and describes all the different kinds of clouds that can happen.

Recently, the International Cloud Atlas has deemed that there are eleven "new" clouds that we can look at.

To be honest, the new clouds the Atlas lists have always existed, but hey, you have got to account for everything that's in the sky, right.

The reason these clouds are "new" is they didn't really fit any previous catagory of cloud, so they had to get their own groupings.

Five of the clouds are highly localized clouds that form from very, limited and specific circumstances.

For instance, there are flammagenitus clouds, which form near wildfires, and cataractagenitus clouds, which form from the spray generated by waterfalls.

My favorite "new" cloud, one that is actually somewhat rare but something most of us have seen at least once in our lives without realizing it, is asperitas clouds.

According to National Geographic recognition of Asperitas clouds came from citizen scientists.

Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds over Breckenridge, Colorado
in October, 2015. Photo by Stacy Nicholson and Skip Wood.

That's another plug for citizen scientists that I want to highlight.

These are normal, every day people that don't have a lot of training in science, but they observe what's going on in the natural world around them, and report that information to trained scientists.

Scientists, and their tools and instruments, can't be everywhere at once, so local people observing local phenomenon, can be the eyes and ears of meteorologists and any other scientists.

People - citizen scientists - hooked up with a group called the Cloud Appreciation Society to note the type of cloud they were observing, the Asperitas clouds, didn't really fit any existing category in the Cloud Atlas.

So, finally, Asperitas clouds are in the Atlas. Congratulations!

Other clouds added to the the Atlas are Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds, which I also mentioned not long ago. They look like a series of breaking waves in the sky.

Another fascinating cloud added to the list are fallstreak clouds. You see it when there's a layer of mid-level clouds overhead, and there's a circular area in those clouds where the sky is clear, and you can see streaks of what looks like rain coming out of where the hole in the clouds just formed.

What typically happens with fall streak holes is that the clouds are made of supercooled water - its still liquid, but the temperature is below 32 degrees. A plane flies through the cloud, causing the supercooled water to freeze in patch, and form ice crystals that begin falling toward the ground.

That's the streaks you see beneath the hole in the clouds. This process can move the air around the center of the hole, and the hole can expand as more droplets freeze and fall, or dry air intrudes and they evaporate.

To conclude, here's a timelapse of really cool asperitas clouds: