Odds And Ends: British Pressure, Raining Iguanas And Strange Tornado Warnings

Record high barometric pressure in London, England is among the
odd but mostly not dangerous weather events this week
around the world.

Some or all of the stuff in this post today might seem a bit isoteric, but they're really not.  But they are examples of how weather and climate can be interesting to watch even when the actual weather you're feeling isn't extreme at all.

We've had record high pressure in Great Britain. It was at least potentially raining iguanas in South Florida because of a chilly spell, and what was the deal with those tornado warnings along the winter dreary coast of Washington State?

LONDON PRESSURE 

The other day, London, England recorded its highest barometric pressure on record, which is impressive, since they've been keeping track of such things there for over 300 years.

According to Weather Underground's Category 6 blog, the mean sea-level pressure at Heathrow Airport was 1049.6 mb or 30.99 inches Sunday evening.

Record high pressures were also reported in France, Belgium and elsewhere on Sunday.

The record high pressure in London is really cool for weather geeks, but Londoners didn't exactly suffer under these condtiions. Record low pressure is associated with extreme storminess, but record high pressure usually brings fair weather.

In North America, near record high pressure is associated, at least in the winter, is usually associated with extremely cold Arctic outbreaks. But in England and western Europe, this record high pressure just brought fair and just relatively chilly air to the region

As Category 6 points out, though, if the pressure is high somewhere, it has to be low somewhere else.

When the air pressure is high, air is sinking in that spot. When air pressure is low, it's rising.

You read here the other day about that mammoth blizzard in Newfoundland. That was an extremely strong storm, with very low barometric.  That meant a lot of air was rising. (Rising air also means lots of precipitation, so no wonder it snowed so hard in Newfoundland.)

But that rising air has to end up somewhere. What goes up, must come down, so all that air that rose near Newfoundland sank near the United Kingdom.  With lots of sinking air the air pressure at the surface got to record high levels.

Another thing that happened is related: When there's a contrast over short distances between high pressure and low pressure, you get a lot of wind.

A storm hit Spain this week causing incredible amounts of wind and coastal flooding.  The storm, which is of course an area of low pressure, in Spain wasn't too, too strong as storms go. But the contrast between the mid-strength storm in Spain and the very high pressure to its north brought the wind, tides and towering, destructive waves.

Video of that storm, definitely worth watching, is at the bottom of this post.

FLORIDA WIND CHILLS AND IGUANAS

A burst of chilly air came into Florida this week. Well, it least it was chilly for them.

The Florida cold weather made a lot of news, not because it was so extreme in a historical context, but because these cold snaps have become increasingly rare in the Sunshine State due to global warming.

Early this morning, it got down to 40 degrees in Miami, which was the coldest it's been there since December, 2010. That sounds impressive, but the record low temperature for the date there is 30 degrees, so they didn't even get close to a record.

Still, 40 degrees is chilly for South Florida. The National Weather Service in Miami issued an unusual statement telling residents to not be surprised if iguanas fall from the trees in the cold.

When temperatures get into the 40s, iguanas stiffen up and basically shut down, so they'll fall from the trees. Some might die, but many if not most will recover. People were told to leave seemingly dead iguanas alone, because they'd likely recover if warmed up and maybe bite you.

The National Weather Service also issued wind chill advisories for South Florida yesterday, warning of air with wind that would make it feel like it was in the 20s and 30s outside.

To us winter hardy northerners, that seems laughable because a January day in the 30s is a warm spell. But people in Florida aren't used to such temperatures, so the advisory to stay well dressed to ward off hypothermia was smart.

Of course, the NWS used the standard language used all across the United States for wind chill advisories, so the statement also alerted people to the possibility of frostbite. That is impossible if actual temperatures stay above freezing, as they did in South Florida

PACIFIC NORTHWEST TORNADOES?

A series of storms off the Pacific Ocean has kept the western Washington and Oregon pretty wet this month, and that parade of wet weather will continue this week.

A particularly rembunctious storm came ashore in Washington yesterday, accompanied by rotating thunderstorms that had the potential to unleash tornadoes.

At one point late Tuesday afternoon, four separate tornado warnings were in effect for coastal Washington. There have been no confirmed tornado touchdowns in Washington so far but an EF-0 twister did hit coastal Oregon Tuesday, causing minor damage.

Tornadoes are rare in this area, though every once in awhile a strong Pacific storm can set off a tornado.

Here's a video of the incredible coastal waves in Spain caused by that storm and the very high pressure to the north:

Videos: Extreme Floods Hit Spain

Severe flooding in Spain piled up these cars. So far six people are
known dead from the severe storms. 

It wasn't just South Dakota that had epic floods this week.

Parts of Spain had even more extreme inundations, as the videos below show.  

The flooding has killed at least six people, including one man who was in a car inside a tunnel that filled up with water within minutes, according to The Guardian. 

The storms were focused in southern Spain. One town got 3.5 inches of rain in an hour. (For comparison, here in Vermont, on average, it takes the entire month of September to get that much rain. Another community reported a storm total of 15 inches.

This is the second time in about a month that Spain has been hit by extreme storms. In August, flooding and severe hail hit in and around Madrid

First, a good overview of the flooding via The Guardian:



Here's cars being swept away in Los Alcazares, Spain:



Here, a person is trapped by rising water against a tree, putting him in real danger. Watch a truck driver make a rescue:


It wasn't just flooding. A tornado struck the resort area of Alicante, Spain:

Ophelia, Wildfires Trash Europe, And A Word About Vermont Frost Tonight

A stadium damaged by Ophelia
today in Ireland.

I know frost during October in Vermont is not exactly unusual or a disaster, especially compared to the weather extremes and dangers in Europe most of this post will be about.

We're talking what was Hurricane Ophelia, now a powerful storm trashing Ireland. And we're talking scary, deadly wildfires in Portugal and Spain.

VERMONT FROST 

But, I'm based in Vermont, so I'll get our frost out of the way first: Although much of Vermont has already had frost this autumn, the Champlain Valley and a few other places have not. Which is pretty late in the month to go frost-free.

That will change tonight. A freeze warning is in effect for the Champlain Valley tonight, which means most of us will go below freezing. Anything that's still growing outside that you want to keep should either come inside, or you should try covering them up.

Even covering them might not totally be enough in many areas, especially away from the lake, since it will be so cold.

There are no frost warnings away from Lake Champlain because the growing season is considered done there. But some garden plants survived earlier cold weather elsewhere in Vermont, where temperatures will be in the 20s tonight.

Warmer weather returns for the rest of the week, but it won't be quite as toasty as the near-record mid and upper 70s we saw on Sunday.

OPHELIA

As I write this Monday morning, Ireland was being trashed by what was Hurricane Ophelia. It has finally lost its tropical characteristics but not its power. Ophelia had set a record over the weekend as the most north and east in the Atlantic a major hurricane has reached.

The peak of the storm in Ireland arrived at around mid-morning local time. There's already a report of a woman killed by a falling tree. About 120,000 people were without power and officials warned of coastal waves the height of a double decker bus.

Social media posts are showing roofs blowing off buildings, large waves crashing into shorelines and many, many trees down.

A 118 mph gust has already been reported at one coastal Irish location.

Ophelia was forecast to slam Northern Ireland, Scotland and parts of northern England this afternoon local time.

Ex-hurricanes that were full-fledged hurricanes just prior to hitting the British Isles are rare. The last time this happened was in 1961, when Hurricane Debbie, which had just transitioned from hurricane to powerful mid-latitude storm, killed 11 people in Ireland.

In another odd twist, Ophelia brought Saharan dust all the way north to Great Britain, so places where the sun was still out yesterday and this morning had an eerie red disc for a sun as all the dust in the air  caused this effect.

WILDFIRES IN PORTUGAL

Well east of Ophelia, southerly winds, partly associated with the storm, brought hot, dry conditions to Portugal and Spain, and wildfires on par with the recent ones in California resulted.

At least 30 people have died in the fires in Portugal and Spain, and the death toll is expected to rise. Record heat in the mid 80s to mid 90s contributed to the fires, as did strong winds on the outer fringes of Ophelia. The region also experienced an extremely hot, dry summer.

Sadly, it appears that most of the fires over the past couple of days were deliberately set, so some arsonists killed all these people and burned hundreds of homes and businesses.

Slightly cooler, somewhat wetter conditions are forecast over the next few days, which should help firefighting efforts.

This is the second major wildfire calamity in Portugal this year. June wildfires in that nation killed 64 people.

Watch Epic Flood In Spain Washes Through Middle Of A City

Chaos in Adra, Spain as flash flooding sweeps
lots of vehicles away.  

Wild flooding hit parts of Spain in the past week, particularly around the city of Adra. 

In the nearby city of Malaga, nobody was flying in our out of the airport because it was pretty much flooded, as were most of the roads near the airport.

Here's a dramatic video of the water rushing through Adra, taking cars and trucks with it.

The water isn't SUPER deep, but it is rushing and goes to prove it doesn't take all that much water to sweep vehicles away.

Watch:

Scary Spanish Hailstorm Bombs Swimming Pool With Baseball Sized Stones

The weather in most of the United States has been more or less calm lately.

Not so in Spain, where there were widespread hailstorms and severe thunderstorms hit lately.

One of the worst storms hit Aragon, Spain, where you can see in the video baseball sized hail hit this swimming pool area. Bet there was lots of shattered glass and dents in this area:

Totally Awesome Timelapse Of Supercell Storm Over Barcelona

This video has it all. Scenic location, good production values, and best of all, a rotating supercell thunderstorm.

Video was taken in the past week in Barcelona, Spain. Totally amazing!!