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:

New England's Newly Tornadic Reputation Got Another Boost Monday

A storm near Barre, Vermont Monday. Photo via Twitter, Geoff Marion

The other day, I mentioned in this blog thingy that the Northeastern United States is having an unusually tornadic year, even if the nation as the whole is relatively quiet on the twister front.

New England's tornadic reputation was burnished Monday when more tornado warnings were issued in central Massachusetts, and in of all places, the rugged White Mountains region of northern New Hampshire.

It remains to be seen as to whether any of the rapidly rotating storms detected on radar Monday actually produced tornadoes that touched down. But they might have. I imagine National Weather Service meteorologists might be looking for evidence of that today.

But certainly, funnel clouds were sighted in northern New Hampshire, and what appeared to be a rapidly rotating wall cloud was filmed over Granby, Massachusetts.

Certainly, there was plenty of wind damage to trees and power lines and such across much of New England. That includes here in Vermont, though there were no tornado warnings and no obvious signs of  twisters in the Green Mountain State.

Some of highlights of the Vermont damage included a damaged barn and numerous snapped off trees in Waitsfield, trees down on Interstate 89 near Waterbury and Interstate 91 in Orange County. Part of Route 7A near Shaftsbury were closed by downed trees and power lines.

Possible funnel cloud in Durham, New Hampshire Monday. Photo
 by Julie Smith

At least we got some needed rain. In some cases lots of it. In a few cases, almost too much. Burlington, got 2.29 inches of rain Monday, a record high precipitation level for the date.

I have to check but I think Monday was Burlington's wettest day in at least a year, if not more.

Flash flooding was reported in northwestern New York. And I'm sure there were some washed out or eroded road edges and driveways in parts of the Champlain Valley and down the Winooski River Valley in central Vermont as big rains fell in short periods of time.

Jericho reported 1.44 inches of rain from just one thunderstorm. The same initial thunderstorm Monday afternoon dumped 1.81 inches of rain on Middlesex. We did need the rain. It was super dry around my house in St. Albans before Monday.

Then, a pair of downpours blustered through in the afternoon, and then we had several hours in the evening in which it rained constantly, sometimes fairly heavily.

The rest of the week looks nice, with plenty of sun and comfortable temperatures and humidity levels. It looks like it will rain again this coming weekend. At this point, it doesn't look like we're in line for any severe thunderstorms, but there might be locally heavy rain again.