Global Weather & Climate Center
  • Home
  • About
    • GWCC Is
    • Where in the World is GWCC?
    • Contact Us
  • Global Regions
    • Africa
    • Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea
    • Central and Eastern Pacific Ocean
    • Central and South America
    • Europe
    • North America
    • Indian Ocean and Asia
    • Polar Regions
    • South Pacific Ocean and Australia
    • Western Pacific Ocean
  • Weather
    • Applied Meteorology >
      • Air Quality
      • Aviation
      • Droughts
      • Fire Weather
      • Flooding
      • Geosciences
      • Global Environmental Topics
      • Weather Observations
    • Weather Education
    • Weather History
    • Weather Research
    • Weather Safety and Preparedness
    • Severe Weather
    • Social Sciences
    • Space Weather
    • Tropical Cyclones
    • Weather and Health
    • Winter Weather
  • Climate
  • GWCC Global Imagery Archive
  • GWCC Window to the World
    • GOES-16 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • GOES-16 ABI Channel Description and Examples
    • GOES-16 ABI Satellite Products
    • GOES-17 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • Himawari-8 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • Meteosat-11 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
  • Kids Corner
    • Kindergarten to 5th Grade
    • 6th to 12th grade
    • Fun Facts & Weather Trivia
    • GWCC Weather Radar Education
    • GWCC Wheel of Science

North America Weather and Climate Topics

New Year’s Forecast (Photo Credit: NCEP)

12/31/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Tonight’s weather across the United States will be a cold one for the majority of us, with more then two-thirds of the country, east of the Rocky Mountains, experiencing significantly below average temperature. Locations in the continental northeast, and as far south as Kansas into Ohio, will be around zero degrees Fahrenheit at midnight, with wind chills into the -20 to -40 degrees. Portions of the Midwest and Northeast are currently under a wind chill warning along with wind chill advisories throughout the night.
 
The picture above shows the global average temperature anomalies from December 27th until January 3rd. As you can see, the eastern two-thirds of the country will remain well below average temperatures, like it has been for the past few days, with nearly every other portion of earth being well above average. 

For more updates on weather pertaining to North America click here! 


ⓒ 2017 Meteorologist Claudia Pukropski 
0 Comments

Looking Back at 2017's Weather Events! (Photo Credit: NOAA)

12/29/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
We are nearing the end of 2017, and it’s time to take a look back at this year’s weather events in the United States. From blizzards, to tornadoes, to hurricanes, to wild fires; 2017 left everything out on the table. In no particular order, the following are some of this year’s worst weather events:
  • Tornadoes in January? It happened! 6 January, 79 confirmed tornadoes struck the southern states. This tornado outbreak ranked 3rd for the most tornadoes to occur in a single outbreak between the months of December to February.
  • Last year, California was in a severe drought. This year, heavy rainfall came back from 8 February to 22 February. Roughly 200,000 people were forced to evacuate either due to flooding, or because the Oroville Dam spillway threatened to flood everything downstream.
  • More tornadoes hit the southern states in March. Over 70 tornadoes were confirmed and created significant damage. This outbreak would be the second longest tornado outbreak to occur in 2017.
  • Severe weather hit Arkansas to New York spawning tornadoes and creating dangerous straight-line winds. Almost one million people were without power due to the strong winds.
  • To mix things up a bit, a severe freeze occurred in the southern states including Florida in the middle of March. This is significant because many crops were already blooming due to the warmer temperatures. Once the freezing temperatures came through, it damaged many crops such as peaches, blueberries, strawberries and apples.
  • More severe storms hit at the end of March with large hail, strong winds, and tornadoes. Among the states impacted were Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama.
  • Missouri and Arkansas saw destructive flooding when 15 inches of rain fell. Rivers were coming out of their banks, levees were breached, and towns were flooded.
  • More severe storms struck in June, mainly from the Rockies to the East Coast. These storms were packed with very large hail, tornadoes and strong winds.  
  • And then there’s Hurricane Harvey. Hurricane Harvey dumped over 50 inches of rain in 7 days. Harvey hit as a category 4 hurricane near Rockport Texas. Nearly 30,000 people were displaced.
  • Tropical Storm Emily shocked meteorologists when it developed quickly into a tropical storm and made landfall in less than 12 hours.
  • Hurricane Irma made landfall near Cudjoe Key in Florida as a strong category 4 hurricane. Irma wrecked the U.S. Virgin Islands before coming onshore in Florida.
  • Hurricane Maria was also a category 4 hurricane when it took a similar path as Irma; hitting the U.S. Virgin Islands before hitting Puerto Rico.
  • One million acres has been scorched by wild fires in Montana alone. In the northwest and western states, 8.4 million acres were burned by wild fires.
  • Nearly 48 inches of snow fell Wyoming from 6 January to 10 January.
  • Another 94.5 inches fell in Wyoming from 11 January to 19 January.
  • Forty inches of snow fell in Maine from 10 February to 13 February.
  • Nearly 58 inches fell in Vermont from 11 March to 15 March.
  • Most recently, nearly five feet of snow fell in Erie, Pennsylvania on 26 December.
While this list isn’t all of the weather events that happened in 2017, it tells a good tale. 2017 was the year of catastrophic hurricanes, and destructive severe storms. At the time of writing this article, we still have two days left in the year. I think some would say, they are glad to see 2017 in the past.
 
Keep up with weather around the world in the New Year here!
 
ⓒ 2017 Meteorologist Brandie Cantrell

0 Comments

Arctic Air Arrives (H. Michael Mogil, CCM, CBM, NWA-DS*)

12/24/2017

1 Comment

 
It’s time to kiss the autumnal warmth of the past few weeks across the Central U.S. goodbye, as arctic air arrives in the U.S. with a vengeance…To read the full story, click here - http://www.weatherworks.com/lifelong-learning-blog/?p=1441
 
© 2017 H. Michael Mogil
 
To learn more about other high-impact weather events affecting North America, be sure to click here!
Picture
1 Comment

From Floods to Droughts (Photo Credit: WPC, US Drought Monitor, SPC, Univ of Rutgers, NWS)

12/23/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
DISCUSSION: Earlier this year during the spring months, portions of Arkansas and southern Missouri experienced record flooding. Details on this previous event can be found here. Currently, a few months later, these same places are now considered to be in a moderate to severe drought, as shown by the US drought monitor image, but possibly not for long. 

Current conditions show an elongated frontal boundary with a weak wave of low pressure moving northeast as the precipitation follows suit. A general 0.5 – 1 inches with up to 2+ inches of precipitation fell yesterday, December 22nd, into the overnight hours across southern Missouri and Arkansas with precipitation stretching into Louisiana as this front brought thunderstorm type activity last night. This precipitation yesterday evening shows up well when looking at the synoptic scale features that were in play alleviating some of these drought conditions.
​
Picture
​The 850 mb map shown below, which plots heights (dam), isotherms (degrees C, dotted yellow), and dew point temperatures filled (degrees C), valid 12/23/00Z, shows southerly winds bringing warm air advection, which leads to upward vertical motion, across Arkansas and working its way into southern Missouri. Gulf of Mexico moisture is being advected into the region moistening up the atmosphere enhancing the heavy precipitation threat. Accompanied with this, favorable upper level jet dynamics are present enhancing divergence (yellow contours) in the upper levels (streamlines and isotachs in knots are also plotted) of the atmosphere as shown in the 300 mb analysis valid 12/23/00Z. This enhances the rising air in this region and the chance for precipitation. 
Picture
Picture
These factors come together nicely when looking at the radar imagery from yesterday evening shown below, which illustrates a nice area of precipitation where it was expected in the drought areas based on this synoptic scale analysis.
Picture
Stay tuned for future updates here across the Mississippi Valley to see if more drought alleviation is on the way!

©2017 Forecaster Joseph DeLizio


0 Comments

Evaluating the Lower- and Upper-level Flow over North America (credit: Thermodynamic Solutions)

12/7/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
DISCUSSION: As the present national weather pattern stands, there is quite an interesting set-up in place across the United States.  One of the first thing atmospheric scientists (i.e., operational forecasters and/or broadcast meteorologists) execute when doing a given forecast is to ascertain a more concrete foundation of what is currently happening at that given time near both the top, middle, and bottom portions of the "active" atmosphere.  The "active" part of the atmosphere referring to the portions of the atmosphere within which a large majority of the global weather phenomena occur within the confines of.  As you can clearly see in the graphic above (courtesy of the Thermodynamic Solutions Weather Company), there are very different atmospheric flow regimes in place closer to the surface and towards the middle-to-upper portions of the atmosphere. 

This is chiefly due to the fact that in the middle-to-upper part of the atmosphere, there is presently a "ridge" (or an area of high-pressure) in place over and across a good portion of Western North America which is shown on the right-hand side of the graphic attached above.  To the east of any ridge can often be found a "trough" (or an upper-level region of lower pressure) which is also reflected by the "dip" or "deep left-turning curve" in the deep-blue colored flow shown on the right-hand side of graphic above as well.  On the right side of any trough is where you nearly always find a higher probability of there being a greater likelihood of low-pressure formation.  This is a combined result of there being stronger cyclonically-turning winds from the surface upwards on the eastern side of a trough which is much more favorable for surface-layer cyclogenesis which can then extend into the mid-levels of the atmosphere as well under the right conditions.  Sure enough, very far downstream, there is a strong low-pressure system parked over part of Southeastern Canada which is helping to amplify a good portion of the ongoing lake-effect snow events downwind of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior.  Thus, it is always neat to see how atmospheric science theory works out in real-life application.

To learn more about other interesting weather events occurring across North America, be sure to click here!

©2017 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz

0 Comments

First Lake Effect Snowfall Event To Impact the Great Lakes Region (credit: NOAA NWS Eastern Region HQ)

12/5/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
DISCUSSION: As a classic Arctic air blast makes it way into portions of the North-Central and the Northeastern United States, this will set the stage for another aspect of winter weather.  That particular aspect being referred to is this instance is lake-effect snow.  Lake-effect snow occurs as a result of when cold, moist air travels across relatively warmer water contained within the near-surface layer of various spread across the United States (and the world for that matter).  In this particular situation, the combination of the cold air and the projected wind forecast will align the larger-scale flow such that areas to the east and east-northeast of both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario will likely get hit the hardest with periods of heavy lake-effect snowfall.  As shown in the graphic above, some location may end up being able to measure snow in feet (rather than in inches).  Therefore, it is imperative to respect the power of Mother Nature if you are currently situated within any of these forecast areas as trying to travel while under a lake-effect snow-band is quite often a very life-threatening precedent.  So, be mindful of that as you plan your travel over the next few days.

To learn more about other high-impact weather events occurring across North America, be sure to click here!

©2017 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz

0 Comments

    Archives

    March 2022
    April 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016


    RSS Feed

© 2022, Global Weather and Climate Center
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
​Webmaster - Stephen Piechowski
  • Home
  • About
    • GWCC Is
    • Where in the World is GWCC?
    • Contact Us
  • Global Regions
    • Africa
    • Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea
    • Central and Eastern Pacific Ocean
    • Central and South America
    • Europe
    • North America
    • Indian Ocean and Asia
    • Polar Regions
    • South Pacific Ocean and Australia
    • Western Pacific Ocean
  • Weather
    • Applied Meteorology >
      • Air Quality
      • Aviation
      • Droughts
      • Fire Weather
      • Flooding
      • Geosciences
      • Global Environmental Topics
      • Weather Observations
    • Weather Education
    • Weather History
    • Weather Research
    • Weather Safety and Preparedness
    • Severe Weather
    • Social Sciences
    • Space Weather
    • Tropical Cyclones
    • Weather and Health
    • Winter Weather
  • Climate
  • GWCC Global Imagery Archive
  • GWCC Window to the World
    • GOES-16 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • GOES-16 ABI Channel Description and Examples
    • GOES-16 ABI Satellite Products
    • GOES-17 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • Himawari-8 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
    • Meteosat-11 Live Satellite Imagery Portal
  • Kids Corner
    • Kindergarten to 5th Grade
    • 6th to 12th grade
    • Fun Facts & Weather Trivia
    • GWCC Weather Radar Education
    • GWCC Wheel of Science