Extreme Weather 2009

I have been following a site, prepared by a woman who records extreme weather and natural phenomenon gathered from print, for a few years now. She is a "just the facts" kinda person. Today's post should come as a surprise to no one. Go visit her site and check it out, it is very interesting. Here is the Global Disaster Watch.

HEAVY SNOW / EXTREME COLD -
U.S. - Fierce winds ripped away the roof of a police station, thousands of people lost power and drivers stuck by closed highways settled in to wait as storms swept out of the West to the nation's midsection today. Much of the Upper Midwest was covered in deep snow, and strong winds tonight were expected to create blizzard conditions. The storm had already blanketed much of the mountain west and drenched Southern California with rain. Ice was the problem Tuesday morning in Oklahoma, where Interstate 40 was closed for about 25 miles. "It's just a sheet of ice from Amarillo...It's a disaster." With travel likely to get worse, officials were warning residents in parts of the west and Midwest to stay close to home. Blizzard warnings were issued for most of Iowa as well as eastern Nebraska, southern Minnesota and southern Wisconsin. "Anybody traveling tomorrow morning is really taking a huge risk I would say- a risk of being stranded and not having anybody be able to help you for 6 or 12 hours, probably," said a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Iowa. A "classic, big, deepening winter storm" was affecting more than a dozen states. A foot or more of snow was expected in parts of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. Wind gusts of up to 50 mph could create snow drifts of 8 to 15 feet.
Heavy rain pounded some parts of the South. More than 4 inches were reported in spots in New Orleans, and flooded traffic slowed morning commutes. The storm also produced high winds and a possible tornado near Lake Pontchartrain.
In Buffalo, N.Y., meteorologists expect the storm to dump 3 or more feet of snow between Wednesday and Saturday in the mainly rural snow belts east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The storm had hit much of the West on Monday, bringing subzero wind chills in Washington state and heavy snow that closed schools and government offices in Reno, Nevada. In the Phoenix area, fierce wind brought down power lines, left four hospitals temporarily without power and created wide outages. Freezing temperatures in Oregon were suspected in one death. Big rigs were left jackknifed across highways in several states.
And more snow was coming: The National Weather Service said the upper elevations of the Sierra mountains could get up to 3 feet, with up to 4 feet forecast for the mountains of southern Utah. Two people were killed in traffic accidents blamed on slick conditions in New Mexico. Winds of up to 100 mph were reported on St. Augustin pass between Las Cruces and White Sands Missile Range, and the powerful gusts ripped away the roof of the White Sands Missile Range's police station. The storm dumped more than 20 inches of snow over Flagstaff, MORE THAN FOUR TIMES THE RECORD of 5 inches set in 1956. Cold temperatures also were threatening California crops. The chilly weather hit with only about 10 percent to 15 percent of the navel and mandarin orange crops harvested. "We've got a lot on the line. Both of them combined you're probably looking at over a billion dollars in fruit hanging out there on the trees."

EXTREME HEAT / WILDFIRES / DROUGHT / CLIMATE CHANGE-
This decade has been THE WARMEST ON RECORD and this year is likely to be the fifth warmest, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s assessment of global average temperatures.

Stay warm, peace for all!

P.S. The picture is from last year, we have no snow yet!