Well I missed the biggest snow of the season in Denver last week. Last Thursday several inches of snow blanketed Denver.
I flew in last night and the only signs of the snowstorm were banks made by plows and some snow still existed in shaded areas along north facing buildings and fences.
The south saw a one-two punch last week with several reports of tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds and heavy rain.
There were damage reports from Texas to North Carolina.
In southern Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the panhandle of Florida -- very heavy rain fell over the past few days. A widespread 4-8 inches in fact.
Roads were washed out and some communities had to declare a local state of emergency.
One of the most popular videos I saw on television was of a road washed out in Mobile County, Alabama, where three cars didn't know the road was washed away drove right into the damage.
The National Weather Service has a national campaign called TADD -- Turn Around, Don't Drown.
I bet these drivers now wished they had followed this advice.
Water may only be a few inches deep, but you don't know if the water had caused road damage so it's just best to TADD.
After over 40 inches of snow last week, Spearfish, North Dakota is seeing more heavy snow today as blizzard conditions grip the region.
Along the flooded Red River, which had dropped 18 inches at Fargo since cresting on Saturday at a new all-time record of 40.82 feet, up to a foot of snow is expected today.
This is bad news, but not as bad in the short-term as it would be if the storm was bringing rainfall.
In the short-term, the biggest risk will be the wind, making waves on the river that would top the dikes.
As I type, moderate snow is falling once again here in Denver.
We went all winter with the three biggest snowfalls being 3" or less (2 in December and 1 in January) and now that it is spring we've had one big storm, one moderate one today, another minor storm Wednesday and possibly another big one this coming weekend.
But I won't complain, we need the moisture badly!!
Spokane, WA, the big city to our east, got some additional snow this weekend bringing their total to 93.6” for the season. This is a new record which dates back to the 1949-50 winter season as reported by the NWS Office in Spokane.
ReplyDeleteBob
I used to live in Texas and traveled in the Austin area a number of times. In the Hill country near Austin where the roads has many dips and rises it was interesting to see at the bottom of many dips they was a stick about 6 ft tall with markings for every foot. I believe that was to let a driver know how deep the water was if the road was flooded. You could make a semi informed decision to TADD. Without the stick it would be impossible to know how deep the water was over the road. Gotta love Texas!
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be another extremely active weather pattern throughout the southeast. The first system will raise the the dewpoints just enough to enhance the instability and helicity values and all throughout the region with modestly warm temperatures.
ReplyDelete