January 2008 Full of Extremes

CoCoRaHS observer Ken Watters sent me this picture from his station near Gardnerville, Nevada.

He is one of the stations that saw over 4 inches of precipitation from the monster western storm this past weekend. He told me in the entire calendar year of 2007 his town barely saw over 3 inches of moisture.

The western storm will go down into the record books for many reasons. A widespread 2 to 4 inches of rain fell in the San Francisco and Los Angeles regions. That is nearly the normal precipitation expected during the entire month of January from one storm.

Incredible hurricane force winds also were reported. A gust of 70 mph was recorded on the Golden Gate Bridge.

In the Sierra Mountains, winds topped 100 mph on the highest peaks, and snow totals ranged from 90 to 135 inches in several locations.

On the flip side, the eastern US is feeling more like April! Over 3 dozens record highs were set from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes on Sunday.

And on Monday morning, a very rare event was taking place in Wisconsin and Michigan -- thunderstorms! It is VERY rare to get thunderstorms this time of year in those states.

On Sunday, a massive and deadly car accident took place on the Interstate just outside of Madison, Wisconsin due to fog.

Today, anticipate some severe weather in my home state of Arkansas, as well as in the rest of the lower Mississippi River Valley.