Pineapple Express To Soak Western U.S.

What is the Pineapple Express?

It's an unofficial weather term used to describe a flow of moisture that originates from near Hawaii - and moves all the way across the Pacific Ocean - into the western United States.  Think of it like a fire hose that stretches nearly 5,000 miles!

Well - that fire hose is pointed directly at the central coast of California - and it reaches all the way into the central Rockies.

Rain and snow has been falling since Saturday - and is expected to continue well into the week ahead.  Before all is said and done, portions of the mountains of California and Colorado will see 4 to 8 feet of snow - isolated locations could exceed 10 feet.

The lower elevations of California will see widespread heavy rain - in some cases - over a foot!   That will no doubt create troubles, including mud slides and flooding.

I am sure there will be plenty of travel delays to go along with the storm system too!    Esp. in Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Arctic air dives south

Look at the wind field around this cold air diving south out of Canada.  It is part of the same storm system that is spreading widespread blizzard conditions across the center of the nation.

Temps range from the low teens along the Kansas and Nebraska border to to low 70s just off the coast of Louisiana.

The cold front has now pushed all the way to the Gulf Coast.  Light snow has been reported across southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.

Winter storm to slam Upper Midwest

A slew of blizzard watches and warnings cover much of Iowa, southern Minnesota and surrounding areas today.  Winter storm warnings cover all of Wisconsin and upper Michigan.

The current conditions right now in Sioux Falls, Iowa - heavy snow with a sustained northwest wind at 35 mph, gusting to 53!!  With a temperature of 10 degrees!!

Expect widespread travel troubles today by land via I-80, I-90 and I-94.  By air in and out of Chicago, Des Moines and Minneapolis/St Paul.

Denver sees driest start to snow season in 112 years

Denver, Colorado has only seen 1.5 inches of snow so far during the 2010-2011 snow season.  That is over a foot behind where the city should be for this time of year.

Only three others years have been this dry - 1883, 1884 and 1898.

The city is on pace to be the least snowiest it has ever been this late in the season.

La Nina is to blame for the lack of snow along Colorado's Front Range.  During La Nina, the storm track typically stays north of the state, or approaches from the northwest - leaving snow in the mountains west of Denver and nothing more than dry, windy and often warm conditions across the eastern third of the state.

One interesting note:  in the previously dry years (1883, 1884 and 1898) - Denver averaged 35" of snow between the following February and April - so there is still hope for snow in the Mile High City!

When looking at more recent times, Denver has had one other very dry start to the snow season since 2000.  It was during the year 2007-2008 snow season - where less than 5 inches of snow fell through December 11.


The season remained dry - averaging 21.2 inches between February and April.

Deep south in the deep freeze

Check out the morning temps for the southeast. Widespread teens and 20s - all the way into Florida.

Meanwhile, it's in the 30s and lower 40s across portions of the northern Rockies and high plains.

La Nina and her effects on US weather

La Nina has those of us in the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies in a snow drought.  We've only seen 2 inches here in Denver so far this year. 

Meanwhile, some places in our northwest mountains have seen near record snow.

Another place with record snow right now is on the eastern side of the Great Lakes. Buffalo and Syracuse, NY have been shoveling overtime in recent days.

Snow has made it as far south as the beaches of Virginia.

Cold weather has filtered all the way into Florida - where farmers are fighting to survive a freeze.

2010 Hurricane Season Officially Ends

The Atlantic eastern Pacific are officially out of hurricane season - the season was extremely busy for the Atlantic while extremely quiet for the eastern Pacific.

Click here to read more.

Dynamic storm hits nation hampering Thanksgiving travel

The weather maps are busy to say the least today, with everything from blizzard warnings to tornado warnings.

Temperatures are in the 70s all the way to northern Illinois - while just a few hundred miles northwest it is only in the 20s with snow.

In the warm sector of the weather system, showers and thunderstorms were breaking out across southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois - some of the storms were severe at times.

As I type this blog, a tornado warning is in effect for a possible tornado near the Kewanee Airport in Kewanee, Illinois.

Other strong to severe storms were located near Rockford, Ill.

Meanwhile, several hunderd miles behind the storm system across Montana and North Dakota afternoon temperatures were struggling to reach 5 degrees above zero!

Condition One Heads From Michigan to Antarctica

What is Condition One?

 

It's a film in the making that shows how extremes and the human spirit will reveal the social pressures and inequities of urban life through the contrast of the seemingly disparate lives of teens in Detroit and the residents of Antarctica. In these extreme conditions, what makes people rise up? What makes their spirits soar?

 

Those involved with this film are currently en route to Antarctica - you can learn more about the project and follow their progress through their blog linked here.

 

 

La Nina - Winter of Extremes

This winter will probably be another one filled with a lot of extreme weather across the nation. By extremes, I mean large swings between above normal and below normal - with little time spent in the middle.

Some of the data points to that - some is my gut talking.

Currently - cold air is building over Alaska - and they are expecting much below normal temps as we head into this week.

That is something we need to watch as forecasters. If it builds and persists, it will likely be on the move into the lower 48 states sometime between Thanksgiving and the first 10 days of December.

First Big Snow For Upper Midwest

Well the first significant snow of the season is striking the upper midwest states today!  Places like Minneapolis/St. Paul could see anywhere from 6 to 12 inches of the white stuff!

Numerous winter weather advisories are in place from extreme eastern Nebraska and western Iowa all the way up to the Minnesota border with Canada.

Here are a few snowfall forecasts over the next 36 hours.

• Storm Lake, Iowa - 6 to 9 inches
• Mankato, Minnesota - 7 to 10 inches
• Minneapolis/St. Paul metro - 6 to 12 inches
• Duluth, Minnesota - 7 to 14 inches

This storm may also bring the first significant snow of the season to upper Michigan and portions of Wisconsin too.

November To Turn Cold?

It's been a rather mild fall across much of the nation - with temperatures running anywhere from 5 to 25 degrees above normal at times.

But a big cold front will be sweeping across the country over the next few days and it is expected to bring below normal temps to a large patch of real estate.

In fact, some places will see their first rain/snow mix change to all snow along and just east of the Rockies - including Denver!

Denver's normal average date of first snow is Oct. 19 - but the city has yet to see their first official snow.

The latest date of first snowfall is Nov. 21.

Tomas Continues To Fluctuate

First a hurricane, then a tropical storm - now a depression - what next?

In one sense it really doesn't matter what we call it- this weather system is not going to be good for the poor country of Haiti.
Either way, it will bring heavy rain and wind to the area.

But computer models still indicate the storm will regain strength and grow back into both tropical storm and hurricane status by the weekend as it makes a turn and moves north and then the northeast.

We'll have to watch and see!

Huge Storms Pulls Away, Cold Left Behind

Well that massive cold front and area of low pressure is scooting out of the picture, but not after doing a lot of damage and producing over 50 tornadoes in 2 days!

Behind, we're getting the first real taste of the cold season with widespread frost and freeze advisories in place - shown in light and dark blue on the map below.

Record "Bomb" Storm System

A new record set today on Tuesday for the lowest pressure in a non-tropical storm in the mainland U.S.

The massive storm system barreling across the central U.S. had a minimum central pressure of 28.24" or 956 mb (equivalent to the minimum pressure of a Category 3 hurricane).

This breaks the old record of 28.28" (958 mb), set on ...Jan. 26, 1978, during the Blizzard of 1978 (aka the Cleveland Sueprbomb).

This is also lower than the March 1993 Superstrom (aka "The Storm of the Century"), or the "Witch of November" storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975, or even the Columbus Day Storm of Oct. 1962.


New low pressure readings were also set for the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The storm generated hurricane force wind gusts from Colorado to Michigan - tipping over semis, downing power lines and making it almost miserable to be outside.

In North Dakota, the winds whipped around snow - making blizzard conditions exist nearly statewide.