The Weather Thread

[desertpunk]

The Weather Thread

Post weather news and discussion here.

[FLAWDA-FELLA]

Great idea DP, seems like parts of the South had some pretty interesting Winter weather this past weekend!!

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by FLAWDA-FELLA

Great idea DP, seems like parts of the South had some pretty interesting Winter weather this past weekend!!

Yes, this is the tail end of it. We'll see what kind of dent it made in the drought later in the week.

image hosted on flickr

[desertpunk]

CNN

Treacherous ice follows on heels of heavy snow in much of Southeast
By the CNN Wire Staff
January 10, 2011 2:27 p.m. EST

(CNN) -- Treacherous travel conditions, power outages and school cancellations stretched across the Southeast as freezing rain and sleet followed on the heels of a heavy snowstorm that blanketed the region over the weekend.

Schools and government offices shut their doors from Arkansas to the Carolinas, while power utilities mobilized crews for widespread power outages. CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen said below-freezing temperatures are expected through Tuesday, and continued precipitation will leave a heavy coating of ice on power lines and trees, which could cause outages.

CNN weather radar at 11:30 a.m. showed the storm system centered on South Carolina, with heavy snow in the northern part of that state into eastern North Carolina, patches of snow in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, and a band of wintry mix -- snow, sleet and freezing rain -- extending from northeastern Alabama, through most of northern Georgia and all of South Carolina's Lowcountry.

Double-digit snow depths were reported Monday in the Tennessee towns of Minor Hill (13 inches) and Lawrenceburg (11 inches), while Oxford, Mississippi, had 10 inches. Other areas reporting heavy accumulations were Greenville, North Carolina (9 inches), Asheville, North Carolina (7 inches), and Huntsville, Alabama (7 inches). Canton, Georgia, and Greenville, South Carolina, each reported 6 inches.

The power company Entergy reported about 4,000 people without power in Mississippi. About 200 people in northern Georgia were still without electricity Monday morning after snow sent tree limbs into power lines, according to Georgia Electric Membership Corp.

Winter storm warnings were in effect Monday morning for virtually all of South Carolina and all but the northeast corner of North Carolina, as well as the entire northern half of Georgia, central and eastern Tennessee and in the upper elevations of northern Alabama.

Roads in northern Louisiana were being reopened Monday, according to CNN affiliate station KSLA in Shreveport. The area was hard hit by snow and ice that led to one fatality Sunday night in Webster County, where a passenger in a car that slid off Interstate 20 and hit a tree was killed, KSLA reported.

Many Southerners were surprised to see a rapid onslaught of snow. At least 4 inches of snow fell in just a couple of hours in Atlanta, Georgia, CNN meteorologist Ivan Cabrera said. And in western North Carolina, snow was falling so fast early Monday that crews plowing the interstates and primary roads had to double back and start over, according to CNN affiliate WLOS-TV in Asheville.

As kids reveled in school cancellations, motorists bemoaned slow, sometimes immobilizing and occasionally terrifying conditions. A dozen tractor-trailers had jackknifed as of 6:30 a.m. Monday along a relatively short stretch of Interstate 30 west of Benton, Arkansas, according to state troopers.

Near Clover, South Carolina, a tractor-trailer collided with a truck carrying lithium hydroxide, a chemical that can react with moisture, but the chemical was safely contained in the truck, authorities told CNN affiliate WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina. One person was hurt in the accident, the station reported.

In Atlanta, Chuck Meadows said he dodged "slipping and sliding" vehicles on Interstate 20 on his way home from a friend's house Sunday night. "It was traumatic ... the near misses," Meadows, a native Atlantan, said Monday morning. "A large pickup slid toward me on the highway before I decided to get off the highway. There was a hill that a number of people got stuck on."

Farther north, in Kennesaw, Georgia, Sarah DeRoch watched a pickup truck get stuck on her cul-de-sac. "It made the mistake of stopping in the snow," said DeRoch, a native of the Chicago, Illinois, area who, like her husband, is used to heavy snowfall. "We went out to give it some pointers" before the vehicle was eventually towed by another truck, she said.

Meanwhile, her daughter Gwyneth was bursting with anticipation at a canceled school day. "She's been asking me every five minutes, 'Did they close the schools?'" DeRoch said.

In addition to schools, hundreds of flights were canceled as the winter storm began to have a domino effect on travel across the country. AirTran Airways canceled 270 flights for Monday, most of them heading into Atlanta, spokesman Christopher White said. Anthony Black, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines, said the airline has planned to cancel 1,450 Delta and Delta Connections on Monday, "approximately 25 percent of all planned flights for the day." Most of those flights were arriving or departing from Atlanta.

Atlantic Southeast Airlines spokesman Jarek Beem said the storm had forced a number of cancellations Sunday through Tuesday. He declined to provide a specific number.

In preparation for wintry conditions, governors in Louisiana, Georgia and Alabama declared states of emergency. States of emergency also were declared Monday in North Carolina and South Carolina. "We face a serious storm that will have an impact all across Alabama," Gov. Bob Riley said in a statement. He advised motorists to stay off the roads.

All of Alabama's state government offices were closed Monday, and all major highways in Marshall and Cullman counties were considered impassable.

In Georgia, ceremonies revolving around the inauguration of Gov.-elect Nathan Deal, from the morning prayer service to the black-tie evening gala, were canceled, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Deal was to be sworn in during an afternoon ceremony at the State Capitol in Atlanta.

In South Carolina, state government offices were closed and the National Guard was on standby.

In Allendale County, South Carolina -- 80 miles south of Columbia, the county rarely gets snow -- the National Guard Armory was set up as an emergency shelter.

In Georgia, the city of Atlanta and Crawford County declared separate states of emergency. The Georgia Department of Transportation reported 50 dump trucks had been retrofitted with snowplows up front and spreaders in back to combat the icy roads in metro Atlanta.

In North Carolina, snow and ice were reported in at least 13 counties on Monday, most in the mountainous western part of the state. At least 10 schools systems were closing early.

Meanwhile, much of the Midwest and Appalachian regions were winter weather advisories, and winter storm watches were in place along the East Coast, from Maryland's Eastern Shore to southern New Hampshire and Vermont, according to the National Weather Service.

[desertpunk]

Originally Posted by FLAWDA-FELLA

Great idea DP, seems like parts of the South had some pretty interesting Winter weather this past weekend!!

Thanx!

~And Quantum, it looks like Shreveport got some much-needed moisture so the drought will hopefully drop in that parched area.



Here's a shot from that magical winter wonderland known as Atlanta taken 2 hours ago:

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/toddpollock/

...and one more from last night:

image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sugarswirl/

[neqquah]

Wow....that's a full-fledged Upper Midwestern snowfall....in ATLANTA!

[desertpunk]

[RandomNameTag]

I was returning home from a ski trip in North Carolina today. The roads in the mountains were great (plowed and salted to no end). US 321 south of Hickory, NC, though, was a complete and utter mess.

[miami305]

Nice pics....First major snow storm that I see for Atlanta....I know we get more snow in NC than in GA....at least that was always the case when I used to live there....well...nice pics...drive careful guys.....sunny & 80 degrees here Miami, FL...

[I-275westcoastfl]

We have great weather here, it's Sunny and 50 degrees right now.

[QuantumX]

Not much of a dent, but the South gets another chance this weekend!

image hosted on flickr

[desertpunk]

Some recent NASA images of the Southern snowstorm:

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


both: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/

[QuantumX]

image hosted on flickr

[FLAWDA-FELLA]

Originally Posted by desertpunk

Some recent NASA images of the Southern snowstorm:

image hosted on flickr


image hosted on flickr


both: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/

Cool NASA photos desertpunk. I believe the average snowfall from that storm was between 4-7 inches North of I-20. Matter-of-fact, every state in the South had snow on the ground from that storm except Florida!!!

[QuantumX]

Looks like Florida is getting this instead. The South gets more rain tomorrow and later in the week.

image hosted on flickr

[Panteran]

Next week could get interesting in the south. Lots of rain, and possibly snow next week somewhere in SEC territory. Big storm progged to form along the gulf, according to the computer models.

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by Panteran

Next week could get interesting in the south. Lots of rain, and possibly snow next week somewhere in SEC territory. Big storm progged to form along the gulf, according to the computer models.

Hopefully, it will put more of a dent in this. I didn't post it yesterday because it really hasn't changed all that much. It just hasn't been getting worse.
image hosted on flickr

[desertpunk]

Ugh. It's going to take hurricane season to eliminate those hot spots. We're dry as a bone here. La Nina is the worst pattern, IMO.

[QuantumX]

Originally Posted by desertpunk

Ugh. It's going to take hurricane season to eliminate those hot spots. We're dry as a bone here. La Nina is the worst pattern, IMO.

We seem to be getting some help from the Pacific Northwest with a dip in the jet stream that's farther south than it normally is if I remember correctly. Panteran, can you confirm this or what is it that you're hearing from your vantage point?

[desertpunk]

Yeah, it's a good dip but it's starved for moisture. Very light snowfall in the northern mountains. If it picks up a plume from the Gulf then maybe there will be rain in the SE...