Weather Update
February 15, 2012
If you think this winter has been weird, blame the North Atlantic Oscillation.
If you find the term confusing, think of it as a crossing guard. The NAO lets cold fronts cross the Atlantic. If it is positive, it lets cold fronts whiz through the Midwest and Eastern states and dash out to sea. If it is negative, it stops them. They linger on the shore, freezing everything. If it stops them long enough, several cold fronts pile up and it gets really frigid.
When scientists discuss the North... more
January 24, 2012
It came from Outer Space! Yes, that’s the title of an old Sci-Fi movie, but it’s also the solar storm that is expected to hit the Earth today.
It will be the strongest radiation storm to hit the Earth since 2003. After years of quiet, the sun is awake and sputtering with sunspots, flares and CMEs (Coronal Mass Ejections). Some of this massive storminess is spewing out from the sun and hitting us!
The sun goes from quiet to stormy and back again in an 11-year cycle. During the stormiest times,... more
January 17, 2012
Welcome to New Mexico, the land of sunshine, delicious chili and snow. Snow! SNOW! According to the New York Times, we're enjoying some of the best ski conditions in the country.
Let me explain. I grew up in stormy Buffalo, New York, where “Lake Effect Snow” is a dirty word. Occasionally the cold stuff piled up to the windowsill of my second story bedroom. I escaped to sunny New Mexico and now live 300 miles from the Mexican border. I did not choose to live in the “best snow” in the USA.... more
January 2, 2012
Despite a cool La Niña shaping global weather, here in North America the weather has been amazingly warm. Winter weather sulked in the West and refused to move east. Indeed, the weather got so strange that on Christmas there was more snow in El Paso, Texas, on the Mexican border, than in Toronto, Canada!
It has been very weird weather for a La Niña.
Expand picture! Credit: NOAA
Notice how a La Niña is supposed to shape the winter weather. It is supposed to produce cold wet weather in Western... more
December 16, 2011
Look out, Santa! According to some reports, Good St. Nick not only has to worry about delivering a few billion gifts, but the North Pole may melt out from under his feet!
How accurate is that warning?
According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, the Arctic ice pack has been melting rapidly this year and is now 919,000 square miles below the thirty-year average minimum.
It is currently at the second lowest extent ever measured. (The records only extend back to 1979... more
December 11, 2011
Hurricane force winds slammed the coast! On December 2, fierce winds toppled trees, ripped up power lines and smashed through cities. A new tropical storm? No. Welcome to sunny California and the Santa Ana winds.
In the East Coast, the Atlantic Hurricane season just ended. People could breathe a sigh of relief. On the West Coast, however, the windy season is just reaching its peak. These winds are hot, dry, blasts from the mountains, not the flooding storms of the tropics.
Click to expand... more
December 1, 2011
The official 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season is over, which brings us into a most confusing period—a time of subtropical, extratropical, and tropical storms.
These powerful storms appear, disappear and change into each other, creating very confusing weather. They produce unnamed hurricanes and the “Perfect Storm”.
Find the hidden hurricane! Within the huge Perfect Storm of 1991, there was a hidden and unnamed hurricane. SOURCE: NOAA
Basically, there are two types of storms—tropical and... more
November 7, 2011
It’s time for some pretty weather. With the drought in Texas, last week’s Halloween Nor’easter, and a tornado in Oklahoma, the weather has been downright nasty. It’s time for a change.
Fortunately, that’s what is going to happen. We are due for two to three years of extremely beautiful space weather. Prepare for aurora borealis, the “Northern Lights.”
Click to Expand!
We are approaching the peak of a sunspot cycle. Source: NASA
Here is how space weather works. The sun goes... more
October 30, 2011
BOO! It’s snowing! It’s October, 2011. You’ve seen the headlines. Northeast was hit by a Nor’easter snowstorm that affected 60 million people. Over three million were left without power.
New York City received its earliest inch of snow since the Civil War. (The Civil War was in a long cold period known as the Little Ice Age!) Pennsylvania, Washington DC and the entire Northeast were buried in snow and then hit by freezing weather. Brrrr!
The Northeast is not the only cold area. Even Texas,... more
October 17, 2011
I am fascinated by the weather – it is my hobby, my job and my passion. I love to save money, especially in the current economy.
Fortunately, the two go hand-in-hand. When you know what is happening to the weather, you can make intelligent buying decisions and save lots and lots (and lots!) of money.
For example – Texas and the Southern Plains are having a terrible drought. It ruined ranch pasturelands and the cattlemen have had to cut back their herds.
The terrible drought in... more
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Mike Steinberg is Senior Vice President for Special Initiatives at AccuWeather Inc in State College, Pennsylvania. He is also a member of the National Weather Association and the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.
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