Russian Rocket Scares East Coast

Beginning at 9:40pm on Sunday, March 29, skies from Pennsylvania to North Carolina lit up with unexplained flashes of blue, green, and orange along with loud thunderous noises. Residents flooded 911 operators with calls. People were reporting that they heard explosions in the distance. As Monday morning dawned there were no reports of damage and the weather service had no explanation for what so many witnessed in the night sky. However, by this afternoon an explanation was found. The Russian Federal Space Agency had launched a Soyuz rocket on Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to deliver a Russian Cosmonaut, a NASA flight engineer and a billionaire tourist to the international space station. The lights seen over the eastern US were the booster rocket from the Soyuz falling back to Earth. When the booster rocket hit the upper limits of the atmosphere, it was traveling at about 5 miles (8km) per second. At this speed, friction began to heat the booster causing the molecules around the booster to ionize giving off the blue, green, and orange flashes that so many people witnessed. The loud thunder like noise was a sonic boom.

Snow Showers and Cold

Thundershowers moved through area Saturday evening as the cold front passed over us. We didn't receive a lot of rain, only 0.32" fell, but we did have a few strong wind gusts. Nothing that caused any damage though. The big change for today has been the cold winds and snow showers. Today's high occurred at 12:01am when the temperature was 56F. By 6am, the temperature was down to 38F and remained between 35 and 38F most of the day. The lowest wind chill dropped to 25F. That's a big shock to the system after you've become acclimated to temperatures in the 60's and low 70s!

Evansville Tornado and Another Blizzard

The severe weather that blew through the area Saturday evening didn't produce much locally, but to our southwest in Corydon, Kentucky an EF3 tornado touched down. An EF3 tornado has winds between 136-165 mph (218-265 kph). The tornado was on the ground for about 8 miles according to reports from the NWS in Paducah, Kentucky. Major damage occurred.




Yet another blizzard is forecast to hit the northern plains area Monday through Wednesday. Up to 14 inches of snow is forecast to hit the area along with winds up to 45mph! Here's a statement from the NWS in Grand Forks, North Dakota...
A major winter storm will affect the region Monday into Wednesday. Snow accumulations in southeast North Dakota and west central Minnesota will range from 8 to 14 inches along and south of Interstate 94, including the Fargo area. Further north, snow accumulations will decrease markedly. Winds will increase Monday and Tuesday and produce considerable blowing and drifting snow along with reduced visibilities, with near blizzard conditions possible from Fargo to Wahpeton Monday night into Tuesday. Strong north to northeast winds gusting over 30 mph at times Monday night and Tuesday could also cause some minor wave action near larger bodies of water. Significant flooding continues over much of the area. Refer to the latest flood warnings and flood statements for details.

Kansas Snowstorm

An early spring snowstorm has hit Kansas with high winds and up to a foot of snow. Most of the snow will be a distant memory by next week though as temperatures will rise to near 70 degrees (21C).
Here's a video from KSN.com with three reports beginning in Wichita then heading west to Great Bend, and then further west to Garden City.

Much Needed Rainfall

Some much needed rainfall is falling across east central Indiana this evening. The March rainfall total for my location has only been 2.20". This is nearly an inch below normal. This is the third month in which rainfall has been below normal. The US Drought Monitor has a finger of abnormally dry conditions inching to the west. Hopefully, we can break the pattern of dry weather and we don't have another summer like 2007.

Red River Crests

Good news for Fargo residents. The Red River has crested and has begun to recede. Earlier forecasts had the river cresting at 43 feet, but crested at 40.82 feet just after midnight on Saturday, March 28. The weather service said that freezing temperatures helped slow the snow melt which lead to a lower crest than originally predicted. However, water levels will likely remain near 40 feet for several days to a week causing significant stress and strain on earthen levees and sandbag dikes. Residents are forming levee watch groups to patrol the levees in case of leaks or breaks.

Fargo Flooding

Fargo, North Dakota has begun a mandatory evacuation for several neighborhoods within the city including hospitals and nursing homes after a crack in one of the earthen levees was found. Residents are being told to move to higher ground immediately. River forecasts now call for the Red River to rise to 43 feet. Read this statement from the NWS in Grand Forks, ND...

CONDITIONS ON THE RED RIVER AT FARGO HAVE GROWN INCREASINGLY
DANGEROUS OVER THE PAST 24 HOURS. THE RIVER IS CURRENTLY APPROACHING
RECORD LEVELS AND SHOWING NO SIGN OF SLOWING AT THIS POINT. AS THE
RIVER EXCEEDS THE PREVIOUS RECORD LEVEL...THE RELATIVE UNCERTAINTY
IN FORECAST MODELS HAS INCREASED SIGNIFICANTLY. RECORD FLOWS UPSTREAM
OF FARGO HAVE PRODUCED UNPRECEDENTED CONDITIONS ON THE RED RIVER. GIVEN
THESE FACTORS...THE RIVER IS EXPECTED TO BEHAVE IN WAYS NEVER PREVIOUSLY
OBSERVED. THE CREST FORECAST AT FARGO IS NOW EXPECTED TO BE BETWEEN 41
AND 42 FEET BY SATURDAY...BUT COULD POTENTIALLY BE AS HIGH AS 43 FEET...
AND CONTINUE FOR 3 TO 7 DAYS.

Flood stage for the Red River is 18 feet! The last flood of this magnitude for Fargo was in 1997. At that time, the river crested at 39.5 feet. This is a historic flood.

Colorado Blizzard

A second blizzard has hit the plains. This time, the storm hit a bit farther south impacting western Colorado, southwest Kansas, and the panhandles of both Texas and Oklahoma. Snow totals and winds are not as bad as the storm that hit the northern plains earlier in the week, but bad enough to cause a lot of headaches. Here's a news report from Fox31 in Denver. The YouTube video below shows some of the traffic conditions. Truthfully, it doesn't look that bad. I don't know why these people are just spinning their wheels like they are. They must be on a hill, but it doesn't look like it in the video. You decide.
Denver's seasonal snowfall has been 18-36 inches through February 2009. It's hard to tell exactly looking at this map.

Colorado Dust Devil

A dust devil hit Elizabeth, Colorado Sunday afternoon. Elizabeth is about 30 miles southeast of Denver. There was some damage caused by the dust devil. The YouTube video below is an example of the strength a dust devil can have. The video is from the Nevada desert. You can read more about the Colorado dust devil here. You can learn more about dust devils in general in this Wikipedia article.

Redoubt Volcano Erupts

Redoubt erupted five times this morning shooting ash up to 65,000 feet (19,800 meters) into the atmosphere. Several flights were canceled in the area due to the ash. Volcanic ash is not like typical dust created from blowing soil. Instead, volcanic ash is very angular with sharp jagged edges. If you inhale ash, it will do severe damage to your lungs. Ash can also destroy airplane engines. Earlier today, you could see a plume of ash on the Anchorage, AK radar traveling north - northeast away from the volcano. Currently though, you just see a small blob of ash on radar. I've drawn an arrow pointing to the location of Redoubt and the radar return caused by the ash.

Northern Great Plains Blizzard

Eastern Wyoming and Western South Dakota are getting hammered by a late season spring blizzard tonight. In the Black Hills, up to 40 inches (102cm) of snow with winds up to 70mph (112kph) are hitting the area. The most amazing thing about this blizzard (and this is why I love watching the weather so much) is that just 24 hours ago, temperatures across the area were in the upper 77F to 83F range (25c to 28c)! In fact, here is a YouTube video someone uploaded of the local forecast from the Weather Channel.
Interstate 90 has been shutdown from Chamberlain, South Dakota all the way to the South Dakota - Wyoming state line due to white out conditions.

Authorities have issued travel bans which brought police patrols off the streets. The police are saying that only life threatening emergencies will send officers out into the storm. Even the US Postal Service stopped mail delivery fearing for the safety of the mail carriers on the streets of Rapid City and the rural roads of western South Dakota. Snow plows have even been called in because their efforts to keep the roads clear are futile. The Red Cross has dropped off sleeping bags at gas stations located near Interstate 90 exits for use by stranded travelers.

On the other side of the storm, spring like warmth and thunderstorms have rumbled across eastern South Dakota. The map below shows that at 11pm, the temperature in western South Dakota is 22F (-7C) and 55F (+13C) in the eastern part of the state!

This same storm system will be bringing a cold front across Indiana Tuesday night, but we won't have the extreme weather. That's unfortunate.

Happy 1st Day of Spring

In theory, this is the day that the time from sunrise to sunset around the world is at 12 hours. The actual time is a little over 12 hours for two reasons...
1) the atmosphere bends the sun's rays a bit when it is at the horizon.
2) the main reason though is the way sunrise and sunset are measured. When the tip of the sun appears, that is the time of sunrise. At sunset, it is when the last tip of the sun disappears. Since it is not measured at the midpoint of the sun crossing the horizon, this will add several minutes to the time between sunrise and sunset.

Finally Some Rain and a Tongan Volcano

Finally, we received a bit of rain late Wednesday afternoon and evening with 0.73" collecting in the rain bucket. I've been a bit bored lately with the weather so it was nice to get some decent rainfall. Next week will hopefully be a bit more exciting. There will be a rather large storm coming into the Plains by Tuesday and Wednesday of next week with heavy snow likely on the Front Range of the Rockies and severe weather across northern Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Here in the Midwest, we will likely see some storms too.

An underwater volcano has erupted close to the Tonga coast, in the South Pacific ocean.
Scientists sailed to inspect the the volcano, which has been shooting smoke, steam and ash into the air near the low-lying twin volcanic islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai.
Tonga authorities said coastal villages close to the active volcano were not yet at risk, and that no warnings had been issued.
From the NWS in Honolulu, Hawaii...

THIS IS THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WITH A BULLETIN FROM THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER.

A DISTANT EARTHQUAKE OCCURRED AT 818 AM HST WITH A MOMENT MAGNITUDE OF 7.7...AND WAS LOCATED NEAR 23.0 SOUTH 174.8 WEST OR IN THE TONGA ISLANDS REGION. BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA THERE IS NO DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII.
HOWEVER...SOME COASTAL AREAS IN HAWAII COULD EXPERIENCE SMALL NON-DESTRUCTIVE SEA LEVEL CHANGES AND STRONG OR UNUSUAL CURRENTS LASTING UP TO SEVERAL HOURS. THE ESTIMATED TIME SUCH EFFECTS MIGHT BEGIN IS 236 PM HST THU 19 MAR 2009.
PERSONS WISHING TO ENTER THE OCEAN ARE URGED TO EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION DUE TO POSSIBLY STRONG CURRENTS. BOATERS SHOULD BE AWARE OF UNUSUAL CURRENTS AND POSSIBLE HARBOR SURGES THIS AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING.

Space Station or Space Lint?

The International Space Station (ISS) flew overhead this evening and I attempted to take a photo as it flew over. I wasn't too successful. The white jagged streak in the photo below is supposed to be the space station as it traveled across the evening sky. Or, it could be a piece of lint on the camera lens! :-) I know for a fact that with my eyes I saw the ISS even if the camera didn't. My camera is a relatively inexpensive Fuji FinPix A340. It certainly wasn't made to take great pictures. Although, it is quite rugged. I once dropped it in my dog's water bucket where it sank to the bottom in about 10 inches of water. After taking the camera apart to dry out and then reassembling, it worked! I doubt you could do that with and expensive SLR.

On to the weather... it's getting boring! All of the extra daylight from the switch to Daylight Saving time is also annoying. It's too early to be outside in the evening working in the yard and too cool to enjoy it. We've not had any wind, rain, thunder, or lightning in the past week either. I hope next week will be more active!

Snow Days 2008-2009 School Year

Since spring is just around the corner, I figured it is time to retire the snow day list for the 2008-2009 school year. Although I'm sure we'll see more snow between now and May, I don't think we'll have any more snow days. So, here are the days missed so far.

Hurricane Ike strikes Indiana!
September 15, 2008 Closed
September 16, 2008 Closed
November 24, 2008 2-hour Delay
December 16, 2008 1:50pm Dismissal
December 17, 2008 Closed
December 18, 2008 2-hour Delay
January 6, 2009 Closed
January 8, 2009 2-hour Delay
January 12, 2009 2-hour Delay
January 15, 2009 2-hour Delay
January 16, 2009 Closed
January 26, 2009 2-hour Delay
January 27, 2009 Closed
January 28, 2009 Closed
January 29, 2009 Closed
January 30, 2009 Closed
February 2, 2009 2-hour Delay
February 3, 2009 4:10pm Dismissal
February 4, 2009 Closed
February 5, 2009 Closed
February 19, 2009 2-hour Delay

Spring is Coming

This photo was taken on March 10 in Fargo, North Dakota during the recent blizzard. While Fargo was experiencing a blizzard with temperatures around 5F, we had temperatures in the mid 70's!
Signs of spring are all around. The daffodils are only days away from blooming, the trees are beginning to bud, and the grass is beginning to green. The fast track to spring has been put on hold for a few days though as temperatures have taken a step backwards this week. Warmer weather should return this weekend, although I don't see the 70's coming our way any time soon.

South Central Indiana Tornado Damage

Dozens of homes were damaged or destroyed in Lawrence, Daviess, Knox and Martin counties. The National Weather Service confirmed that an EF-3 tornado packing winds of up to 120 mph went through part of Lawrence County, causing the bulk of the damage there. A school bus was tossed on top of a flattened house in the Lawrence County community of Fayetteville, damaging 16 homes and destroying three more. No serious injuries were reported. You can watch a local news report by clicking on the following URL. http://www.theindychannel.com/video/18887526/
You can also see some uncut aerial footage of the damage by clicking this URL: http://www.theindychannel.com/video/18887010/

Map of the damage area:

Windy Night

Now that the front has passed, the winds are really howling. The peak gust has been 36mph. There was a brief period of rain this afternoon giving 0.26 inches.

No severe weather here, but Daviess, Knox, and Lawrence counties had reports of damage. There were tornadic radar signatures this afternoon in that area. The NWS will be sending a damage assessment team into northern Knox, Daviess, and into Lawrence counties on Monday to determine the nature of the damage that occurred from severe storms Sunday afternoon. Reports of significant damage were received from Oaktown and Freelandville in northern Knox county. Significant damage was also reported just south of Odon in Daviess county and in Fayetteville just west of Bedford in Lawrence county.

Roar! - Spring Like Storms

After a day in the mid 70's, Mother Nature has decided to add some excitement to our day with severe weather. A tornado watch has been issued.

NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
255 PM EDT SUN MAR 8 2009
TORNADO WATCH 50 IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 800 PM EDT

Severe weather is moving our way from the southwest and should
arrive around 6pm.

Spring is Coming

It's fun to look at these satellite images from MODIS. This image is of the East Coast following the recent snowstorm. Skies were almost completely clear over the East Coast in this true-color image, and a wide swath of snow coated the ground. South of Chesapeake Bay, the snow sweeps inland and stretches southward into Georgia. In the north, Lake Ontario appears ice-free, but some ice coats neighboring Lake Erie. Off the East Coast, clouds form “streets” over the ocean, a pattern seen over the Greenland Sea days earlier.
Spring is getting close. Temperatures rose into the low 60's on Thursday and will hit the mid 60's today. We may even hit the low 70's Saturday.
The two maps below show severe weather reports for 2008 and 2009. We've only had one or two severe weather reports in Franklin County this year, but there will be many more to come. Can you imagine how boring the weather would be west of the Rocky Mountains? Compared the Eastern two-thirds of the country, nothing is happening.

East Coast Storm

The snow storm that blanketed much of Alabama and Atlanta with snow has moved up the East coast now. Much of the east coast from DC to Boston has received 6-12 inches of snow. Here's a photo I found of a worker holding on to a tarp used to cover a stage they are building on the National Mall near the US Capitol building. The irony of the situation though is that they are setting the stage for a global warming rally planned for later in the day! :-)