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The I-70 Scout & Eastern Colorado News

Tag: AccuWeather

  • It’s here: AccuWeather’s 2020 US spring forecast

    The wait is over. For those hoping to thaw out from winter’s chill, AccuWeather’s annual spring forecast is here. Though Punxsutawney Phil recently declared the end of winter, AccuWeather meteorologists largely disagree and are calling for the current season to drag on across much of the United States, possibly even beyond the official beginning of spring.

    Mild air will be slow to arrive in the Northeast, Great Lakes and Ohio Valley this year, as the chance for snow lingers into mid-spring. Meanwhile, the Southeast will brace for a wet and stormy couple of months.

    The season will be split in the West as some areas will experience a prolonged winter season and others may seemingly skip the season altogether and jump ahead to summer.

    Take a look at the complete region-by-region breakdown below:

    Northeast, Great Lakes, Ohio Valley

    Spring will seemingly get off to a late start this year as winter weather stretches into late March for the Northeast, Great Lakes and Ohio Valley.

    “It looks to me like cold and snow combined could linger this year before we see a break by mid-spring,” AccuWeather Expert Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok said.

    The delayed warmth will be good news for ski resorts, particularly in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, where snow cover will persist the longest.

    The I-95 corridor from Washington, D.C., to Boston is more likely to have rain mixed with snow, similar to what the region has experienced during much of the winter.

    For most of the regions, temperatures will start to climb in April. However, a few cold spells are possible in the Upper Midwest and Northeast in May, preventing a rapid change to summer.

    Toward the end of spring, severe weather events will become more frequent in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Philadelphia may be in the line of fire, Pastelok said.

    Meanwhile, rain may lead to planting delays in the eastern Ohio Valley, Tennessee Valley and Southeast.

    CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP

    Southeast, Tennessee Valley, Gulf States

    A wet weather pattern is in store for the Southeast this spring, with most of the rain falling in the first half of the season. 

    “We’ve already seen a pretty active southern jet stream with a lot of storms. I think that continues into the spring season and that’s going to lead to some flooding,” Pastelok said.

    Severe storms will frequent the Gulf states and the Tennessee Valley, particularly during late March and April. Warm Gulf waters paired with an active storm track could lead to a couple of big events for the regions, including cities like Atlanta, Birmingham, Alabama, and even Jackson, Mississippi.

    As May rolls around, a quieter weather pattern will replace the wet and stormy conditions.

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  • Pineapple Express’ streams into Pacific Northwest with flooding rain and heavy snow.

    Pineapple Express’ streams into Pacific Northwest with flooding rain and heavy snow.

    By Brandon Buckingham, AccuWeather Meteorologis

    An atmospheric river of moisture stretching from the tropical Pacific into the Pacific Northwest will continue to dump heavy rain and mountain snow into this weekend.

    As the Pineapple Express brought a steady rain to the Pacific Northwest Thursday, both Seattle and Olympia set daily rainfall records. The cities picked up 1.32 inches and 2.17 inches respectively. As of 8 a.m. PST Friday, Olympia and Shelton, Washington, had picked up more than 4 inches of rain from the storm.

    Portions of the Pacific Northwest have been experiencing a moderate drought, so the rain and snow will be beneficial. However, too much of a good thing in such a short amount of time will lead to some problems across the region.

    Flood watches extend up and down the Oregon and Washington coasts through Saturday, where persistent moderate to heavy rain was falling. In Bellevue, Washington, police posted a photo of a car that was trapped in floodwaters and urged the public to not attempt driving through deep water.

    A car stranded in floodwaters on a road in Bellevue, Washington. Police said the driver of the vehicle escaped unharmed, but urged the public to not take chances driving through deep water. (Bellevue Police Department).

    “Luckily, this driver swam to safety,” the department wrote on Twitter, reminding motorists to “Please be careful!”

    At higher elevations, heavy snow is causing a whole different set of dangers. Across the Cascades and Olympic Mountains, winter storm and avalanche warnings are in place because several feet of snow is expected in addition to the snow already on the ground.

    Satellite animation on Friday, Dec. 20, 2019, shows a plume of moisture extending from the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii into the Pacific Northwest. (NOAA / GOES)

    Olympic National Park in Washington has seen an explosion of snowfall over a 12-day period through mid-December. A webcam posted high up on Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic Mountains showed no snow-cover whatsoever as recently as Dec. 8. By Friday, Dec. 20, immense snowfall had almost entirely obscured the view from the webcam at Hurricane Ridge.

    On Friday, the atmospheric firehose of rain and snow will continue to fire at the Pacific Northwest coastline, generally from Portland, Oregon, northward into Washington.

    The steadiest and heaviest rain is likely to fall across the Olympic Peninsula, areas surrounding the Puget Sound and along upsloping areas of the Cascades. Through the entire rainfall event spanning from Thursday through Saturday, some areas could reach an AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 10 inches.

    “Widespread urban and small stream flooding are a given in a pattern such as this,” according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

    As moisture streams into the Cascades, heavy snow is expected to pile up above 4,000 feet. By the time the event wraps up this weekend, the high country could be buried under 5 or more feet of fresh snow.

    So much snow in such a short amount of time has prompted avalanche warnings across the Cascades. Skiers looking to head out and hit the fresh powder late this week and into this weekend will need to take necessary precautions to avoid falling victim to these dangerous phenomena.

    While the heaviest rain will largely stay north of Oregon on Friday, southerly winds of 25-45 mph with higher gusts along the coast will prove to be difficult for those traveling along U.S. Route 101 along the Oregon coast.

    Rain and snow coverage will expand southward in coverage Saturday, bringing wet weather to places like Eugene and Medford, Oregon, and into Northern California as well.

    “As the jet stream shifts farther south on Saturday, the bull’s-eye for flooding rain will transfer from the Washington coast southward to portions of western Oregon and Northern California.” AccuWeather Meteorologist Mary Gilbert stated.

    Travel along Interstate 5 from Seattle to Northern California will likely have weather-related issues courtesy of the persistent wet weather on Saturday.

    Along with disruptions in travel across the Pacific Northwest, there is increasing concern for area rivers overflowing their banks.

    This motion graphic shows the increase in snow depth across the Olympic Mountains between Dec. 8 and Dec. 20, 2019. (AccuWeather / NOAA)

    “Heavy rain falling over a relatively short period will likely cause at least minor flooding issues in the region.” Gilbert said.

    “In situations such as this, where snow levels rise to the intermediate elevations of the Cascades and Olympics, rapidly melting snow with heavy rain can lead to rapid rises along the short-run rivers in the region,” Sosnowski added.

    Remember, if you happen to see flowing water over roadways, turn around, don’t drown.

    By Sunday, the storm system bringing the plume of moisture into the Pacific Northwest is expected to track into the California coastline. As it does so, the widespread rainfall will come to an end.

    As the storm system comes ashore, it will draw down colder air, lowering the snow levels across the Cascades. While only occasional snow showers will remain over the mountains by Sunday, some of those can occur under 3,000 feet in elevation. Snoqualmie and Steven’s Pass, Washington, receiving rain into Saturday could turn slippery by Sunday.

    With the exception of the occasional shower along the Pacific Northwest coast early next week, conditions look to settle down in the days leading up to Christmas.

     

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  • The 2019 US tornado season included an ‘extraordinary’ occurrence

    The 2019 US tornado season included an ‘extraordinary’ occurrence

    By John Roach, AccuWeather staff writer

    Updated Dec. 13, 2019 10:33 AM

    A pair of unforgettable tornadoes bookended the 2019 U.S. tornado season, which is effectively over; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has no reports of tornadoes so far in December. The U.S. tornado season typically runs from March through November or sometimes into early December, although tornadoes can occur at any time.  

    The year’s deadliest event was an EF4 tornado that killed 23 people in Lee County, Alabama, in early March. Tornadoes and their destruction killed a total of 38 people in the U.S. this year. 

    Last year, the U.S. set a record low for the number of fatalities with just 10 people killed, the lowest number since tornado fatality record-keeping began in 1875. The previous record low total was 12 in 1910. Tornadoes cause an average of 80 U.S. fatalities annually.

    However, one of the costliest tornado outbreaks in Texas history, amazingly, resulted in no deaths when it struck north Dallas on October 20 and 21. AccuWeather estimates the total damage and economic loss from that severe outbreak of 10 tornadoes – including an EF3 – will approach $4 billion. 

    The tornado that struck Jefferson City, Missouri, was one of 556 nationally that occurred in May, an unofficial record for the month. (Twitter photo/Jefferson City Mayor Carrie Tergin)

    “The tornado outbreak this past October was extraordinary in the sense that, thankfully, nobody was killed,” said AccuWeather Founder and CEO Dr. Joel N. Myers. “Nobody – not one person! That’s the story – the amazing progress that has been made in weather forecasting accuracy over the last 50 or more years and our ability to get life-saving warnings to people in advance so they can take action and get out of harm’s way certainly paid off in this case.”

    In between the events in Alabama and Texas, 556 tornadoes occurred nationally in May, unofficially breaking the record for the month of 542 set in 2003, though the monthly total has yet to be confirmed. The 25-year average for May is 269 tornadoes. 

    Aerial image shot by a drone shows a Home Depot store in Dallas, Texas, that was obliterated after a destructive nocturnal tornado ripped through the area on Sunday, October 20, 2019. (SevereStudios / John Humphress)

    AccuWeather’s 2019 forecast released in February accurately pinpointed the areas to be hit hardest this year, with a higher frequency of severe weather risks in the traditional Tornado Alley — notably Oklahoma, Kansas and parts of Texas – which is more than they had experienced on average the previous three years. 

    “People were starting to question whether Tornado Alley should be shifted farther east, but our forecast accurately called for more events in the traditional area this year,” said AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Meteorologist Paul Pastelok. 

    Texas, with 188 tornadoes, has experienced the most of any state in the U.S., according to preliminary, unconfirmed data from NOAA. Kansas is second with 127, while Oklahoma and Mississippi are tied for third with 98. 

    “We are trying to prepare people in advance where disruptive weather can occur more frequently throughout the season and impact their safety, work or everyday plans,” Pastelok said. “We work to save as many lives as possible and to give people, companies, those in emergency services and others as much advance notice as possible to prepare and to take action.”  

    NOAA’s preliminary reports show there have been 1,603 tornadoes in 2019, but that total is not a confirmed final number. The inflation-adjusted annual tornado running total – which attempts to remove overcount by multiplying the preliminary total by 0.85 – is 1,363, according to NOAA. 

    Students from Beauregard High School in Beauregard, Ala., post a sign in support of the victims of Sunday’s deadly tornados on the school’s fence Monday, March 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Julie Bennett)

    There were 1,169 tornadoes in 2018, and the 25-year average is 1,199 tornadoes a year, according to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center. AccuWeather’s forecast in February for 2019 estimated an increase of roughly 20 percent over the 25-year average.

    Tornado-related fatalities have been trending downward despite more people living in tornado-prone areas. The reasons for this trend include advances in weather science and technology, the increasing accuracy and speed of processing warnings and the effectiveness of warning methods such as through mobile apps, as well as better cooperation between government weather services and the American weather industry that includes AccuWeather.

    AccuWeather is a proud and early partner of NOAA’s WeatherReady Nation resiliency program, which helps to continue this trend, and the company is proud to get these lifesaving warnings out to the public rapidly and accurately through its apps and website. 

     

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  • The 2019 California wildfires caused less damage than the last two devastating seasons

    The 2019 California wildfires caused less damage than the last two devastating seasons

    By John Roach, AccuWeather staff writer

    AccuWeather predicted earlier this year that the California wildfire season would be extended into December and that the total damage and economic loss caused by the state’s wildfires would be $80 billion, a pair of estimates that accurately reflect what occurred during the 2019 California wildfire season. 

    There were a total of 253,354 acres burned in California in 2019 and the wildfires that scorched the most land area were Kincade (77,758 acres), Walker (54,612 acres), Tucker (14,217 acres) and Maria (9,999 acres), according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. October was the most active wildfire month this year with 119,814 acres burned, followed by 83,908 acres consumed in September, 21,454 acres burned in July and 16,430 acres charred in August. There were also documented wildfires in every month except February, March and December. 

    For comparison, wildfires burned 1.8 million acres in California last year and 1.3 million acres in 2017.

    “There were much fewer acres burned this year than last,” said AccuWeather Founder and CEO Dr. Joel N. Myers. “But there were more power outages this year than last, which increased costs for businesses and individuals. We predicted power outages – both proactive and reactive – would be more of a factor and they were, resulting in a significant cost per customer during the duration of the blackouts.”

    California’s three big power companies – Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric – engaged in Public Safety Power Shut-offs (PSPS) as part of their plans to prevent wildfires sparked by a transmission line. PG&E’s four mass blackouts in October left hundreds of thousands of homes and business without power, with an Oct. 26 blackout cutting power to as many as three million people, according to The New York Times. 

    The Insurance Journal estimated that insured losses from California wildfires were $25.4 billion through Oct. 29. It notes, however, “Damage estimates can vary because some only contain insured losses, while others take in everything that was destroyed. After disasters, many people will pay for repairs out of their own pocket, which often leads to under counting.”

    Myers agrees there’s a likelihood of a substantial under-estimation of the damages. “The insurance costs through October 29 were $25.4 billion and there were additional fires subsequently damaging roughly 17,000 acres,” he said. “So the total of insured losses is now probably closer to $40 billion and insured losses usually represent only about half of the total loss, suggesting our $80 billion estimate is accurate.”

     

    Flames from a backfire consume a hillside as firefighters battle the Maria Fire in Santa Paula, Calif., on Friday, Nov. 1, 2019. According to Ventura County Fire Department, the blaze has scorched more than 8,000 acres and destroyed at least two structures. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

     

    The 2019 California wildfire season follows two of the largest, most destructive and deadliest seasons in the state’s history. AccuWeather estimates the total damage and economic loss caused by wildfires cost California $400 billion in 2018 and $85 billion in 2017. 

    The “wet season,” which typically begins in California in October and runs into March, was delayed this year, with many cities receiving no measurable precipitation until late November. In Fresno, rain arrived on Nov. 20, making it the third-latest start to the wet season on record, behind Dec. 11, 1995 and Nov. 30, 1923. 

    “Typically, we have seen storms come down during the middle or latter part of October and at least bring some precipitation,” said AccuWeather senior meteorologist Dan Kottlowski. “[To go] through the middle of November with no rainfall is highly unusual…. But that was predicted – we thought that would be the case, so we weren’t surprised about that.” 

    AccuWeather’s estimate includes damage to homes and businesses as well as their contents and cars, job and wage losses, school closures and the costs of power outages to businesses and individuals. It also accounts for economic losses because of highway closures, evacuations and increased insurance premiums throughout the state, firefighting costs, airport closures, flight cancellations and delays and the current and long-term residual health effects on those impacted by smoke and dirty air. 

    Download the free AccuWeather app to track the temperature for your area. Keep checking back for updates on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.

     

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  • Massive storm looming over Pacific to wreak havoc up and down West Coast

    Massive storm looming over Pacific to wreak havoc up and down West Coast

    By Kyle Elliott, AccuWeather meteorologist

    After one storm system walloped Southern California and Arizona with heavy rain and high-country snow this week, a much larger storm is set to slam Central and Northern California with a wide array of impacts from Friday into Saturday.

    Although the center of the storm system will move ashore in Oregon later Saturday into Saturday night, the worst of the impacts will occur farther to the south.

    Heavy rain and gusty winds will target coastal areas from San Francisco northward into southern Oregon spanning Friday into Saturday, as well as the Central Valley’s I-5 corridor from Sacramento to Redding.

     

    The foothills of the Sierra Nevada will also be hit hard with flooding downpours during this time.

    A general 1-2 inches of rain is forecast in the lowest elevations of the I-5 corridor and San Francisco Bay area, while 2-4 inches is more likely in coastal areas of Northern California.

    It is in the coastal ranges and foothills of the Sierra, however, that rainfall totals of 3-6 inches will occur. An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 8 inches is anticipated in these regions.

    Because California is no longer suffering from drought and has actually been abnormally wet over the past one to two weeks, the heavy rainfall will significantly heighten the risk for flooding and mudslides, especially in burn-scar areas from this year’s wildfires.

    Significant travel delays and road closures are also likely, especially in areas where stream and river flooding occurs or where mudslides cover roadways or cause them to collapse.

    “In addition to the extreme amounts of rain, falling snow levels will allow snow to accumulate across the higher terrain of the Sierra Nevada, which will act as a boon for local ski resorts,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.

    Snow levels will likely fall below 5,000 feet in the Cascades and northern Rockies on Saturday and as low as 5,500 feet in the Sierra Nevada.

    Spanning Friday to Saturday night, AccuWeather meteorologists expect at least 1-2 feet of snow to bury Donner Pass along I-80 in Northern California with 2-4 feet in the highest elevations.

    An AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 50 inches of snow is expected in the highest terrain of Northern California.

    Motorists traveling through the Sierra Nevada should be aware of chain requirements and be prepared with an emergency survival kit in case their vehicle breaks down or stalls.

    “While major snowfall accumulations farther north in the Washington and Oregon cascades are not expected from this storm system, any snow will be beneficial since these areas are suffering from abnormally dry conditions,” Buckingham added.

    In addition to the copious amounts of rain and snow slated for the end of the week and start of the weekend, gusty winds will buffet the northern half of California and southern part of Oregon.

    Wind gusts of 40-50 mph will threaten to cause sporadic power outages and may help weaken loose topsoil inundated by too much water, further enhancing the risk of mudslides. Blizzard conditions may occur at times in the Sierra Nevada.

    Drier conditions should gradually return from Sunday into Monday as the storm system pushes into the Rockies and Plains.

    Looking ahead into next week, storm-weary residents of California should finally catch a break from the onslaught as the storm track shifts farther north into the Pacific Northwest.

     

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