Posted December 29, 2008.
Top Ten Weather Events in the United States during 2008.
**Meteorologist Robert Henson is a writer and editor at the University
Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which operates the National Center for
Atmospheric Research.
(Robert Henson) To paraphrase Charles Dickens, 2008 was the calmest of times
and the stormiest of times. In this article, we have recapped some of the highest
impact U.S. weather events of the last 12 months.
1. Hurricane Ike (Texas/Louisiana, September). One of the wildest and weirdest
hurricanes in recent years, Ike started its career with a bang in the open
Atlantic. It intensified from tropical storm to Category 3 status in less than nine
hours on 3 September. A few days later, Ike crossed the Caribbean and waltzed
across extreme western Cuba as a Cat 3. But Ike's peak winds never regained
major-hurricane force. Instead, the system simply got bigger, eventually packing
some of the largest radii of hurricane-force winds (125 miles) and
tropical-storm force winds (275 miles) ever measured. This posed a major
public communication challenge, as the vast swath of wind was expected to stir
up a storm surge in the Galveston area far worse than people might presume
from the storm's Category 2 rating.
The worst of Ike's surge struck less-populated areas just east of Galveston
Island on the night of 12-13 September, but the overall damage was still
tremendous: more than $30 billion (in inflation-adjusted dollars, that's the third
costliest U.S. hurricane on record). Much of Galveston and nearby coastal
towns were left in shambles, and storm-surge damage extended well east into
Louisiana. Ike resulted in 82 U.S. deaths--among the highest tolls in recent
decades--and more than 200 people remain missing in the hurricane's aftermath.
The Boston Globe posted an incredible Ike photo gallery.
2. Midwest rains and flooding (Iowa and surrounding states, June). Although El
Niño often gets the rap for U.S. flooding, it was a relentless storm track
powered by La Niña that focused heavy winter snows and spring rains across a
belt roughly from Kansas to Michigan. It all culminated with two weeks of
incredible rains centered in two bands, one from central Iowa to southern
Wisconsin and another running from eastern Illinois to southern Indiana. Some
spots notched more than 14" between June 1 and 15, and a total of 15 stations
had their wettest single days on record, gauging anywhere from 4.5" to 9.5" of
rain. The resulting floods managed to topple a few of the marks set in the epic
1993 Mississippi flood. The most jaw-dropping imagery came from Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, where floodwaters spread to an almost-incomprehensible extent.
More than 42,000 people were evacuated and some 400 city blocks were
inundated as the Cedar River rose nearly a foot above its previous record crest.
3. Hurricane Gustav (Louisiana, September). It threatened to pummel New
Orleans with the same or greater ferocity than Katrina did in 2005, but in the
end, Gustav--as with many sequels--failed to deliver the punch of the original.
Except for a sharp southwest jog in the northern Caribbean, Gustav followed a
remarkably straight northwesterly path toward the Louisiana coast. Fears of a
Katrina repeat were stoked when Gustav quickly reached Category 4 strength
while approaching western Cuba, and people left the Louisiana coastline in
droves--the state's largest evacuation in history. But the hurricane never quite
recovered from its brief passage over Cuba, and it plowed into the coast at
borderline Cat. 2/3 strength near Grand Isle, just far enough west to stave off
another New Orleans disaster. Nevertheless, Gustav left an impressive swath of
damage well inland, with countless trees and power lines knocked down across
Louisiana. In all, 43 U.S. deaths were recorded, along with nearly 100 others in
the Caribbean.
4. Super Tuesday tornado outbreak (Midwest and South, February). As if there
weren't enough drama in the air as political primaries unfolded nationwide on
February 5, nature threw a few tornadoes into the mix--87, to be exact, causing
some precincts to close early. The parent storms were sparked by a potent
upper-level trough, but perhaps the most unusual ingredient was a large swath
of moist, record-warm surface air that swept into place more than a day ahead
of time. (More typically in a midwinter outbreak, such air masses race north
only hours before storms develop.) Some of the worst damage was near
Nashville and Memphis and in star-crossed Jackson, Tennessee, which endured
its third major tornado strike following hits in 1999 and 2003. If nothing else,
the onslaught is beefing up the city's tornado awareness. Students at Union
University dove for cover as dormitories were heavily damaged, but nobody
died on campus. All told, though, the tornadoes took 57 lives, making this the
deadliest U.S. outbreak since 1985.
5. Winter onslaught across northern tier (Northwest/Midwest/Northeast,
December). An unusually potent jet stream brought multiple waves of wintry
weather across the northern half of the nation from mid-December toward
month's end. The sustained cold was noticeable, if only because recent years
have brought so little of it, but frozen precipitation was the real star of this
show. The Portland, Oregon, area saw its heaviest snow in 29 years (11-13"),
and several Wisconsin cities had their snowiest Decembers on record, less than
a year after the state set many seasonal snowfall records. The worst ice storm
in New Hampshire's history left thousands of customers without power for
days just before the holidays, and hundreds were stranded at snow-crippled
airports from Seattle to Chicago.
6. Southeastern US drought slowly abates (ongoing). The year opened with
many parts of the Southeast desperate for rain. Atlanta was at the epicenter of
the multi-year drought, with Lake Lanier--the city's chief source of
water--having just set a record low on December 26, 2007. There wasn't a
single dramatic drought-buster, but recurrent fronts managed to douse enough
of the Southeast by April to completely erase the region of "exceptional" drought
(the most dire category). Slow improvement continued through the year. Today,
only a dimple of "extreme" drought remains from northeast Georgia into
southwest North Carolina, while many adjacent areas are now drought-free.
However, Lake Lanier remains only a foot above its record low and more than
17 feet below full. [GREAT GRAPHIC: you can generate a comparison from
Jan 1 to Dec 23 by going to U.S. Drought Monitor Web site and using the
pull-downs.
7. California wildfires (June). The northwest flow that dominated the U.S. in the
first half of 2008 left much of California high and dry. Many locales, including
Los Angeles and San Francisco, reported their driest springs on record. What
shocked many observers wasn't the wildfire itself--in a year like this, it's
inevitable--but how quickly it arrived and how intensely it raged. A freakish
round of low-precipitation thunderstorms swept across the northern half of the
state on June 20-21, triggering more than 2,000 fires. Before summer had even
gotten going, huge fires were devastating regions from the Big Sur area through
much of the forested north. By late July, though, conditions had eased, and the
rest of California's fire season was comparatively tame outside of an intense
round of wildfires close to L.A. in November.
8. January tornado outbreak (Midwest, South). Even seasoned weather
watchers were astounded to see a tornado outbreak so far northwest so early in
the year. When twisters strike in January, it's usually in the Deep South, where
moisture is plentiful year round. But on January 7-8, the action was focused in
Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee. There were even two twisters in southern
Wisconsin; only one other had been reported in that state in January since
records began in 1844. On January 9 and 10, the tornadoes continued, but most
were in the more climatologically favored Deep South--except for a true outlier
that struck near Vancouver, Washington, making it that state's first-ever
January tornado. All told, the outbreak was the nation's second most prolific for
January, but only 4 deaths were recorded.
9. Ohio snowstorm (March). Buffered by the Appalachians and the Great Lakes,
Ohio gets many types of weather, but seldom in super-strong doses. March 7-8
was the exception that proved the rule, as much of Ohio was hammered by
more than a foot of snowfall. Columbus was buried by 20.8", with 15.4" of that
total setting a new 24-hour record. The storm was accompanied by strong
winds and biting cold, although temperatures and overall hardship across Ohio
fell far short of the memorable Blizzard of 1978, when bitter winds of up to 70
mph piled fresh and existing snow into drifts that paralyzed the state for days.
10. Boy Scout and Kansas State tornadoes (June, Iowa). Hundreds of tornadoes
ripped across the nation's heartland in the spring of 2008, but one in particular
struck me with its poignancy. More than 100 Boy Scouts and staff encamped
on a hilly, wooded site north of Omaha found themselves fighting for their lives
on June 11 as an EF-3 twister tossed trees and destroyed a cabin where many
campers had taken shelter. More than 40 Scouts were injured, but only 4 died,
in part due to the quick action of peers who provided first aid. The incident
catalyzed fresh debate on the need for dedicated tornado shelters. Less
publicized, but just as impressive, was an EF-4 tornado on the same evening
that sliced across the campus of Kansas State University, severely damaging
several buildings. Afterward, KSU vice president Tom Rawson delivered what
has to be the most ironic weather quote of 2008: "The Wind Erosion Lab is
gone." Thankfully, the campus was nearly empty and nobody was seriously hurt.
The above appeared on Mitch Battros site:
http://earthchangesmedia.com/publish/article-9162523563.php
Top Ten Weather Events in the United States during 2008.
**Meteorologist Robert Henson is a writer and editor at the University
Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which operates the National Center for
Atmospheric Research.
(Robert Henson) To paraphrase Charles Dickens, 2008 was the calmest of times
and the stormiest of times. In this article, we have recapped some of the highest
impact U.S. weather events of the last 12 months.
1. Hurricane Ike (Texas/Louisiana, September). One of the wildest and weirdest
hurricanes in recent years, Ike started its career with a bang in the open
Atlantic. It intensified from tropical storm to Category 3 status in less than nine
hours on 3 September. A few days later, Ike crossed the Caribbean and waltzed
across extreme western Cuba as a Cat 3. But Ike's peak winds never regained
major-hurricane force. Instead, the system simply got bigger, eventually packing
some of the largest radii of hurricane-force winds (125 miles) and
tropical-storm force winds (275 miles) ever measured. This posed a major
public communication challenge, as the vast swath of wind was expected to stir
up a storm surge in the Galveston area far worse than people might presume
from the storm's Category 2 rating.
The worst of Ike's surge struck less-populated areas just east of Galveston
Island on the night of 12-13 September, but the overall damage was still
tremendous: more than $30 billion (in inflation-adjusted dollars, that's the third
costliest U.S. hurricane on record). Much of Galveston and nearby coastal
towns were left in shambles, and storm-surge damage extended well east into
Louisiana. Ike resulted in 82 U.S. deaths--among the highest tolls in recent
decades--and more than 200 people remain missing in the hurricane's aftermath.
The Boston Globe posted an incredible Ike photo gallery.
2. Midwest rains and flooding (Iowa and surrounding states, June). Although El
Niño often gets the rap for U.S. flooding, it was a relentless storm track
powered by La Niña that focused heavy winter snows and spring rains across a
belt roughly from Kansas to Michigan. It all culminated with two weeks of
incredible rains centered in two bands, one from central Iowa to southern
Wisconsin and another running from eastern Illinois to southern Indiana. Some
spots notched more than 14" between June 1 and 15, and a total of 15 stations
had their wettest single days on record, gauging anywhere from 4.5" to 9.5" of
rain. The resulting floods managed to topple a few of the marks set in the epic
1993 Mississippi flood. The most jaw-dropping imagery came from Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, where floodwaters spread to an almost-incomprehensible extent.
More than 42,000 people were evacuated and some 400 city blocks were
inundated as the Cedar River rose nearly a foot above its previous record crest.
3. Hurricane Gustav (Louisiana, September). It threatened to pummel New
Orleans with the same or greater ferocity than Katrina did in 2005, but in the
end, Gustav--as with many sequels--failed to deliver the punch of the original.
Except for a sharp southwest jog in the northern Caribbean, Gustav followed a
remarkably straight northwesterly path toward the Louisiana coast. Fears of a
Katrina repeat were stoked when Gustav quickly reached Category 4 strength
while approaching western Cuba, and people left the Louisiana coastline in
droves--the state's largest evacuation in history. But the hurricane never quite
recovered from its brief passage over Cuba, and it plowed into the coast at
borderline Cat. 2/3 strength near Grand Isle, just far enough west to stave off
another New Orleans disaster. Nevertheless, Gustav left an impressive swath of
damage well inland, with countless trees and power lines knocked down across
Louisiana. In all, 43 U.S. deaths were recorded, along with nearly 100 others in
the Caribbean.
4. Super Tuesday tornado outbreak (Midwest and South, February). As if there
weren't enough drama in the air as political primaries unfolded nationwide on
February 5, nature threw a few tornadoes into the mix--87, to be exact, causing
some precincts to close early. The parent storms were sparked by a potent
upper-level trough, but perhaps the most unusual ingredient was a large swath
of moist, record-warm surface air that swept into place more than a day ahead
of time. (More typically in a midwinter outbreak, such air masses race north
only hours before storms develop.) Some of the worst damage was near
Nashville and Memphis and in star-crossed Jackson, Tennessee, which endured
its third major tornado strike following hits in 1999 and 2003. If nothing else,
the onslaught is beefing up the city's tornado awareness. Students at Union
University dove for cover as dormitories were heavily damaged, but nobody
died on campus. All told, though, the tornadoes took 57 lives, making this the
deadliest U.S. outbreak since 1985.
5. Winter onslaught across northern tier (Northwest/Midwest/Northeast,
December). An unusually potent jet stream brought multiple waves of wintry
weather across the northern half of the nation from mid-December toward
month's end. The sustained cold was noticeable, if only because recent years
have brought so little of it, but frozen precipitation was the real star of this
show. The Portland, Oregon, area saw its heaviest snow in 29 years (11-13"),
and several Wisconsin cities had their snowiest Decembers on record, less than
a year after the state set many seasonal snowfall records. The worst ice storm
in New Hampshire's history left thousands of customers without power for
days just before the holidays, and hundreds were stranded at snow-crippled
airports from Seattle to Chicago.
6. Southeastern US drought slowly abates (ongoing). The year opened with
many parts of the Southeast desperate for rain. Atlanta was at the epicenter of
the multi-year drought, with Lake Lanier--the city's chief source of
water--having just set a record low on December 26, 2007. There wasn't a
single dramatic drought-buster, but recurrent fronts managed to douse enough
of the Southeast by April to completely erase the region of "exceptional" drought
(the most dire category). Slow improvement continued through the year. Today,
only a dimple of "extreme" drought remains from northeast Georgia into
southwest North Carolina, while many adjacent areas are now drought-free.
However, Lake Lanier remains only a foot above its record low and more than
17 feet below full. [GREAT GRAPHIC: you can generate a comparison from
Jan 1 to Dec 23 by going to U.S. Drought Monitor Web site and using the
pull-downs.
7. California wildfires (June). The northwest flow that dominated the U.S. in the
first half of 2008 left much of California high and dry. Many locales, including
Los Angeles and San Francisco, reported their driest springs on record. What
shocked many observers wasn't the wildfire itself--in a year like this, it's
inevitable--but how quickly it arrived and how intensely it raged. A freakish
round of low-precipitation thunderstorms swept across the northern half of the
state on June 20-21, triggering more than 2,000 fires. Before summer had even
gotten going, huge fires were devastating regions from the Big Sur area through
much of the forested north. By late July, though, conditions had eased, and the
rest of California's fire season was comparatively tame outside of an intense
round of wildfires close to L.A. in November.
8. January tornado outbreak (Midwest, South). Even seasoned weather
watchers were astounded to see a tornado outbreak so far northwest so early in
the year. When twisters strike in January, it's usually in the Deep South, where
moisture is plentiful year round. But on January 7-8, the action was focused in
Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee. There were even two twisters in southern
Wisconsin; only one other had been reported in that state in January since
records began in 1844. On January 9 and 10, the tornadoes continued, but most
were in the more climatologically favored Deep South--except for a true outlier
that struck near Vancouver, Washington, making it that state's first-ever
January tornado. All told, the outbreak was the nation's second most prolific for
January, but only 4 deaths were recorded.
9. Ohio snowstorm (March). Buffered by the Appalachians and the Great Lakes,
Ohio gets many types of weather, but seldom in super-strong doses. March 7-8
was the exception that proved the rule, as much of Ohio was hammered by
more than a foot of snowfall. Columbus was buried by 20.8", with 15.4" of that
total setting a new 24-hour record. The storm was accompanied by strong
winds and biting cold, although temperatures and overall hardship across Ohio
fell far short of the memorable Blizzard of 1978, when bitter winds of up to 70
mph piled fresh and existing snow into drifts that paralyzed the state for days.
10. Boy Scout and Kansas State tornadoes (June, Iowa). Hundreds of tornadoes
ripped across the nation's heartland in the spring of 2008, but one in particular
struck me with its poignancy. More than 100 Boy Scouts and staff encamped
on a hilly, wooded site north of Omaha found themselves fighting for their lives
on June 11 as an EF-3 twister tossed trees and destroyed a cabin where many
campers had taken shelter. More than 40 Scouts were injured, but only 4 died,
in part due to the quick action of peers who provided first aid. The incident
catalyzed fresh debate on the need for dedicated tornado shelters. Less
publicized, but just as impressive, was an EF-4 tornado on the same evening
that sliced across the campus of Kansas State University, severely damaging
several buildings. Afterward, KSU vice president Tom Rawson delivered what
has to be the most ironic weather quote of 2008: "The Wind Erosion Lab is
gone." Thankfully, the campus was nearly empty and nobody was seriously hurt.
The above appeared on Mitch Battros site:
http://earthchangesmedia.com/publish/article-9162523563.php
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