Extreme weather in your area

[Tim Vasquez]

I am currently working on a book title that deconstructs selected extreme weather events in North America and explores the forecasting aspects.

Since there are a pretty good cross-section of US and Canadians here, my question to you is what are some extreme and bizarre synoptic weather events that you remember for your location? They must be from 1960-2004, and in North America only. You can estimate a date to the nearest month.

Please avoid tornadoes and named hurricanes... I know of countless examples and can select those easily.

Some examples -- here in Texas we might think of (dates are approximate!!):
January 1, 1979 - major ice storm
June 20, 1980 - severe heat wave
Dec 20-25, 1983 - cold snap; longest recorded subfreezing spell at DFW
Jan 21, 1985 - monster 'norther'; record high pressure (30.95"/1050 mb) a week later
Jan 25, 1985 - unusual snowstorm in San Antonio
Mar 22, 1987 - very strong westerly gradient, gusts to 50 mph all day at DFW
Dec 22, 1989 - arctic icebox strikes Texas

Feel free to reminisce. What interesting weather situation do you want to see deconstructed and analyzed? If I pick your event (first mention) you'll be credited and get a free copy of the book. I'll be choosing about 20-30 examples, so your odds are good.

Tim

 

[mikegeukes]

The Great Blizzard of 1978 that affected the Great Lakes
and New England January 25-27, 1978.

Grand Rapids MI recorded 16.1 inches iof snow
in 24 hours. They were drifts some 15- 25 feet
out in the country. I remember this event fondly.

NWS Detroit has a web page about this:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/dtx/?page=stories/blizzard1978

Some other links:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/iwx/wxpics/winter/ -North Webster IN
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/iln/PSACVG.htm -Wiilmington OH
http://www.intellicast.com/DrDewpoint/Library/1371/ -Intellicat
plus more links can be found online.

November 10, 1975: THe Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mqt/fitzgerald/fitzc.htm
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/wxwise/fitz.html

Hurricane Huron: 14-SEP-96.
http://ams.allenpress.com/amsonline/?reque...ue=02&page=0223

Mike

 

[Michael P. Morris]

The Storm of the Century?

 

[Evan Bookbinder]

November 10-11, 1995 cold blast/tornado outbreak.

If I recall, in addition to tornadoes across the Plains/Midwest, there were a number of sites that saw 24 hour temperature changes on the order of 70-80F.

A real neat synoptic setup.

Another of my favorite events was the Jan '98 ice storm across the northeast/Canada.

Hurricane Huron was a GREAT even Mike.

Evan

 

[Robbie Cox]

The Blizzard of 1979 in chicago. Started on Friday night January 12 and lasted until 2 a.m. Sunday January 14. On top of 7-10 inches left over from a New Year's Eve storm, 20.3 inches of new snow fell--setting a record for total snow on the ground. still have the scar to prove it.

1993 iowa flood

http://www.intellicast.com/Almanac/Norther...h/content.shtml

 

[Jeff Snyder]

My most memorable event from when I was young and living with my parents in Minnesota, was the Halloween Storm of 1991, which lasted mainly from October 31st - November 3rd. This storm dumped over 30" of snow across portions of eastern Minnesota, with 28.4" in the Twin Cities and 36.9" in Duluth. There was also signficant ice accumulations in southeastern MN... This storm was followed by record cold too... I remember "trick-or-treat"ing that Halloween, in heavy snow and strong winds...

More info at http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/top5/nu...numberthree.htm

 

[Jeff Wear]

The major event I can think of from when I lived in CA is the record cold snap from Dec 21-31, 1990. Another one is the Dec 12, 1995 storm that had a central pressure of 953mb and produced hurricane force gusts across northern CA, western OR, and western WA.

 

[Robert Dewey]

I agree with the Blizzard of 1978, which affected all of MI/IN/OH, and had the lowest pressure recorded for many sites - A whopping ~955mb, which is very rare for an inland system...

The Blizzard of 1999 (January) was also one of the biggest to strike the Midwest/Great Lakes (Chicago), and would be another good event.

 

[Dan Cook]

I remember that 1999 blizzard. My HS was the only one in town where school wasn't canceled. They finally decided to let us go when the busses almost couldn't make it.

 

[Jeremy Lemanski]

September 10-12th, 1986 "the great flood of michigan."

i'll try to think of more.

 

[RodgerHeckman]

I am surprised I thought of this with all thats been going on here in FL this past week, but this is something that been with me since I was a kid.

January 19, 1977 - The day it snowed in MIAMI, Florida.

I remember waking up and looking outside wondering why the grass turned white. When I got to school, the teachers let the kids out to see what was going on, but it was so cold we would run out and head back in.

 

[Joel Wright]

November 10th, 1998. A huge low pressure "bombed" out across the upper midwest. The surface pressure dropped to 962.8mb in Albert Lea MN. VERY hight gradient winds blew for over 24 hours across the region. A non thunderstorm wind gust (gradient) of 93mph was recorded in LaCrosse Wisconsin. 95mph winds in Mackinac Island Michigan. Very high winds moved into the northeast the following day.

Sioux Falls SD also received over a foot of snow that day along with the winds.


I remember that day very clearly. I've never seen such powerful winds last so long. Some very large trees were uprooted in my neighborhood, many of which had sustained all previous severe thunderstorm winds. I'll never forget that day and way the low pressure bombed out....

 

[Robert Dewey]

November 10th, 1998. A huge low pressure "bombed" out across the upper midwest. The surface pressure dropped to 962.8mb in Albert Lea MN. VERY hight gradient winds blew for over 24 hours across the region. A non thunderstorm wind gust (gradient) of 93mph was recorded in LaCrosse Wisconsin. 95mph winds in Mackinac Island Michigan. Very high winds moved into the northeast the following day.

Sioux Falls SD also received over a foot of snow that day along with the winds.


I remember that day very clearly. I've never seen such powerful winds last so long. Some very large trees were uprooted in my neighborhood, many of which had sustained all previous severe thunderstorm winds. I'll never forget that day and way the low pressure bombed out....

Oh yea, thats another good event! Had to do some pretty good cleanup in the yard after that event - Had a few wind gusts to 60-70mph on my anemometer. Its also classified as November Gale, which are storms that tend to bomb out near or over Lake Superior in November, with hurricane-like effects. I believe wave heights on Lake Superior max out to 25FT on some of these events (I don't think waves can get much higher on Superior due to its size...

 

[Joel Wright]

Oh yea, thats another good event! Had to do some pretty good cleanup in the yard after that event - Had a few wind gusts to 60-70mph on my anemometer. Its also classified as November Gale, which are storms that tend to bomb out near or over Lake Superior in November, with hurricane-like effects. I believe wave heights on Lake Superior max out to 25FT on some of these events (I don't think waves can get much higher on Superior due to its size...

It's funny how this event occurred on the anniversary of the Edmund Fitzgerald storm.

This was a true "witch of november" storm...

 

[Angie Norris]

A couple come to mind:
The blizzard of 1993 (March 12- 13, 1993)...also known as the Storm of the Century, I think. East TN was paralysed by up to 2' of snow (my first thundersnow experience )
Record low temp of -24F in Knoxville, TN...think the date was Jan 18, 1985.
Angie