Of course, it will only be a matter of time before some pundit blames this storm on “global warming”. Readers feel free to post links to such stories in the comments.
click images to enlarge. Loop the radar image here
The record nature of this storm is the low barometric pressure (< 960 mb), on par with a major hurricane (if this storm were centered in the tropics and not in Minnesota). However, this system is not typical Arctic blizzard, but a more subtropical/tropically oriented monster. Nevertheless, Southern Canada will be covered in snow.
RUC Analyzed Sea-Level Pressure and WRF Simulated Radar Reflectivity Forecast
AccuWeather News Forecast FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Violent Storms Spawning Tornadoes Across Midwest
State College, PA — October 26, 2010 — AccuWeather.com reports a rip-roaring squall line (or line of severe thunderstorms) got under way in the heart of the Midwest Monday night and has already spawned tornadoes and caused widespread damage from Missouri and Kentucky to Illinois and Wisconsin.
Indianapolis is getting hit by these thunderstorms right now.
This dangerous line of thunderstorms will continue racing eastward across the Midwest today, expanding the damage swath all the way through Ohio. Destructive winds and tornadoes will remain the primary threats.
Several tornadoes have already been sighted in northeastern Illinois, southeastern Wisconsin and southwestern Kentucky. Damage to homes has been reported with one of the twisters near Peotone, Ill. Another reportedly uprooted and downed trees onto homes near Racine, Wis.
Before sunrise Tuesday, the thunderstorms were lined up from Paducah, Ky., to just west of Chicago, Ill. The main line blasted through Chicago between 7 and 8 a.m. CDT.
The line will continue roaring eastward at about 60 mph throughout the day. If you are able to safely take photos or video of the damage from these thunderstorms, be sure to post them on our AccuWeather.com Facebook page.
Other cities in the path of these vicious thunderstorms include Louisville, Ky., Toledo, Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio as well as Detroit. It’s in this general area where the worst of the severe weather can be expected.
Severe thunderstorms will also affect areas farther south through Tennessee and northern parts of Mississippi and Alabama, including Nashville. However, damage is not expected to be quite as widespread as in areas farther north across the Lower Midwest.
People in the path of these thunderstorms need to stay alert to their local weather conditions and head to the lowest level of a sturdy building immediately if a severe thunderstorm or tornado warning is issued.
These thunderstorms will be knocking trees and power lines down, potentially onto roadways, buildings and vehicles. Often times when this happens, lives are tragically lost.
Again, some of the thunderstorms could also spawn more tornadoes. Any tornado that touches down in a populated area today could be devastating.
Even though the nasty thunderstorms will exit the Midwest tonight, howling winds will pick up behind them through Wednesday with gusts up to 70 mph threatening to cause more wind damage.
Story by Heather Buchman, Meteorologist for AccuWeather.com
The local climate is being disrupted!
I’m in Loudonville, Ohio. It’s going to be on me in 20 minutes or so. It’s really blowing up on this hill.
it’s fascinating to look at on the map. Down here in East Texas we were right on the bottom of that line slashing across the country, and yet still the wind blew quite powerfully all night, even without storms. I’ve always been in love with the feeling you get when you go outside and you can feel these huge masses of air on the move. I know that sounds odd to say, and I’m not in love with storms themselves or the damage they cause. But there’s so much energy in the air when these kinds of things go through that it can make my skin tingle!
Here in Minnesota it was windy and almost huricane force, but nothing that unusual. For “wimps” in Florida have no idea what Minnesota weather is like.
Tornado sirens going off N.E. of Columbus, OH. Starting to hear the boomers in the near distance! Whoo hoo! Our climate here is hacked off! 🙂
News radio mentioned that it was a storm the likes of which as not been seen in 70 years. If anyone suggests it was caused by global warming, climate disruption, or CO2 will need to resolve the conditions 70 years ago. Meanwhile, the vineyards around here have been rushing to get the grapes harvested following a disappointingly cool summer (lower sugar content) and the onset of early wet storms. A ski resort near Tahoe opens this weekend. Others may open for Thanksgiving. Seems to me we are well into a cooling trend and a ‘reversion to the mean.’
In Minnesota, they have broken the all time record for lowest pressure.
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/images/dlh/StormSummaries/2010/october26/pressurerecord.pdf
“PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DULUTH MN
1055 AM CDT TUE OCT 26 2010
…MINNESOTA ALL TIME LOWEST PRESSURE RECORD BROKEN THIS MORNING…
…PRESSURE IS STILL FALLING AND WILL CONTINUE INTO THE AFTERNOON…
REMEMBER THAT THIS INFORMATION IS PRELIMINARY. THE LOW IS STILL
STRENGTHENING SO THE VALUES LISTED BELOW ARE LIKELY TO CHANGE.
AN UNUSUALLY INTENSE LOW WAS AFFECTING THE STATE OF MINNESOTA THIS
MORNING. AT 1013 AM CDT…THE AUTOMATED WEATHER OBSERVING SYSTEM AT
AITKIN MINNESOTA RECORDED A 962.3 MILLIBAR /28.42 INCHES/ PRESSURE.
THIS BREAKS THE ALL TIME MINNESOTA STATE RECORD FOR THE LOWEST
OBSERVED PRESSURE.
THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 962.6 MB SET ON NOVEMBER 10 1998 AT ALBERT
LEA AND AUSTIN IN SOUTHERN MINNESOTA.
IT SHOULD ALSO BE NOTED THAT DULUTH BROKE THEIR PRESSURE RECORD. AS
OF 1028 AM…THE PRESSURE AT DULUTH WAS 962.9 MILLIBARS /28.44
INCHES/. THIS BREAKS THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 964.3 MILLIBARS WHICH
OCCURRED ON NOVEMBER 10 1998.
PRESSURE RECORDS AT INTERNATIONAL FALLS WERE ONLY AVAILABLE BACK TO
1948. THE LOWEST PRESSURE PREVIOUSLY AT THAT LOCATION WAS 971.9
MILLIBARS ON OCTOBER 10 1949. THE PRESSURE AS OF 1024 AM WAS 967.4
MILLIBARS /28.57 INCHES/. THEREFORE…INTERNATIONAL FALLS ALSO BROKE
THEIR PRESSURE RECORD.
THE LOW CONTINUES TO DEEPEN AND THE PRESSURE WILL LIKELY CONTINUE TO
FALL. THEREFORE…THIS STATEMENT IS PRELIMINARY AND WILL BE UPDATED
ONCE THE LOWEST PRESSURE IS FINALLY OBSERVED.
THE LOW WAS AT ABOUT 983 MB ONLY 24 HOURS AGO OVER CENTRAL SOUTH
DAKOTA. THAT IS A PRESSURE DROP OF ABOUT 21 MILLIBARS IN 24 HOURS
So far (knocking on wood here) this storm is not as bad in the Cincinnati area as the windstorm Ike brought up here in 2008. That storm was something else. I was almost crushed to death helping a neighbor pull a tree down to keep it from falling on his house. I’ll hope for a little less excitement. 🙂
In 10 days or so, “models” indicate that a large system will come out of the Windwards and will end up as a big Nor-easter, much like last year with TS Ida when it came back to life to lash the east coast with stormy winds. More of the same….
You can really see it intensify in the twelve hours here.
http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sfc_con_pres.html
Pretty gnarly when you consider the pressures involved. Low sunspots are linked to hurricanes, do sunspots have an effect on atmosphere pressure? Maybe the activity of the sun stabilizes the atmosphere to prevent pressure fluctuations?
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/hurricanes/2010-06-01-hurricanes-sun_N.htm
It is from such storms that the “gales of November” of Edmund Fitzgerald fame are spawned. This one is a week early for November, so it’s worse than we thought.
I’ve just had this picture shared with me:
http://my.whiotv.com/_Tramp-on-van/PHOTO/11469982/6688.html?widgetId=239134
OT but reckon Sir Muir Russell will hit big time today re inquiry
see CA
Enjoy it buddies!….This issue of a new Maunder like minimum it is a serious matter, no jokes…. anyway our scientific curiosity will be rewarded to the top. Buy more popcorn!
Mr. Watts:
While no single storm can be traced to global warming, what is the energy source that drives the extreme low pressure of this particular storm?
Is it due to higher air temperatures or did the storm initially get its strength over water?
How can be global warming blamed, when it occurs in October, much colder than summer? Atmosphere does not care about datum in calendar, but about its physical properties. If there is direct relation between absolute temperature and extreme events, as it is claimed, there should be no extreme events during the winter and all during the summer. Increase of extreme events should be then observed only during those few summer weeks, when temperature goes few tenths of degree above some 1960-90 standard. Nonsense all that.
RyanMaue: The idea is that the “mean” global temperature is increasing. Thus, assuming the distribution of temperatures stays the same, the whole thing shifts to the right, meaning a longer tale towards more extreme warmth. However, there is no reason to believe that the temperature distribution globally or locally is constant or will change uniformly. Thus, when climate scientists say that record highs are increasing, they are only giving you half the story since they are not describing the change in the shape of the distribution.
We’ve had 30+ hours of heavy snowfall, wind and cold in Summit County, Colo.
We just got slammed. It feels 20 degrees cooler out there. Good sleeping tonight. Thank you global warming.
Mostly a non-event here in Central Illinois. We had about 0.4 in. of rain and 30mph winds this morning.
I grew up in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan and remember the storm on November 10th, 1975 like it was yesterday. By all intents, this storm is bigger than that November gale that took the Edmond Fitzgerald. To those in the path of the storm , batten down the hatches and stay safe at home!
I hope the freighters on the big lakes are already safely in port or will soon be so.
Looks like the storm is causing temperatures to drop dramaticly. Is this due to the movement of a cold air mass out of Canada or the arctic that meets a warmer southern air mass and sets up a cyclonic flow generating the low pressure?
The moon is maximum North declination today, the Earth and Venus will be having a synod conjunction in three days, both of these conditions usually drive surges of warm moist air into the mid-latitudes. The negative ion content on the equatorial air mass coming in from the west coast for the past week, (the remains of the super typhoon Magi), is reacting with the warm moist gulf air sitting over the South Eastern USA.
This process is usually concentrated in the spring, due to atmospheric harmonics of the seasonal cresting of incoming Solar and Lunar atmospheric tides, but quite often happens in the fall and mid winter in the South Eastern USA. This is just natural lunar declinational tides in the atmosphere, doing what they normally do, it does not have anything to do with the CO2 content in the atmosphere.
http://research.aerology.com/severe-weather/lunar-declinational-affects-tornado-production/
Research into the processes that be at the link above, and forecast precipitation maps for today and yesterday, (and the next three years) are on the main pages;
http://www.aerology.com/national.aspx
show probable severe weather and tornado production by the appearance of the wispy, netted patterns of precipitation from past cycles of similar severe weather and tornado production.
Will Crump says:
October 26, 2010 at 11:37 am
Mr. Watts:
While no single storm can be traced to global warming, what is the energy source that drives the extreme low pressure of this particular storm?
Is it due to higher air temperatures or did the storm initially get its strength over water?
_____
This storm may owe much of its origins to the warmer than normal waters of the N. Pacific (which are ususally warmer than normal duirng both La Nina periods & cool phases of the PDO)
RyanMaue: the SSTs are actually very cold over most of the Pacific … SST anomalies
It may be cold on the ground – but look how much heat that storm is radiating to space as seen by the GOES EAST IR Channel 4
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/natl/loop-rb.html
Water has interesting effects 😉
Meanwhile O/T: Mount Merapi Erupts.
On the spot blogger here.
We had a tornado watch early this morning here in the South Bend, IN area. The wind peaked here between 6 and 11 AM with a high gust of 60 locally. Our windiest day since back in February as far as wind run goes.
shunt1 says:{October 26, 2010 at 10:57 am)
“Here in Minnesota it was windy and almost huricane force, but nothing that unusual. For “wimps” in Florida have no idea what Minnesota weather is like.”
I gladly wimp out with electric bills of around $50 per month from Oct thru March. (no oil or gas charges either). I will remember your thoughts when I am having my adult beverage after a fine round of golf beautiful January weather. Thanks for reminding me why I moved to Florida.
Just think, if this was happening in January or February….
I have been watching the development of this storm for about a week now. The Canadian weather models had a pretty good handle on this system throughout its development. In all my many years of weather forecasting and research I can honestly say I have never seen a storm of this low pressure and intensity on the continent. These types of storms do develop over the oceans and sometimes over the Arctic as well. But nothing like this have I seen on the continent.
It was asked what drives these storms. The energy source is always the gradient (contrast) in temperatures between airmasses along a frontal zone. In this case the southern U.S. was very warm while much cooler air was sinking southward from Canada and the northern states. This eventually made for a very strong west-east frontal zone across the central U.S. This was further evidenced by the very strong zonal jet stream which the frontal zone developed. In addition, once the storm gets going in the central states it starts drawing up even more warm and moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. This air likely makes its way all the way into Canada. So the storm itself actually intensifies the environment and further adds to its energy.
A very interesting case meteorology-wise and one that may be studied for some time. I wish those in the path of the storm well.
It just passed through Dayton. Like 99 percent of storms, it didn’t live up the hype.
I don’t think the storm itself is radiating heat since those are cold cloud tops. A more important factor is the subsidence around the storm which radiates heat more effectively to space.
Mr Watts:
Is this the correct explanation?
The video on this site shows the kind of wind patterns and the alignment of the jet stream that contribute to this weather pattern.
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/40636/hurricanelike-winds-hammer-the-1.asp
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/40643/blizzard-cold-plunge-into-nort-1.asp
This weather pattern is consistent with long range predictions by accuweather below:
“The main player governing the forecast for this winter is the phenomenon called La Nina, when sea surface temperatures across the equatorial central and eastern Pacific are below normal. La Nina strengthens as the departure increases.
La Nina winters are typically synonymous with harsh conditions across the northern tier of the United States and drier-than-normal conditions throughout the southern tier.”
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/34891/winter-2011-heavier-snow-for-c.asp
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/40340/accuweathercom-winter-forecast-1.asp
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/40477/west-coast-winter-will-have-co-1.asp
So is this storm caused by the cooling of Pacific waters due to La Nina and a dip southward in the jet stream out of Canada and the Arctic?
With cold air moving out of the arctic through Canada and into the upper midwest of the U.S., is warmer air moving into the arctic at another location?
Here in Fargo, ND we just broke our record for the lowest pressure for the month of October and we’re just a few millibars from our all-time record. The wind is just howling outside and the poor folks that didn’t bring in their Halloween “blowup” decorations will probably have to drive to Wisconsin or Michigan to find them.
Parts of my area will see blizzard conditions once the rain turns to snow. Thankfully it’s October so at least it will melt before the real winter begins.
wws says:
October 26, 2010 at 10:49 am
it’s fascinating to look at on the map. Down here in East Texas we were right on the bottom of that line slashing across the country, and yet still the wind blew quite powerfully all night, even without storms. I’ve always been in love with the feeling you get when you go outside and you can feel these huge masses of air on the move. I know that sounds odd to say, and I’m not in love with storms themselves or the damage they cause. But there’s so much energy in the air when these kinds of things go through that it can make my skin tingle!
___________Reply;
The reason lots of people like storm fronts is due to the free electrons leaking out ahead of the polar air masses, that show up as cirrus clouds.
As the increase in negative ions push ahead of the frontal boundary, people outside breath them in, it tries to shift their ph and lower and alters their sodium pump bias on their nerve regeneration to a resultant shorter reset timing. Thus allowing them to conduct more nerve transmission pulses per second, there is a normal activation of adrenaline levels, and people can be seen rushing around, traffic gets hectic, the number of domestic disturbances increases, and lovers who are so inclined are able to ride this crest of the ion excitation wave, can convert this surge of energy and consequent release of tension as the front passes, into passionate encounters that leave them relaxed and satisfied at the end of the natural storm energy surge.
Many people will comment on their loving during storms as some of their best experiences, when in reality it is just energy surfing, as the wave crests, try it some time.
Boatnerd.com says that this storm may beat the gale that doomed the Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975. Great Lakes waves are expected to top out at around 27 feet on Lake Superior.
http://www.boatnerd.com/news/news14.htm
WJR Radio reported that a large number (Thought they said close to 100) of great lakes freighters are weathering the storm near the Mackinac Straits. I can’t verify it or find a story in print on it. http://www.wjr.net/
Richard Holle says:
October 26, 2010 at 11:57 am
And the energy exchange also varies between moon’s perigee and apogee:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/39961403/Eccentricity-Field
It almost doubles.
It’s got to be global warming.What else could it be?Thats what caused all the snow last year in the mid Atlantic and the southeast.Thats was caused all 50 states,Florida included, to have snow on the groung in February 2010.Global Warming Climate Chnage and Global Climate Disruptionis are the biggest lies the Liberal media,NOAA,The Weather Channel and Al Gore have tried to force down everyones throat.
Of course, it will only be a matter of time before some pundit blames this storm on “global warming”.
And of course, it will take even LESS time for some pundit to suggest that pundits will blame this on “global warming”. 😉
The 1975 storm which sank the Edmund Fitzgerald had wind gusts of more than 90 mph.
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum has a video on the Fitzgerald, and the bell recovered in 1995; worth a visit if you are in that part of the UP.
http://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/
Dave says:
October 26, 2010 at 11:54 am
I grew up in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan and remember the storm on November 10th, 1975 like it was yesterday. By all intents, this storm is bigger than that November gale that took the Edmond Fitzgerald. To those in the path of the storm , batten down the hatches and stay safe at home!
I hope the freighters on the big lakes are already safely in port or will soon be so.
Dave I live in The Soo. The major part of the storm has just passed Cheboygan, Mi. Thw winds have been howling and sparatic rain. I have to cross the Mackinac Bridge to get home and it will close if the winds are above 60 mph I believe.
My son sales the lakes and I hope he in port now.
Sales should be sails.
One of the worst blizzards in Minnesota was on January 10-12, 1975. It had a low pressure of 961 mb, which is very low for a land storm in winter. It had the distinction of also being one of the largest in area, covering a good part of North America. I was in Resolute in the high Arctic and I think the east winds extended up there. It is written up in Wikipedia here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1975
You can also look up Famous Minnesota Blizzards below. There are also notes about ships lost in the Great Lakes during some of them.
http://climate.umn.edu/doc/historical/winter_storms.htm
Unfortunately, our fabulous fall in the Denver area ended in the past few days with much cooler temps and extreme howling winds.
The ski area people are happy, they’re getting 1-2 feet of snow. However, they also have blizzard conditions because of the wind. You can’t even see past the foothills because the blowing snow is making “clouds” that hide the mountains.
We live at the base of the foothills where the wind is the worst. Fortunately, the wind is dying down today as it moves east towards most of the rest of you.
Oh lucky me!
I’m about to get nailed full bore on the shores of Georgian Bay in Ontario.
johnb says:
October 26, 2010 at 12:32 pm
http://www.boatnerd.com/news/news14.htm
WJR Radio reported that a large number (Thought they said close to 100) of great lakes freighters are weathering the storm near the Mackinac Straits. I can’t verify it or find a story in print on it.
Johnb I will try to verify tonight as I have to cross Mackinac Bridge to get home. I’m sure I should be able to see some of them.
Storm seems to have passed. Blue skies, no rain and no high winds.
Sucka seems to be stalled right over my head.
“Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa”. How easy it is to persuade groups of people to say this, when they could have had nothing at all to do with what occurred. That is how religions work.
From http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=grb&storyid=59008&source=0
28.38″ Hg == 961 mb
28.45″ Hg == 963 mb
Will Crump says:
“what is the energy source that drives the extreme low pressure of this particular storm”
It is usually known as “the sun”.
Bit of a disappointment here in Western Michigan. Plenty of sirens going off this morning: for a tornado about 40 miles away! We left a lot of windows open all day since it felt so nice. Now the feared winds are doing a marvelous job scraping my yard clean of leaves. What’s not to like?
Try to stay safe, everybody. The storm rolled through with high winds at my home in AR but thankfully no tornado. Hickory nuts went flying out of the trees so hard they nearly broke out windows I’m told.
AJB, yeah this is bad. Earthquake, tsunami and eruptions. Erik and his readers have a lot on it and are adding news all the time.
Merapi erupts on a tragic day for Indonesia | Eruptions | Big Think
http://bigthink.com/ideas/24670
Pray for them
Nothing much to report in southern Minnesota. A fairly strong wind and a little rain but nothing unusual and not as bad as the forecast. Suppose to get some snow flurries tomorrow.
Yawn! Been there, done that. That beast was here a few days ago. Hit land as a nasty looking front but went through rather meekly. Just some precip and some mild winds. Boy has it grown angry now… How about surfing that pressure wave out front? The classic comma shape and everything!
Nasty!
Ottawa county, Michigan
Huge horrible storm went right over us and we got….NOTHING. Not a crack of lightning, no thunder, nuthin. Rain and some wind, but no storm here.
I don’t wish harsh weather on anybody. However, as a resident of the Puget Sound basin in WA state, I find the media treatment of a big storm in the eastern half of our nation tiresome. We get 24 hr saturation on TV that includes ding-dong TV reporters clothed in rain gear being stupid.
Along the Pacific coast we get storms like this every year. These storms are for the most part ignored elsewhere. 50 to 70 kt gales are something we deal with. Trees blow down, buildings are damaged, and power outages are common.
Sometimes the big ones blow down tens or even hundreds of thousands of acres of standing forest. When this occurs, the tree huggers have to grovel, but still do everything in their power to prevent salvage logging of the blow down so that bark bark beetles and bud worms can feast.
How come our big storms get ignored? Better yet, why are big storms publicized as the next greatest disaster ever experienced?
RyanMaue: “The idea is that the “mean” global temperature is increasing. Thus, assuming the distribution of temperatures stays the same, the whole thing shifts to the right, meaning a longer [tail] towards more extreme warmth.”
That longer hot tail is very difficult to maintain, given T^4 disposal of heat to space.
Here in northern Minnesota it has been one for the record books. As I type this, the pressure is 958mb here (28.31 inches) with a record 955mb just east of here. This not only blows the old record of 963mb set on Nov. 10, 1998 for Minnesota, but is now officially the lowest non-tropical storm pressure in the mainland U.S. ever recorded. Winds have gusted to near 70mph in Fargo, ND… and have been up to near 50mph here, which is pretty amazing considering how forested this region is. The pines and spruces don’t like this wind! The deciduous trees are lucky, I guess.. no leaves left to drag in the wind and pull branches off. There are blizzard warnings in ND and winter storm warnings here in MN. We could get a few inches of snow here. It’s a pretty amazing storm… and completely not surprising given the La Niña. The last two low pressure records for Minnesota were set in November 1998 and November 1975… both La Niña years.
That ‘thing’ passed over us in No. California, leaving one of the earliest snows stuck to the Trinity Alps like flocking on a Christmas tree. It wasn’t warm, and it’s still brisk around here…. even for late October. It also made for the heaviest rain on the 23rd, beating out 1940 and making a storm total of over 5″.
I am thinking MKelly is going to say that there were very few freighters hanging out near the bridge. The storm blew through here quick near metro Detroit and I didn’t see much in the way of sustained winds. As is, I think there are only about 200 freighters total operating on the great lakes.
This upper map shows a jet stream at FL270 to the north of system and another below the great lakes. The later is going west but the former is going east. The two jet streams may be combining to cause the low pressure. There was a system that went through Winnipeg area yesterday from west to east and now is reversing and going back east to west.
http://www.flightplanning.navcanada.ca/Latest/anglais/Latest-sigwx_fl250-fl630-e.html
Paddy this storm is much like the Storms of the 50’s 60’s and 70’s .Blowdown is the
nemisis of foresters, it an reate fire hazards as well as bug incubators. Now the next big thing is closing all the roads. not enough Airtankers Helicopters or Smokejumpers.
to go around…
Big burn of 2011? watch…
From Jean Williams…
Monster storms and tornadoes decimate homes from Midwest to Gulf of Mexico
October 26th, 2010 4:58 pm ET.
“Scientists believe the abnormal weather is the result of climate change caused by global warming.”
http://www.examiner.com/environmental-policy-in-national/monster-storms-and-tornadoes-decimate-homes-from-midwest-to-gulf-of-mexico
It is poetic justice that the I-5 corridor folks have to suffer under cold weather (meant to say climactic disruption) and then send those La Nina systems to the midwest where conservative folks get hammered. The icing on the cake is when, with a straight face, these green freaks try to shove global warming, climate change, catastrophic climate change, climate disruption, whatever, down our collective throats. It simply proves to us, you can’t fix stupid. But you sure as hell can vote it out of office.
As snowguy716 noted, a low pressure reading of 28.20″ (955mb) was set today in Bigfork MN at 5:13pm CDT.
Just as Ryan Maue (and the GFS model) predicted!
Very impressive storm for any time of the season but even more so considering the time of year.
R. Gates says:
This storm may owe much of its origins to the warmer than normal waters of the N. Pacific (which are ususally warmer than normal duirng both La Nina periods & cool phases of the PDO)
=============================
This storm may also owe some of its origins to the energy of Supertyphoon Megi.
She also helped flood the southern part of the nation with record warmth under her Marilyn Monroe skirt. LOL
While up in North Dakota, it is colder than a witches *** and it looks outside like a scene from Chronicles of Narnia. Happy early halloween.
Check out Government Camp elevation 4000 feet on US 26 southeast of Portland.
Brrrr. Time to dust off the snowboard.
http://www.tripcheck.com/Pages/CCview.asp?Num=1&cam1=624
End of October here in VA and its in the mid 70s at 11 at night.
Summertime [in October], and the livin’ is easy.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
Scratch that record: New record low pressure set in International Falls MN of 28.18″
I forgot to segue…”meanwhile, in Oregon….”
Was not saying Portland or Gov’t Camp was in ND, just in case you conflate.
Reading my last post I failed to transition.
Pamela Gray says:
October 26, 2010 at 7:37 pm
It is poetic justice that the I-5 corridor folks have to suffer under cold weather (meant to say climactic disruption) and then send those La Nina systems to the midwest where conservative folks get hammered. The icing on the cake is when, with a straight face, these green freaks try to shove global warming, climate change, catastrophic climate change, climate disruption, whatever, down our collective throats. It simply proves to us, you can’t fix stupid. But you sure as hell can vote it out of office.
======================
I love you, Pamela. 😉
The front stretched from Texas to Canada. That’s impressive.
northwestern Michigan, well if this is the way the pineapple express is going this year….. I want to move!!!!!!!!!!! WINTER OF 75 WAS NO JOY RIDE!!!
oh well
@Patty
“we get storms like this every year.” On the coast 3 to five times a year yes and then every once we get a corker like three years ago. Max gust 129! and sustained 50 mph+ for three dasys!! See
Somehow the link was missing
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/paststorms/20071203/monster_storm.php
R. Gates says:
This storm may owe much of its origins to the warmer than normal waters of the N. Pacific (which are ususally warmer than normal duirng both La Nina periods & cool phases of the PDO)
You may also be interested to know that the latest storm dumped snow down to 4500 feet in Calif and froze it to the trees in October.
Some warmer than normal water that was (the big blue blob on the Unisys map sitting off the Pacific Northwest).
johnb says:
October 26, 2010 at 5:11 pm
I am thinking MKelly is going to say that there were very few freighters hanging out near the bridge. The storm blew through here quick near metro Detroit and I didn’t see much in the way of sustained winds. As is, I think there are only about 200 freighters total operating on the great lakes.
Update from last night and this morning. I saw only 3 freighters anchored in the south channel of the Mackinac Straits. Possibly one more nearer Cheboygan and Bois Blanc Island. So you are correct johnb.
My son texted me and he was “bobbing around on Lake Michigan”.
The people at NOAA and the local civil defense went bonkers. The tornado sirens went off twice yesterday morning for no reason other than MSM induced hysteria. The squall line was a real sleeper. Lack of low level thermal dynamics really put a crimp on the alarmists party. There was some wind, a little thunder, and a little rain. NOAA will attempt to use the destruction of a 110 year old barn (with plenty of dry rot and a collapsing roof) to justify an EF0 tornado. Very unprofessional hysteria by the local TV weather people. At one point every county in Northern Indiana was covered by tornado warnings despite the fact that all of the “action” had quickly advected into Eastern Ohio.
Many people here are pissed. And, of course, local “experts” from schools of higher education are telling viewers to get used to these storms, as Climate Change is real and here to stay. Pathetic.
960 millibars??
Phah! In the UK, the lowest recorded was 925 millibars:
“The lowest pressure yet recorded over the UK was 925.6mb at Ochtertyre, near Stirling (Scotland) in 1884.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article3508196.ece
.
Incidentally, the reason that this is a large depression and not a tight hurricane, is Coriolis force. Coriolis is larger in the high latitudes than near the equator (due to the ‘increased’ spin-rate of the Earth) and this keeps the low pressure system from getting ‘compressed’ or ‘compacted’, with tighter, stronger winds.
“you can’t fix stupid. But you sure as hell can vote it out of office” -Pamela Gray
Very well said. I added this to my ongoing list of quotable quotes. So the question for Pamela is: did you quote someone or did you beat him to it? (I’m betting the latter)
Maybe progress is being made. I’ve tried looking through a bunch of news links, but so far except for the Examiner article linked above, I haven’t found any MSM articles tying this storm to
global warmingclimate changeglobal climate disruption.I’m not sure he’s the winner but he was hinting at “climate change” even as the storm was forming. Paul Douglas “leading climastrologist (my own term)” of the Minneapolis Star Tribune is more than suggesting it’s climate change. Noting there are jsut too many coincendeces adding up and even posting a CO2 graph in his weather blog to make his point. http://www.startribune.com/blogs/105795173.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUgOy9cP3DieyckcUsI?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUgOy9cP3DieyckcUsI
Ralph says:
October 27, 2010 at 6:13 am
960 millibars??
Phah! In the UK, the lowest recorded was 925 millibars:
“The lowest pressure yet recorded over the UK was 925.6mb at Ochtertyre, near Stirling (Scotland) in 1884.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article3508196.ece
Incidentally, the reason that this is a large depression and not a tight hurricane, is Coriolis force.
==============================
International Falls, MN recorded 955 mb so somewhat lower than 962.
The UK has a very large ocean to its west and southwest with Gulf Stream energy available, and so extratropical cyclones could be expected to deepen to fantastic levels.
THIS cyclone was smack in the middle of one of the largest continents on Earth, and so its intensity, extremely tight isobars, and very large size, were all remarkable and impressive.
Also…I take issue with your use of the words “depression” and “hurricane” here. Those are tropical of origin, have warm cores, and they deepen over warm water only.
This was a winter cyclone that bombed out over land.
Very, very impressive storm on all counts.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
“Pamela Gray says:
October 26, 2010 at 7:37 pm
It is poetic justice that the I-5 corridor folks have to suffer under cold weather (meant to say climactic disruption) and then send those La Nina systems to the midwest where conservative folks get hammered. The icing on the cake is when, with a straight face, these green freaks try to shove global warming, climate change, catastrophic climate change, climate disruption, whatever, down our collective throats. It simply proves to us, you can’t fix stupid. But you sure as hell can vote it out of office.”
**********
Very well & succinctly said — so I thought it deserved yet another appearance. This and the “sun dog” I saw on the way to work this morning has made my day! Thank you, rkh
A short update. The Mackinac Bridge closed for some period of time as winds were at 72 mph in the Straits.
Down here on the southern steppe we had the joy of 70 mph winds and gusting dust on Tuesday, thanks to the storm, followed by frosts and possibly a hard freeze tonight. Lost a few trees and at least one portable outhouse (unoccupied at the time, one hopes).
Eric (skeptic) says:
October 26, 2010 at 12:20 pm
I don’t think the storm itself is radiating heat since those are cold cloud tops. A more important factor is the subsidence around the storm which radiates heat more effectively to space.
I think you are mixing metrics – temperature is not the same as heat.
The storm is radiating heat as the water vapor changes state to liquid then ice. The heat is still radiated even though the ice is (by definition) cold – i.e. at low temperature.
Is this why my sinuses are going nuts right now?
On cue the alarmists have blamed this on fossil fuel usage.
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/10/27/chiclone-of-denial/
REPLY: Yup, saw that yesterday. Predictable. -A
Comment left by Timothy Lang on the cited blog Yesterday 12:06 PM:
I am an atmospheric scientist at Colorado State University. I fully endorse the basic conclusions of the IPCC, and thus I am by no stretch of the imagination a climate change skeptic. But I want to urge extreme caution when attributing a single event, no matter how extraordinary, to climate change. There is no real way to scientifically establish such a claim. Indeed, since climate can be thought of as the statistics of weather, single weather events should not be the focus. Sometimes, outliers are just outliers. Also, see http://blog.ametsoc.org/news/the-bomb/ and http://blog.ametsoc.org/columnists/but-not-the-bomb/ for more discussion by scientists of this storm in context with other “bombs”.
tty says:
October 26, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Will Crump says:
“what is the energy source that drives the extreme low pressure of this particular storm”
It is usually known as “the sun”.
tty:
Thank you for your insightful comment, but you neglected to include rotational energy from the spinning earth.
Since these storms do not form every day that the sun shines and can form at night as well as in daylight, I was looking for a more technical explanation for how this particlar type of storm can form, like the explanation below.
In winter, the southern shift of the polar jet stream can cause mid-latitude cyclonic storms to be better developed and to move with greater speed. For a storm to intensify, there must be an upper-level counterpart, such as a trough of low pressure, that lies to the west of the surface low. At the same time, the polar jet stream must form into waves and swing slightly south of the developing storm. When these conditions exist, zones of converging and diverging air, along with rising and sinking air, provide energy conversions for the storm’s growth. These conditions allow some surface lows to intensify into huge mid-latitude cyclones in winter.
While it is not possible to directly link a single storm to warming in the arctic, it does appear that a warming arctic may contribute conditions that make it more likely that such a storm can develop.
See the article “Warming Arctic pushing jet stream farther south” at:
http://summitcountyvoice.com/2010/10/24/warming-arctic-pushing-jet-stream-farther-south/
Well the mega storm is now caused by human climate change according to this article: http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/meanwhile-back-planet-earth-we-had-bi.
“I imagine future Mars colonists will tell the story to their children when they say, “But why didn’t someone do something?”
That’s Minnesota meteorologist Paul Douglas in an exclusive interview with Brad Johnson about the “weather bomb” that just hit and the global warming deniers that populate his state:
My dad was the biggest Republican that ever walked the earth. He always said: “Actions have consequences.” To pretend that a 38% increase in greenhouse gases isn’t going to have any impact, that we can have our cake and eat it too, and smear it all over our face, and maybe have our grandchildren deal with the hangover, I think it is immoral.
Meteorologist Jeff Masters puts this massive superstorm into context:
Yesterday’s 28.20″ (955 mb) low pressure reading in Minnesota breaks not only the 28.28″ (958 mb) previous “USA-interior-of-the-continent-record” from Cleveland, Ohio during the Great Ohio Storm of Jan. 26, 1978 (a lower reading in Canada during this event bottomed out at an amazing 28.05″/950 mb), but also the lowest pressure ever measured anywhere in the continental United States aside from the Atlantic Coast. The modern Pacific Coast record is 28.40″ (962mb) at Quillayute, Washington on Dec. 1, 1987. An older reading, taken on a ship offshore from the mouth of the Umpqua River in Oregon during the famous “Storm King” event on January 9, 1880, is tied with yesterday’s 28.20″ (955 mb.)
[…] Yesterday’s superstorm is reminiscent of the amazing low pressures reached earlier this year (Jan. 19-22) in the West, where virtually every site in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, southern Oregon, and southern Idaho–about 10 – 15% of the U.S. land area–broke their lowest on record pressure readings. However, the lowest readings from that event fell well short of yesterday’s mega-storm with 28.85″ (977 mb) being about the lowest recorded at any onshore site.
We’ve now had two remarkable extratropical storms this year in the U.S. that have smashed all-time low pressure records across a large portion of the country. Is this a sign that these type of storms may be getting stronger? Well, there is evidence that wintertime extratropical storms have grown in intensity in the Pacific, Arctic, and Great Lakes in recent decades. I discuss the science in detail in a post I did earlier this year.”
Then they link to this Nasa article (http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence) as the alleged “evidence” for “climate change” caused by humans. Someone needs to do a point by point counter point to the Nasa article. Quickly. Please.
One of the comments on the first article refers to this link: http://www.climate.gov/#climateWatch which seems to be a NOAA global climate dashboard page.
In response, I wrote:
For the real climate soothsayers of doomsday refer them here: http://pathstoknowledge.net/2010/10/18/investigating-the-climate-of-doom for the COUNTER EVIDENCE.
CO2 has all but maxed out it’s potential warming as it at the limit of it’s specific heat capacity. This means you can double or triple the CO2 and it won’t contribute much more to warming at all. Basic physics.
Also, while CO2 has increased in the last 50 years the 130 yr temp linear+cyclic tiny upward tend remains unchanged based upon observational data.
Observational data trumps the catastrophic AGW hypothesis.
Increased CO2 has caused an increase of 6% of the plant coverage on the planet from 1980 to 1999. To plants CO2 is an essential nutrient and helps them grow faster and bigger. Biological facts of science. That is why commercial greenhouses use ~3 times the current level of CO2 in the atmosphere. CO2 = MORE GREEN LIFE on Earth to feed people.
Being anti-CO2 is being anti-life.