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
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?