UPDATE: 114 mph wind gusts reported. See below.
March came in like a lion, and it looks like the lion isn’t leaving, but you can’t blame the “polar vortex” this time.
As a massive winter storm at sea known as a Nor’easter prepares to skirts the Northeast coast of the USA, bringing with it high seas and bitterly cold weather in its wake, Dr. Ryan Maue writes:
Massive Nor’easter will develop a warm-core thru a seclusion process.
Compare previous image w/Hurricane Sandy– same 850-mb Wind speed & MSLP. Nor’easter wind field much stronger/larger.
[It is] maybe 4 times more powerful than Sandy based on integrated KE of wind field.
The image of the storm is quite stunning for it’s sheer size. Images and animation follow.
Compare that to these satellite photos of Hurricane Sandy:
Watch this animation of the storm as it is forecast to develop, click it to get it to animate full size.
The biggest difference here is the track, Sandy made landfall in NYC, this nor’easter is not expected to there, but will skirt the coast and will make landfall later in Newfoundland, But, it will have a significant effect on the northeast USA due to its ability to transport air mass.
He adds:
Not the
#polarvortex this time. Textbook tropopause fold & baroclinic wrapup
What that will do is act like a pump, and pull bitterly cold air in behind it (note the stream in the rendering above). The result will be a late March like no other, possibly the coldest late March on record for the area:
The National Weather Service in Boston is preparing for blizzard like conditions in some areas, plus hurricane force winds at sea.
They are even asking readers to “make the call” on snow amounts.
UPDATE: 4:10PM PDT 3/26/14 While Jai Mitchell tries (unsuccessfully) to argue in comments that there’s no comparison to Hurricane Sandy, we get reports like this one from Environment Canada with 114 mph wind gusts and sustained winds of 86 mph:
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It’s called climate change not weather change. These long winters and late springs are becoming a pattern, that’s what people are afraid of. Saying that one time 20 years ago there was a blizzard in April doesn’t mean anything.
I feel like a kid in a car on a long trip 🙁
Are we done with winter yet? Are we done with winter yet? Are we done with winter yet? Are we done with winter yet? Are we done with winter yet? Are we done with winter yet? Are we done with winter yet? Are we done with winter yet? Are we done with winter yet? Are we done with winter yet?
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/10/33-foot_waves_could_roil_lake.html
Forecasters in the latter city already are warning of coastal flooding from what could be 33-foot waves off the city and wind gusts near 60 mph.
Such high winds also are expected to buffet cities both along the Lake Michigan shoreline and inland, though waves will not likely be as high as 33 feet.
Still, waves could build to 20 or more feet off Benton Harbor, Mich., and still reach up to 13 feet from Holland north, forecasters said.
Winds along that stretch could hit 46 mph or more overnight into Tuesday.
“Sandy will move over the coast, over the mid-Atlantic states this evening or tonight,” Marino said.
will this low pressure make it across the North Atlantic to clobber the UK and N Europe?
It’s “only” the polar vortex.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat_a_f/gif_files/gfs_z100_nh_f00.gif
The current temperature in the area of the polar vortex.
http://oi59.tinypic.com/1oo9jb.jpg
@Jimbo
Guardian – 25 March 2014
Climate change will make UK weather too wet and too dry, says Met Office
The UK’s weather will become both too wet and too dry – and also too cold and too hot – as climate change increases the frequency of extreme events, the Met Office has warned in a new report.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/25/climate-change-uk-weather-wet-dry-met-office
Thanks , they got it spot on, (NOT) and as usual a great CYA ! I wonder how long (or short) these people went to universities and/or what curriculum they took to make those statements!
I am getting more sure they went to a Internet $10 dollar certificate hand-out, although that even amazes me. (That fact they had the wherewithal and the attention span to even manage that!
This bad boy has formed according to forecasts. Check out the current wind map. Impressive!
http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/850hPa/overlay=total_precipitable_water/orthographic=-77.84,44.76,675
———
@ur momisugly ren
This is not a polar vortex. I believe it is commonly called a ‘Noreaster
Wow CNC, that Ash Wednesday storm sounds unbelievable. How does it actually compare to sandy I wonder in terms of conditions on-shore?
Wasn’t sandy an extra tropical when it made landfall. And wasn’t it bloomberg’s incompetence that made it worse.?
jai said “For comparison, look at how lake Michigan waves react to this storm”
Good ole Jai. You can rely on the warmies to make themselves look stupid.
How far behind normal, will Canada’s agriculture be this year? Can it recover, and grow a decent crop if the summer is good?
Got a late March snow in the Virginia blue ridge yesterday. And it snowed on me on the way to work today too. Somebody find me a groundhog to sacrifice…
Here is the actual wind field differences between this storm and Sandy
this storm
http://earth.nullschool.net/#2014/03/26/0900Z/wind/surface/level/equirectangular=-96.36,44.28,879
Sandy
http://hint.fm/wind/gallery/oct-29.js.html
so, yeah, not comparable really.
REPLY: I know it is very important to you to think the overhyped storm Sandy was more powerful so that it assuages your belief system about CAGW, but your comparison of these two maps is invalid. Sandy made landfall on October 29th as depicted on the .FM map. The Nor’easter has not. So of course the windfields will look different since the center of the wind field is out to sea for the Nor’easter.
I’m not impressed with your pleading, and I doubt anyone else is either.
But, don’t worry, another storm will come along someday that you can hold up as poster child for CAGW. – Anthony
Steve Oregon says:
March 25, 2014 at 7:44 pm
That will be pretty tough to look at since most of Lake Michigan is frozen.
yeah, not so much
http://iceweb1.cis.ec.gc.ca/Prod20/page3.xhtml
Lets Blame it on Russia…. Note the dateline, 20 May 2010.
New Little Ice Age ‘to Begin in 2014’
Russian scientist to alarmists: ‘Sun heats Earth!’
20 May 10 – CHICAGO – Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in St. Petersburg, Russia, predicts that a new “Little Ice Age” could begin in just four years.
http://www.iceagenow.com/New_Little_Ice_Age_to_Begin_in_2014.htm
Dell from Michigan says:
March 26, 2014 at 8:24 am
Lets Blame it on Russia…. Note the dateline, 20 May 2010.
New Little Ice Age ‘to Begin in 2014′
———————————————————————
Thanks for this Dell.
Mod,
Sandy made landfall on October 29th as depicted on the .FM map. The Nor’easter has not
the difference in latitudes for the storm center are the same in both pictures. The difference in longitude is 6.6 degrees more westward. (at 38.5 north) or roughly 220 miles. at sandy’s landfall in Chicago there were north winds at sustained 35 mph and gusting to 65 mph. Comparable locations today would be Cleveland OH, (11 mph) or at the very worst, Buffalo New York (16mph)
reference: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/October-2012/Hurricane-Sandy-Five-Ways-of-Looking-at-the-Wind-in-Chicago/
so, yes again, the eastern portion of Sandy was twice as strong as this nor’easter and stretched considerably longer. This is because Sandy was an extropical cyclone while this storm is a classic no’reaster.
You also said, But, don’t worry, another storm will come along someday that you can hold up as poster child for CAGW
This single statement will soon become the historical proof of your entire movement’s folly.
[lol! Hopefully you’ll find a job soon. -mod]
joe says:
March 25, 2014 at 8:29 pm
“It’s called climate change not weather change. These long winters and late springs are becoming a pattern, that’s what people are afraid of. Saying that one time 20 years ago there was a blizzard in April doesn’t mean anything.”
Saying that there was a late March Blizzard in 2014 doesn’t amount to Klimate Change. The only “pattern” is one >with< fairly regular, if widely-spaced, OUTLIERS.
You didn't think much before you fired that one off, did you?
jai mitchell says:
March 26, 2014 at 9:33 am
Hey, Jai! Currently 28 degrees F in Chicago & progressively colder the farther north you go (23 to 17 along the lakeshore).
http://www.upnorthlive.com/weather/#
Tell us about the liquid water waves on ice-covered Lake Michigan again, please.
Jai sez:
“This single statement will soon become the historical proof of your entire movement’s folly.”
“Movement” ? Oh, that is rich! Have you ever considered the Zoo, where, perhaps, the animals think they are on the outside looking in?
Probably not.
TeeWee says March 25, 2014 at 1:44 pm
Those within the Enviromental/Indistrial Complex will go wild with this weather event calling it more evidence of global warming (climate change). Could someone with historically accurate data post other Nor’easter events equal to or greater than this one so we can have some ammunition to reply to their hype?
This site has a lot of information from someone with a Bachelor of Science degree in Meteorology and Oceanography.
Go to site map and scroll down to Late Season Storms.
https://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/doctor.htm
In 1980, or 1981 (can’t recall which) we got a devastating Ice Storm 20 miles west of Boston. The date was >>>>>> MAY TENTH! I remember it, vividly – must have been a precursor of Klimate Kooling.
Outliers define the boundaries of ‘normal’ & nothing more?
jai,
So I see there has been recent Lake Michigan ice melt from this earlier extent.
.http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/03/10/lake-michigan-sets-41-year-record-for-most-ice-cover/
I was looking at this live image yesterday on the Michigan side of the lake when I posted.
http://surfgrandhaven.com/cms/
@Bruce Cobb: “Here in NH, temps have been running about 15-20 deg.F below the average lately, and this March may go in the record books as the coldest.”
Temps in general have been running well below average in NH all winter. The ice on Lake Winnipesaukee is the thickest it’s been in years, in some places well over a meter thick. The ice cover is complete, from shore to shore, something that rarely happens.
Ice Out, the time when one of the cruise boats can make all five ports of call on the lake, is expected to be quite late this year, some time in May.