A windy and wet storm has pounded the western portions of Washington and Oregon since Friday depositing the heaviest September rainfalls ever observed in the region and bringing wind gusts of 85 mph to the coast. A tornado touched down in Frederickson near Tacoma, Washington. OCTOBER 1st UPDATE: I have updated the precipitation totals for the storm and the month of September.
weatherhistorian, • 7:58 PM GMT on September 30, 2013
September has been the wettest such on record for Moscow and flooding has swamped Sochi, the venue for the Winter Olympics next February, complicating preparations for the event.
weatherhistorian, • 6:40 PM GMT on September 27, 2013
UPDATE (evening of June 26): The first substantial snowstorm of the season has taken shape over the higher elevations of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. So far (as of Thursday evening September 26th) 18.0" has been measured at Silver Bow which is 6 miles SSE of Janney, Montana; 15.4" at Schwartz Lake, Idaho (elev. 8620') which is 27 miles NNE of Challis; and 12" at Togwotee Pass, Wyoming (elev. 9,658') about 12 miles east of Moran. September snow is not unusual for the Rocky Mountains but here is a short list of some September snowfalls across the countries that truly were amazing.
weatherhistorian, • 8:06 PM GMT on September 25, 2013
UPDATE: Super Typhoon Usagi tracked inland about 100 kilometers east of Hong Kong on Sunday sparing the city from what potentially could have been a devastating blow. The Hong Kong International Airport (on Lantau Island) reported sustained winds of just 43 mph with gusts to 54 mph. The highest winds reported from any low-level site in the city area were reported on Cheung Chau Island where sustained winds of 56 mph with gusts to 76 mph were measured. Once again, the city has dodged a bullet. It has been quite a long time since the city suffered through a truly catastrophic typhoon. Here is a brief review of the worst typhoons to have affected the city.
weatherhistorian, • 9:26 PM GMT on September 21, 2013
The recent storm that dropped as much as 21.13” of rainfall in the Boulder area in less than a week has been called a once in a thousand year event. For Boulder this, odds-wise, was probably true. Colorado is subject to extreme precipitation events as has been observed in the modern era at several other locations in the state since detailed weather observations began in the late 19th century. Most notably the tragic Big Thompson Flood of July 31, 1976 that claimed 144 lives. Less well known but perhaps of even greater intensity was the event of May 30-31, 1935.
weatherhistorian, • 7:10 PM GMT on September 18, 2013
August featured a continuation of the extreme heat wave in East Asia that began in July, and unusually warm temperatures in most land areas of the southern hemisphere including Antarctica. A heat wave broke all-time national records in Austria and Slovenia and Japan. Deadly floods swamped Manila in the Philippines, Bamako, Mali, southern China, and eastern Afghanistan as well. It was the warmest August on record at the South Pole.
weatherhistorian, • 9:19 PM GMT on September 16, 2013
An all-time 24-hour record rainfall of 9.08” (as of 6 p.m. 9/12 MT--almost double the previous record) has deluged the city of Boulder, Colorado resulting in widespread flash flooding and the deaths of at least three people so far. 12.27" has accumulated since Monday 5 p.m. (September 9th). Needless to say, these are numbers that surpass most tropical storm events. Other locations in the Boulder and Rocky Mountain Front Range have picked up over 11” of precipitation in just the past 24 hours. The official Colorado state record of 11.08" for a 24-hour period set at Holly on June 17, 1965 might be in jeopardy. UPDATE A site near Eldorado Springs in Jefferson County has reported 14.60" of rainfall as of 9:40 p.m. MT on Thursday evening. It is not clear if this is a storm total or 24-hour total.
weatherhistorian, • 7:50 PM GMT on September 12, 2013
The unusually long, late summer heat wave that has wilted residents of the Midwest for the past two weeks has begun to shift eastwards today (Tuesday, September 10th). Cleveland, Ohio has measured its hottest day of the entire summer with a 96° reading. Yesterday, (September 9th) Des Moines tied its all-time September monthly heat record with a 101° temperature.
weatherhistorian, • 10:52 PM GMT on September 10, 2013
Last June I blogged about the world-record rainfall for one minute reportedly set at Unionville, Maryland on July 4, 1956. In that blog I dismissed the purported 1.50” in one minute at Barot, Guadeloupe (that has been written up in various sources) as lacking evidence. An obscure old French scientific document has recently come to my attention that seems to confirm the validity of the Barot measurement (actually 38 mm/1.496”) in one minute on November 26, 1970. Details herein.
weatherhistorian, • 9:51 PM GMT on September 08, 2013
The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) has just released a comprehensive study of 12 different extreme weather events of 2012 and whether or not human-caused climate change "Anthropogenic Global Warming" (AGW) may have played a role in the severity of each event. 78 climate scientists from around the world took part in this peer-reviewed study. Here is a brief summary of the reports conclusions.
weatherhistorian, • 8:22 PM GMT on September 05, 2013
This past August was the warmest such on record at the South Pole’s Amundsen-Scott Station. The temperature averaged -53.3°C (-63.9°F) breaking the previous record of -53.5°C (-64.3°F) set in August 1996. The departure from normal was +6.3°C (+11.3°F). The ‘warmest’ temperature was -38.3°C (-37.0°F) on August 6th (far from the record) and the lowest -71.1°C (-96.0°F) on August 26th. Temperature records began in 1958 at the site. Also in this blog; Salt Lake City and Elko recorded their warmest summers on record.
weatherhistorian, • 7:38 PM GMT on September 03, 2013