An article published in the science journal PLOS ONE on August 27th by scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography has finally put to rest the mystery of the ‘sliding’ rocks of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley.
weatherhistorian, • 7:21 PM GMT on August 29, 2014
August has continued the July pattern of anomalously warm weather in Canada’s far eastern regions with a new all-time record high of 22.7°C (72.9°F) measured at Resolution Island, Nunavut on August 23rd. In contrast, Northern Ireland observed its coldest August temperature on record the morning of August 24th with a -1.9°C (28.6°F) reading.
weatherhistorian, • 7:55 PM GMT on August 26, 2014
Yet another phenomenally intense rainfall event has occurred in the U.S. this morning (August 22nd) when 3.95” of rain in one hour was measured by a COOP observer at a site 3 miles southwest of Chicago’s Midway Airport. The return period for such at Midway Airport (according to NOAA’s ‘Precipitation Frequency Data Server’) is once in 500 years. This is similar to the Baltimore, Detroit, and Islip, New York events last week (although the Islip event was probably more in the range of once in a 1000 years). Brian Brettschneider of Borealis Scientific LLC has kindly offered this guest blog today featuring research he has done on heavy rainfall trends for 207 sites across the U.S. for a homogenous POR of 1949-2013.
weatherhistorian, • 7:46 PM GMT on August 22, 2014
July was the 4th warmest such since 1880 according to NOAA and the 11th warmest according to NASA data (the difference in assessments is due to several factors which I’ll discuss in a future blog). It was unusually cool in the central portion of the U.S. while record warmth was observed in parts of the U.S. Northwest, Scandinavia and the Baltic nations. Several powerful typhoons made landfall in East Asia and Hurricane Arthur took a swipe at North Carolina.
weatherhistorian, • 8:58 PM GMT on August 19, 2014
What must have been one of the most anomalous non-tropical-storm-related precipitation events on record affected a wide area from North Carolina to Maine on August 12-14. The heaviest precipitation was confined to a relatively narrow band from the Baltimore, Maryland area, across southern New Jersey, and into coastal areas of New England as far north as Maine. Here are some details.
weatherhistorian, • 8:43 PM GMT on August 15, 2014
It has been one of the hottest summers on record for the Pacific Northwest and especially for central and western Washington State where the largest wildfire on record (for the state) has finally been almost 100% contained. However, in spite of the devastation in Washington, the U.S. fire season has (so far) burned ‘only’ 2,533,648 acres, which is just 51% of the 10-year running average for this time of the year.
weatherhistorian, • 7:35 PM GMT on August 12, 2014
Tropical Storm Iselle made landfall along the southeastern coast of Hawaii’s Big Island early Friday morning bringing some fairly strong winds and big waves. However, it was the potential of torrential rainfall and possible flash flooding that was of greatest concern. So far, this has not materialized in any significant way.
weatherhistorian, • 7:58 PM GMT on August 08, 2014
The 37.8°C (100.0°F) temperature observed at Ventspils, Latvia on August 4th was the first time on record that a reading of 100°F has been measured in any of the Baltic nations (Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania). The heat wave has also affected Poland, Belarus, and Sweden where a massive forest fire, said to be the worst in the nation's modern history, rages out of control.
weatherhistorian, • 7:24 PM GMT on August 05, 2014
Earlier this week, on July 28th, both Holland and Germany saw some incredible rainfalls that approached their respective all-time national records for greatest 24-hour precipitation totals. Here are some details on these events as well as a ‘potted’ list of some other national records of such.
weatherhistorian, • 8:10 PM GMT on August 01, 2014