Billion Dollar Weather Disasters

Climate change is taking it's toll, every year the varying cycles or oscillations, whether it is "La Nina" or "El Nino" alternately causes floods, drought and or heightened storm activity.

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration or NOAA, has released data from years of it climate data.

Here is the first graph showing information from 1980 to the present.  (click image below to enlarge)

The next image shows number of significant events, notice that PA has 17-24 events. Looking at the previous graph you can see that the number of events has increased in the last 25 years.

Looking at this information, it would be wise not to ignore the possibility of a serious weather event.
This week alone, Scotland had category 5 hurricane force winds, we are talking of winds from 100 to 165 Miles per hour!     (Data from NOAA http://www.noaa.gov/extreme2011/compare.html  )


Now I would like to ask folks to take a pic of any local weather event and send them by email to us.  We would like to post the pic and give credit to our readers.  Send your weather pics  to: feedback@theweathervane.us

In the email please include the folowing;

• Your name (the photographer,)
• If you want us to post the picture with your name publicly (your permission) or anonymous
• The time and date of the weather event
• Basic location of the picture taken, (Intersection, town city, state)

Where is the Snow?

For late tonight into early tomorrow morning,  it looks like it is and will be too warm and wet for anything over a 1/4 inch of snow to stick to the ground.  The current temperature in Horsham is 42 degrees, and it is dropping, the barometer readings are a very low 996 mb. The low pressure front is here, this is a significant storm,  thunder was heard in eastern Montgomery County tonight.

There is still a Flood Watch, for Montgomery County until 5 AM tomorrow.  Please drive with care in a flood event, it is easy to encounter ponding on roads which may cause  for unsafe driving conditions.  Check your basements for water and take necessary precautions for areas close to creeks and small streams.

Please check your local news for details and updated Flood status information.

Flood Watch and Snow

It is difficult to predict what will occur on Wednesday evening until Thursday morning.

So far the National Weather service has updated it's latest report to say that there is a good chance that our area will see some snow.  The latest forecast information was updated at 4 PM, stating that there is a Flood Watch that says heavy rain that will occur into Wednesday night.  As a cold front moves in from the southwest, this gives the possibility of some snow.

There is a Winter Storm Watch for our area on Wednesday night, higher elevations are expected to see up to 3 inches of snow.

Our area (Montgomery County), might see a coating to up to an inch of snow.  The Flood Watch should be more of a concern then a simple coating of snow. 

Click here to see important  information about Flooding Safety;  http://www.srh.noaa.gov/tadd/images/FLASH.pdf

We shall see tomorrow morning what the latest forecast will say.

Chance of Snow or False alarm?

Remember back during the end of October we had a surprise snow event.  Everyone including meteorologists were caught off guard.  Again, for the last three days, weather reports flip back and forth from it being cold to not being cold enough for the rain / snow changeover later this week.  

Some online forecasters are stating that there is a dividing line where the air maybe just cold enough to change the rain to snow.  Before on that last event I mentioned, I wrote that the snow would not stick because of the warmer temperatures the day before would not allow the snow to stick to the ground.

Update 8:44pm 12/5/2011:  The National Weather Service has issued its updated forecast.  Possible rain changing to snow.  Snow showers from Tuesday night, then again Wednesday night into Thursday morning.  Looking at the forecast details, they say we should not get anything more than a 1/4" of snow on either of these two days. 

I would be more concerned of the Fog that will be out there again tomorrow morning!

  I am sure everyone is thinking why I am writing all this.  With definite signs of climate chance, you have to be aware of changing weather that can affect your local community.  Just yesterday I read that parts of northern Texas were expecting snow.  Further updates will be posted just in case the slow moving low pressure system, pulls in enough cold air to make it snow more than what is being stated.

Fog warning from tonight until morning

The National Weather Service issued a statement tonight..

Patchy fog will move in from the south.

Patchy fog will move across the region tonight through a better
part of the morning hours. The fog may become locally dense in
with visibilities dropping below one-mile at times. Please use
extra caution while driving and make sure to use the low-beam
setting on your headlights.