Monday, February 7, 2011

7 February, 2011

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TODAY'S TOP WEATHER STORIES
On Weather & Climate Through the Eyes of Mark Vogan

AUSTRALIA'S EXTREME SUMMER OF 2011 CONTINUES
from sydney's record heat to melbourne's flooding downpours to perth's devastating wildfires, australia is being circled by extreme, devastating weather, what next?

HEAT


Sydney Heatwave breaks 150-year old record
9 NEWS

Sydney's record heatwave finally ends
The Sydney Morning Herald

Dangerous, Record Setting Heat End in Sydney, Australia
AccuWeather News

FIRE


Huge blaze sparks evacuations across Perth's metropolitan suburbs
PERTH NOW

Australia fires leave trail of devastation near Perth
BBC

FLOOD



Yasi hits Melbourne, causing flooding

UPI

IN OTHER NEWS TODAY

Another Major Snowstorm Eyes Southern Plains


North Texas To Get Another Brief Cold Spell
CBS DALLAS

Houston forecast: Winter chill returns mid-week
KHOU (HOUSTON, TEXAS)

More Significant Snowfall Expected Midweek
NEWS 9 (OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA)

Houston Forecast (KHOU.COM)

Oklahoma City & Oklahoma Forecast (NEWS 9.COM)

TODAY'S WEATHER ACROSS SCOTLAND, UK & Europe

GLAZE ICE WARNING FOR CENTRAL BELT TONIGHT AND TOMORROW MORNING!
With temperatures now hovering around freezing and showers still pushing through many central belt areas this evening, as soon as those showers of rain, sleet and snow push in and out, skies clear and we're seeing a rapid formation of ice and glaze. My car is iced over! and pavements are shinning, puddle are now ice... Take real care if travelling tonight and tomorrow morning! By M.V

Stav Danaos presents this evening's BBC Scotland forecast

Laura Tobin presents this evening's BBC National Forecast

Susan Powell presents the BBC Europe Forecast

TODAY'S WEATHER ACROSS AMERICA
From AccuWeather


Northeast: Not A Major Snowstorm, But...
By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist


Snowstorm Gets Going In The Rockies
By Katie Storbeck, Meteorologist



Snowfall Record Falls In Chicago
By Katie Storbeck, Meteorologist

WEATHER TALK
By Mark Vogan

ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER SNOWSTORM AND ANOTHER ARCTIC BLAST TO FOLLOW FOR SOUTHERN PLAINS

While the United States is farmiliar with extreme weather and extreme winter cold and snow events fairly regularly, this winter has been no exception. It's actually getting to the stage where I know folks in the Southern Plains and perhaps even Northern Plaind as well as the Northeast are becoming quite tested by just how much winter they've recieved lately. Enough to last a lifetime?

Last week not only displayed for me personally, the wildest winter weather episode for the Southern Plains but also produced one of the most impressive coldcoves in recent memory.

To see first of all see a major blizzard packing winds of 40 to 60mph blast across Oklahoma and Texas accompanied by 2-4 inch snows across the TX-OK Panhandle as well as North Texas, including Dallas and 12-21 inches across much of Oklahoma northwards all the way to Chicago and up into Canada was amazing in itself, however, the cold that followed the storm, driven all the way to the Gulf Coast was stunning. Daytime 0s in OK, TX is quite amazing, even more amazing to see windchills register the -20s and -30s with even near -40 in spots.

Of course Oklahoma City didn't see the 0 low but they did see 12 inches of snow, 3-4 degree low and mid-10s for highs with chills below -20 at times. Dallas, though didn't see the anticipated single digits, managed to see 3 days in the 20s and lows dipping to 12-13 degrees with subzero chills.

As for Houston, well the official low got to 21 degrees, but chills down there were, for me, most impressive as I saw at one point a 3-degree windchill and even a 3-5 degree windchill at Galveston!

The truely stunning cold was focused on the TX-OK Panhandle with a 13 below reading at Dalhart, TX, -5 twice at Amarillo, TX and -6 at Guymon, OK. High in this frigid, windswept region barely made it to 10 for 3 days with the coldest high only reaching a frigid 9 degrees. That would be a substantially cold day for Chicago, never mind all the way down on the snowy Texas-Oklahoma Panhandle.

The coldest readings were found in NE and NW Oklahoma where an official 16 below was reached NE OK and unofficial readings by mesonet of 19 below zero was recorded at both Nowata and Kenton, OK.

New Mexico, which was crippled and struggled to power homes etc saw record-breaking cold with stunningly cold days and nights with many areas getting below -10 and in spots -20 or even -30! Multiple all-time records were shattered. The lowest reading in the state was 36 below zero at Angel Fire. Even further west into Arizona and it was record cold with Phoenixc reporting it's cold daytime high for February on record with a high of only 44. The 18-degree low at Tucson was just shy of an all-time record low.

El Paso, Texas hit a low of 1 degree and an all-time record cold high of only 15 degrees. That is stunning folks! Northern Mexico saw highs remarkably 40 to even 50 below normal! Areas that would typically top 70 on an average January, early February day remained in freezer territory with 10s, 20s and 30s for highs, rather than 60s and 70s! Some lows dipped below 0!

TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA SENT INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY BY MOTHER NATURE OVER THE WEEKEND!

Over the course of the weekend, warmer air flowing out of the east and downsloped the Rockies sending highs into the 50s in Oklahoma, 60 on the TX panhandle and even to 72 down at Houston, that's just 2 days after an icestorm all but shut down much of Houston major road network!

BACK TO HEAVY SNOW AND COLD BY MIDWEEK!

Unfortunately, the upper air flow over the nation hasn't really changed much with high pressure off the N.A west coast and thus sending Pacific storms down into OK and TX and as well as that, whilst cold reloaded over north-central Canada over the weekend at the same time Texas and Oklahoma where sent into a false sense of security and relief, the cold over Canada was only reloading and thanks to a similar upper-level pattern to last week, we're looking at a slightly less expreme repeat of last week across this same region. 0s will once again drive well into Texas via the Panhandle towards Midland, 10s for Dallas and mid, perhaps even low 20s once again for Houston. Daytime high on the panhandle may struggle to top 10 or 13 degrees between Wed and Fri with lows potentially getting very close to 0 if not getting below it yet again. That would be quite an achievement for this region. Oklahoma City is likely to get mightly close to the 3 and 4s of last week with slightly warmer highs in the 18-22 range, rather than low to mid-10s of last week.

Snows od 1-4 is likely from the TX-OK panhandles, North Texas down to as far south as the Dallas Metroplex, a wintry mix down to Greater Houston with areas just north of the outer boundaries of the city reaching a coating to around an inch of snow.

The core of heaviest snow, like last week will be centered over Oklahoma and Kansas where as much as 8 to 14 inches could fall. Yet another significant snowfall in what is becoming quite the winter for the Southern Plains, like last year! Stay tuned for more later!

WHAT'S REACHING TODAY'S BLOGS?

Eastern Snow Hole Moves North
Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather

TC Yasi Still Sending Ripples through Australia
Jim Andrews, AccuWeather

THE EXTREMES OF THE DAY

TODAY'S US EXTREMES
COURTESY OF ACCUWEATHER

HIGH: 89 degrees at Melbourne, FL
LOW: -17 degrees at Crosby, ND

TODAY'S UK EXTREMES
COURTESY OF THE MET OFFICE

HIGH: 57 degrees (13.9C) at Monks Wood (Cambridgeshire)
COLD HIGH: 37 degrees (2.9C) at Dalwhinnie (Highland)
LOW: 31 degrees (-0.7C) at Fyvie Castle (Aberdeenshire)

TODAY'S EXTREMES HERE AT MY HOUSE

HIGH: 38 degrees
LOW: 34 degrees

Thanks for reading.
-Mark

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