Posted on 01/04/2008 9:54:06 AM PST by Lancey Howard
A fierce arctic storm lashed California on Friday, toppling trees, soaking a coastal landscape already charred by wildfires and threatening to paralyze the mountains with deep snow.
The northern half of the state was being hit with strong rain, 85-mph wind and heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada, National Weather Service forecaster Andrew Rorke said.
In Southern California, the storm was gathering strength off the coast and was expected to strike the region by mid-afternoon, Rorke said.
"We're watching it really blossom on satellite," he said.
Homeowners rushed to stack sandbags around houses lying below fire-ravaged hillsides in Southern California, while Northern California residents - - like those along the Gulf Coast before a hurricane - - scurried to stock up on last-minute provisions. Forecasters warned the high wind and other extreme weather would last through the weekend.
(Excerpt) Read more at 6.comcast.net ...
“Global warming” hoax BUMP!
It is insane here in Sacramento County. I just lost my favorite tree. It was a 25 foot ash that I planted as a sapling in 1999.
I went out to lash up other trees that I value and the wind was driving ice into my face. I have never seen a storm like this in the 13 years I’ve been in Nor Cal.
A neighbor across the street just lost all their fences.
Photos soon
"This is a false news report. Global warming is still a threat. You will all immediately sit on your lawns and put on sun blocker."
Stay safe. Keep us posted.
Looks to me like global warming has really fouled up the weather.
Good luck to folks in California. Wish we could have a foot or so of that snow where I live. We haven’t had a decent snow in a few years.
Those are some winds!
i'm about 50 miles south of Sacramento... our very heavy concrete picnic table toppled over... i cannot even believe it... i'm grateful that it did not break... it's insane over here! the wind is crazy...
In other news, the Donner Party Family Reunion got underway with the traditional Westward Ho Departure Day celebration from Illinois. The Donners, to keep true to the period, will not be carrying cells, but they’ll have plenty of sun block on hand to avoid the harmful effects of the California Sun’s rays.
From the Weather Channel. Ugly.
“Rain is becoming widespread and heavy from coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest through western California. Flash flooding is likely along the entire California coast.
Rainfall amounts through the weekend of 1 to 2 inches will fall over western Washington and Oregon, with 2 to 5 inches over much of western California, including Redding, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. As much as a foot of rain could fall on some western facing slopes of the mountains just inland from the coast.
Up to a foot of snow will fall in parts of the Cascades of Washington and Oregon. In the mountains of California, hourly snowfall rates could reach 6 to 8 inches. Snow accumulations between 2 feet (valley floors) and locally 12 feet (ridge tops) will bury the Sierra by the end of the weekend. White-out, blizzard conditions will make any travel through the Siskiyou and Sierra Mountains deadly.
Across California from north of Los Angeles to the Oregon border, damagingly strong wind gusts will range from between 50 and 65 mph at the lowest elevations to as high as between 150 and 200 mph at the ridge tops of the Sierra. Strong and damaging winds will also impact western Washington and most of Oregon, where winds could gust over 60 mph.”
One of the worst, if not the worst, windstorms I have seen here. Got a fence that looks like it wants to go down, gotta go out and tie that thing up.
We’re socked in here in the SoCal mountains although we’re only feeling a few drops as yet. The wind is picking up and my dog looks scared, as if he can sense something big blowing in. Here’s hoping we get a lot of rain/snow because we need it.
It looks more like a hurricane on radar. Wonder how the left will try to spin this?.....LOL
Yeah...I wouldn’t call it arctic.
Check out the weather station in the Sierra at 12,000 feet with wind gusts approaching 120 mph!
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/weather/warr.html
It’s already spinning couter-clockwise. That should suit the left. LOL
Dodging fence pieces parts as you tie down the trees?
Be safe!
Scheduled to arrive here later tonight but with winds only in the 30mph range. We can use the rain.
Good luck to those in the path of this storm. The worst I have seen here in Colorado dumped 4.5 feet of snow at my house and it took a week for the snow plows to make it up here. That is no fun at all. Contrary to a popular myth, thw mail man did not make his rounds!
Check out my weather in Caribou, Maine - GLOBAL WARMING???? LOL~~
May God protect all of you out on the west coast. Crazy crazy weather!!!
Nobel Prize winner, noted scientist, and award-winning film maker Al Gore was unavailable for comment.
Still very windy, every once in a while it sounds as though a 747 is landing on the roof. But I instead to sneak out at 12:30 for my hair appointment. I do have my priorities.
Thinking of you and my other SV friends. Be safe!
It’s pretty much all about Cali-fornia, all the time.
Apparently, Oregon and Washington dodged that bullet. That was a close one!
Looks pretty bad there! Looking at your tree though, it looks girdled by some tie at the base. This is probably one reason it fell.(sorry, i couldn’t help myself as I have been in the ‘plant’ biz for years) Hope u stay safe.
LOL
Bagdad Bob might have a future with Hildabeast’s campaign.
Sorry about your tree. That hurts.
Yes, I think it is called an Aleutian Low pressure...
mother nature’s way of telling algore WTF!
Nope. Never was tied. The whole root ball just cracked about 6 inches down. All I can figure is that the soil loosened and gave it wiggle room and a couple of good gusts snapped it. I looked at the wood. It’s really healthy, no rot or anything. Just one of those things.
I live on a 42’ yacht in SF Bay (Alameda, CA). Justs recorded a gust on the wind instruments at 37 knots. Raining like hell. Boat is rockin’ & rollin’. Temp 55 degrees.
Exactly, with the wind from 227 degrees that is out of the southwest not the northwest.
That’s why I live on Maui. This morning, clear and 82 degrees and will be the same tomorrow and the day after and the day after that, etc,etc. Aloha
Ooooh - those tightly packed isobars - be still my beating heart!
Nah that's my settin' deck. Put it on the far corner of the yard for a view of the sunsets in the open space behind me and for smoking cigars.
You may have ours from this thing. It’s headed for Utah, and we’re expecting significant snowfall, starting tomorrow. Meanwhile, we still have over a foot of snow still on the ground from the last 2 storms.
No need to thank me. You’re very welcome. ;-)
That’s an amazing graphic.
Hey...that looks like my lil sisters backyard...she lives in EG...she just had new fence installed, hope her’s is still up! Talked to my older sisthis morning, closer to I-5, she says it is radical!!
We here in the middle of the Pacific just went thru “37” days of rain, sun is out today for the first time.
TooT TooT, all aboard the Pineapple Express.
Aloha ;)
Luck to all..
Looks like good news for skiers in the intermountain west after this thing passes.
Sounds like a beautiful yacht. But not being a sea faring animal, how high are the winds in relation to 37 knots???? That's pretty high winds, is it not?
What's the most worthless job in Hawaii?
A weather forecaster!
“Not sure about the arctic part, appears more of a pineapple express from Hawaii; it is basically warm 58 at this moment and everything is blowing out of the south.”
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrh/02TAs/0204/index.html
The trajectory of the Pacific polar jet stream during the winter months (storm track between 35 and 40° N) usually allows for subtropical moisture (high precipitable water values) to be advected northward from the lower latitudes (south of 30° N).
The trajectory also allows for a long over- water fetch which entrains moisture well into the mid-tropospheric levels of the storm.
On some occasions, subtropical moisture is advected directly over California as the subtropical jet stream shifts northward over the State. In this case, the Pacific polar jet will have phased with the subtropical jet stream due to the trough digging far south between 150 and 140° W.
These types of synoptic patterns are often labeled “Pineapple Connections” because the moisture originates deep in the subtropics or the northern fringes of the tropics near Hawaii. Some of the large snow storms have been attributed to this type of synoptic pattern
One thing about arctic weather. It is cold, but powerful is not it. If California thinks they are getting powerful arctic weather, they still don’t know the first thing about arctic. There is next to no weather in the arctic, mainly because weather takes air and the atmosphere is not deep enough to generate powerful storms.
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