Posted on 01/04/2005 8:56:14 PM PST by adaven
Trio of storm systems could have devastating impact on U.S.
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Moisture-laden storms from the north, west and south are likely to converge on much of America over the next several days in what could be a once-in-a-generation onslaught, meteorologists forecast Tuesday.
If the gloomy computer models at the U.S. Climate Prediction Center are right, we'll see this terrible trio:
All three are likely to meet somewhere in the nation's midsection and cause even more problems, sparing only areas east of the Appalachian Mountains.
"You're talking a two- or three-times-a-century type of thing," said prediction center senior meteorologist James Wagner, who's been forecasting storms since 1965. "It's a pattern that has a little bit of everything."
While the predicted onslaught is nothing compared with the tsunami that ravaged South Asia last week, the combo storms could damage property and cause a few deaths.
The exact time and place of the predicted one-two-three punch changes slightly with every new forecast. But in its weekly "hazards assessment," the National Weather Service alerted meteorologists and disaster specialists Tuesday that flooding and frigid weather could start as early as Friday and stretch into early next week, if not longer.
"It's a situation that looks pretty potent," Ed O'Lenic, the Climate Prediction Center's operations chief, told Knight Ridder. "A large part of North America looks like it's going to be affected."
Kelly Redmond, the deputy director of the Western Regional Climate Center at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nev., where an unusual 18 inches of snow is on the ground already, said the expected heavy Western rains could cause avalanches. Since Oct. 1, Southern California and western Arizona have had three to four times the normal precipitation for the area.
"Somebody is in for something pretty darn interesting," Redmond said.
The last time a similar situation seemed to be brewing - especially in the West - was in January 1950, O'Lenic said. That month, 21 inches of snow hit Seattle, killing 13 people in an extended freeze, and Sunnyvale, Calif., got an unusual tornado.
The same scenario played out in 1937, when there was record flooding in the Ohio River Valley, said Wagner, of the prediction center.
Meteorologists caution that their predictions are only as good as their computer models. And forecasts get less accurate the farther into the future they attempt to predict.
"The models tend to overdo the formation of these really exciting weather formations for us," said Mike Wallace, a University of Washington atmospheric scientist.
Yet the more Wallace studied the models the more he became convinced that something wicked was coming this way.
"It all fits together nicely," Wallace said. "There's going to be weather in the headlines this weekend, that's for sure."
Wagner was worried about the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys as the places where the three nasty storm systems could meet, probably with snow, thunderstorms, severe ice storms and flooding. Some of those areas already are flooded.
The converging storms are being steered by high-pressure ridges off Alaska and Florida and are part of a temporary change in world climate conditions, O'Lenic said.
Over equatorial Indonesia, east of where the tsunami hit, meteorologists have identified a weather-making phenomenon called the Madden-Julian Oscillation. It's producing extra-stormy weather to its east. Similar oscillations in the north Atlantic and north Pacific are changing global weather patterns. Add to the strange mix this year's mild El Nino - a warming of the equatorial Pacific - which is unusually far west, Redmond said.
There's also another, more playful explanation: The nation's weathermen are about to converge on Southern California, and they bring bad weather with them.
The American Meteorological Society will meet next week in usually tranquil San Diego, which should be hit with the predicted storms and accompanying flooding in time for the group's gathering.
In 1987,when the meteorologists met in San Antonio for their convention, the city had ice storms. In 1993, when they gathered in Anaheim, Calif., it rained for 4.5 out of five days and triggered mudslides. Atlanta got rare snow during the meteorologists' 1996 convention. And in 2003 in Long Beach, Calif., heavy rain greeted them.
Ron McPherson, the group's recently retired executive director, said: "It always rains on the weatherman's parade."
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The last time a similar situation seemed to be brewing - especially in the West - was in January 1950, O'Lenic said. That month, 21 inches of snow hit Seattle, killing 13 people in an extended freeze, and Sunnyvale, Calif., got an unusual tornado.
Got it.
Right now we're getting heavy rain. The trees are covered and being weighed down with ice, but the roads are still fine.
Very strange......
I can't see how Bush had anything to do with this.haha! Well, just wait! Once the storm hits with all its might, DUers will
be all over it.I saw something this morning on FOX News about DU, can you believe
it? So funny. They were talking about DU threads about Bush and the
Tsunami! haha!
Ice storms are spooky though; the sound of branches breaking during the night can sound like gun shots.
LOL! Yep, I can't wait 'til this stuff freezes.
haha! Check out my previous post about DU. Just above. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Of course the multiple warnings given to us by Our Lady in many locutions means nothings - as our clergy have taught us. "All is well......". Right.
Of course it means nothing that the late mysctic and stigmatist Theresa Neumann of Germany said in answer to questions by visiting soldiers during WWI of the future of the US - that it would suffer economic devastation by weather abnormalities and natural disaster.
And our faithless clergy told us to ignore this - and many other messages like this.........not to do penance as a people, nor return to God. "All is well" they said.
Some years ago, when asked by someone what would become of these faithless priests and bishops - who failed to warn the people.
My response was to say that the MTV generation - whom they did not teach Christ to - whom they did not give the spiritual armor with which to save their souls - whom they did not share Our Lady's messages and warnings with.........would, when fulfillment of prophecy came, and they realized that they had been "had" by shepherds in wolve's clothing...........that these children, having been so abandoned by those who would demand to be addressed as "Father"........would drag them naked and screaming from their rectories and exact righteous vengeance upon them.
Pray that my vision of things is wrong.
We NEED this storm in Washington, D.C. Hopefully it would either freeze the Liberals and Democrats in place or wash them away forever.
We can use the storm out West also. It will blow the living Hell out of the Global warming theory and the water will certainly clear away some of the drought numbers.
I hope the washes in Cochine County get filled enough to flood all the trash the illegals have left for us back into Mexico.
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I'm sure Jack and Spiff would just love to see that happen . .
Did you see that stuff yesterday and last evening? It went from pooring rain to sunshine to rain again and then to sleet and then onto hail balls all in one day. I loved it!
Thor, those little blue pills which you normally take one of in the evenings, go ahead and take two this evening.
I've seen photos of the snow in Galveston. Do you have any photos of the snow in Brownsville? My sister once lived there and we visited there. I still can't believe it snowed waayy down there. Did everyone just absolutely freak out and start crashing their vehicles into everything?
There's a flash flood warning for southwestern PA, with the constant rain all day today.
psst. He's warped, seriously bent!
Bad weather has been happening since time immemorial. Doesn't have to be the result of divine punishment - otherwise, only blue states would be getting pummeled.
At one point last night it cleared enough for me to go and see the comet, which is bright enough to see with naked eye, but with all the lights out here, I used the binocs...
Are you sure two are enough? I'm thinking two about now and follow-up with another right before bedtime.
One of us got the brains. The other is looking forward to May! ;-)
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