Quote:
Originally Posted by Cambium
Exactly. 
What I also thought about was that it beat the record total that was for the entire month in just 36hrs. 
I have seen historic snowstorms since November starting with my area. Actually since October starting with Sandy dropping 3 feet in WV. Seemed like every snowstorm had history with it past 8 months. |
Yes, there have been many more historic snows than is typical for one season.
Quote:
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Remember Texas in December? Wish I had help listing them all.
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Well, everything is bigger in Texas, even snowfall. When we can reasonably say the season is over for most of the continent, say around Memorial Day, I might look back and compile a list and description of the significant snows of 2012-13. I can guarantee you that such a list would be pretty eye-popping.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cambium
Temp departures for May so far.
Below normal from North to south to southeast. and Mid Atlantic
Above normal in the West, Ohio Valley and New England.
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Hmm...it looks like more cold than warm, but at the same time it's nothing notable. I find it curious that the Great Lakes are in a patch of warmer than normal temperatures for May 1-19, just like they were in the first week of the month.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cambium
Ahhh, the joys of summer here. 
329 PM EDT MON MAY 20 2013
...AIR QUALITY ALERT IS IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM TUESDAY UNTIL 10 PM TUESDAY... |
I assume that means code orange? That kind of air quality is horrendous, unsuitable for going outside and enjoying it. Unfortunately, poor air quality is linked to hot weather in most of the U.S.
Quote:
Originally Posted by miamihurricane555
it's not spring it's summer...
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It's definitely summer where you live, but not in most of the continent. The onset of summer weather varies depending on where you are.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cambium
Just meant This thread is for all of May plus summer technically not till June 21st. Anything pertaining May should stay in here but these rules are not enforced so its up to you. I Just like to look back on records and know where to find something.  |
I encourage those who are experiencing a summery weather pattern to transition over to the summer thread. Miamihurricane can start posting in the summer thread in May, and someone in Newfoundland could post about the June snowfall in this thread.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cloudcrash619
I usually think tornadoes are cool, but this is just getting plain sad.
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Indeed. I use a "love the sinner, hate the sin" approach to tornadoes - the tornadoes themselves are awesome, but the death and destruction is awful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by owenc
Why do people live in areas like that? I just dont understand it. They know thatt its going to happen and they know that hurricanes etc are going happen yet they still live there.
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If you take the area flattened by tornadoes since 1850, you would find that it comprises a tiny fraction of the area of tornado alley. A given area can go centuries without being flattened, but occasionally an area gets flattened twice in 15 years, like Moore in 1999 and 2013. Hurricanes are more problematic, since they impact a much wider area than a tornado, and they come with storm surge, which is a huge problem for these huge beachfront towers we've foolishly built.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cambium
Widespread 30s coming up for PA, northeast NJ, northwards. Cold Friday and Saturday night. GFS left. Euro right.
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Great. There could be some frosted rooftops.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nei
But didn't the last few years seem unusually high in tornado destructiveness?
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Yes, especially during the age of tornado warnings and so forth. 2011 had some of the highest death tolls since the 1920's, when there weren't any modern systems of detection and warning.
Tornadoes rely on temperature contrast and wind shear; cold upper levels and stronger storm systems help produce them, assuming that the low-level heat is present. That's why you see tornadoes in the mid latitudes as opposed to the tropics - tornadoes are not a phenomenon driven by heat alone. Case in point: 2012 was the hottest Spring on record in a good chunk of the country, but it was an inactive year, whereas the much cooler Spring of 2011 was very active. Conversely, the Spring of 2013 was the coldest of the three and was very inactive, at least until now; it seemed that instead of tornadoes we got snow
. Cooling would seem to produce more favorable conditions for tornadoes in the U.S., but too much cooling would render it too cold for tornadoes to form. Perhaps the 1970's presented a favorable intensity of cooling? At any rate, there is a large amount of annual variation regardless of the general trend, and as we see in this so-far inactive season, it only takes one strong tornado to cause big-time destruction.
As for Cambium's chart, it does present some useful data, but I always think the data would be much more useful if we had 1000 years of modern records to look over. We would have a much better understanding of cycles of climate change than we do now with just one cooling period and one warming period to look at.
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