Storms
S


Snowflake Cold

Best of the Web: US: Snow In 49 States Right Now (MAP)

A map of snowfall in the United States is revealing right now: 49 states have snow on this 1/11/11 and only one does not.

From the southern snow storm heading north, which is affecting air travel, to the pending storm in New York City, and flurries out west, there's plenty of white stuff going around.

The lone state without a flake? It's the Sunshine State...Florida. Locals are celebrating the fact, though interestingly, parts of the state saw snow just days ago.

Even Hawaii has snow, in Mauna Kea on the Big Island.

Have a look at the map for yourself:

map
© Google
CNN meteorologist Angela Fritz calls this "extremely unusual," though notes that statistics aren't generally kept on how many states have snow at the same time.

Igloo

Winter storm cripples South, heads north to deliver more misery

Snowstorm in georgia
© Cody Wellons/iReportAtlanta’s Grant Park neighborhood filled up quickly with snow Sunday night.
A winter storm that paralyzed the South churned up the Eastern Seaboard on Tuesday, destined to merge with another system from the Midwest and spell more misery for the Northeast.

The Southern storm left a trail of treacherous conditions from Arkansas to the Atlantic, closing schools and government offices and contributing to the traffic deaths of at least three people.

Southern states were crippled -- covered in sheets of ice that formed on roads, pavements, cars and atop the crunchy snow.

Meanwhile, with memories still fresh of a monster Christmas weekend storm, Northern states again braced for heavy accumulations of snow and potential blizzard conditions. The National Weather Service predicted 5 to 8 inches of snow in the Philadelphia area, 4 inches or more in northern New Jersey and 2 to 6 inches in southern Delaware from Tuesday afternoon into Wednesday morning.

Cloud Lightning

Cruise ship battered in Mediterranean storm

cruise ship storm
© Royal CarribeanThe ship, Brilliance of the Seas, is carrying more than 2,000 passengers.
A violent storm over the weekend lashed a Royal Caribbean ship trying to get to port in Alexandria, Egypt, injuring nearly 30 passengers, shattering glass and overturning furniture.

"It was a little scary on Saturday because the boat was rocking down and rocking back up, but you never knew how deep it was going to go," honeymooning passenger Justine Lovelace told CNN affiliate WTNH.

The ship, Brilliance of the Seas, was rocked by 70-knot winds early Sunday morning. The winds were nearly twice as strong as forecasted, Royal Caribbean said in a statement.

"Some guest injuries were reported, the most serious of which were two guests with fractures. The medical facility onboard is fully operational and our medical team is diligently caring for guests," the statement said. The ship is carrying more than 2,000 passengers.

Damage has forced the closure of the ship's beauty salon, video arcade and disco for the remainder of the sailing. The ship's operating systems and engines were unharmed in the storm.

The rough weather prompted the captain to bypass Alexandria and continue on to Malta, the cruise's next scheduled destination. The ship will return to Barcelona, Spain, on Friday as scheduled. The ship's next sailing will not be affected, Royal Caribbean said.

Cloud Lightning

8 die, 72 missing in Australia flash floods

Image
© ReutersCars were tossed around by flash flooding Monday in Toowoomba, an Australian city about 65 miles west of Brisbane.
Brisbane, Australia - Rescuers raced Tuesday to reach people trapped on roofs after a flash flood hurled a tsunami-like wall of water through Australia's waterlogged east, tossing cars like toys, killing at least eight people and leaving 72 missing.

The violent surge near the town of Toowoomba after a fresh storm Monday escalated Australia's 2-week-old flood crisis in Queensland state and brought the overall death toll to 18. Until then, the flooding had unfolded slowly as swollen rivers burst their banks and inundated towns while moving downstream toward the ocean.

Emergency services officers plucked more than 40 people from houses isolated overnight by the torrent that hit the Lockyer Valley on Monday. But thunderstorms and more driving rain hampered efforts to send helicopters to help an unknown number of other people still in danger Tuesday.

Thousands were being evacuated from flood-prone areas, and residents in some sections of Brisbane - Australia's third-largest city - were being urged to move to higher ground as water from Toowoomba's flash flooding worked its way toward the coast.

Igloo

US Southerners struggle to dig out from heavy snow

Image
© Chuck Burton/Associated PressA police officer examines the wreckage of a car after it slid into a power pole during a snowstorm in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, Jan. 10, 2011.
Atlanta - Temperatures plummeted late Monday, turning slushy streets into sheets of ice across Southern states that are more accustomed to sunshine than snow. The wintry blast has grounded flights, cut power to thousands of homes and even forced Auburn University to cancel viewing parties for the national championship bowl game.

Snow ranging from several inches to more than a foot blanketed states from Louisiana to the Carolinas - a region where many cities have only a handful of snow plows, if any. In many areas, the snow began turning to freezing rain, making roads even more treacherous.

"If you're off the main roads, it's a skating rink," said Tim Loucks, manager of the Pilot Truck Stop in Haughton, La.

The storm shut down most cities and towns, closed many businesses, and canceled most flights at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world's busiest. At least nine people were killed in weather-related traffic accidents.

Info

Fermi Telescope Catches Thunderstorms Hurling Antimatter into Space


Scientists using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have detected beams of antimatter produced above thunderstorms on Earth, a phenomenon never seen before.

Scientists think the antimatter particles were formed in a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), a brief burst produced inside thunderstorms and shown to be associated with lightning. It is estimated that about 500 TGFs occur daily worldwide, but most go undetected.

"These signals are the first direct evidence that thunderstorms make antimatter particle beams," said Michael Briggs, a member of Fermi's Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) team at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). He presented the findings Monday, during a news briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle.

Fermi is designed to monitor gamma rays, the highest energy form of light. When antimatter striking Fermi collides with a particle of normal matter, both particles immediately are annihilated and transformed into gamma rays. The GBM has detected gamma rays with energies of 511,000 electron volts, a signal indicating an electron has met its antimatter counterpart, a positron.

Igloo

Winter weather slams US South with snow, icy roads

Several inches of snow and freezing rain were expected to make the Monday morning commute for those forced to venture out nearly impossible in parts of the South, including Atlanta, where countless cars were stuck on impassable highways and roads while the world's busiest airport canceled thousands of flights.

The winter blast rolled across the South on Sunday, coating bridges and roads with snow, sleet and freezing rain and causing at least one death in Louisiana. The governors of Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee declared emergencies and schools and colleges called off classes. Snow and ice had blanketed several cities, including up to 3 inches in parts of Atlanta, which rarely gets so much.

"We don't have weather events like this," Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said in an on-air interview with CNN. "I think the amount of snow we're getting is probably a 10-year event for the city of Atlanta."

Despite officials imploring people to stay off the roads, interstates around Atlanta were clogged with cars early Monday.

Cloud Lightning

Fresh storms hit Queensland - Australian flooding in photos

Image
© AP Photo/Anthony SkermanA wallaby stands on a large round hay bale, trapped by rising flood waters outside the town of Dalby in Queensland, Australia on Thursday, Dec. 30, 2010
Heavy rains fell in eastern Australia on Thursday, bringing fresh misery to flood-hit communities as the mayor of the flooded city of Rockhampton warned it could take up to a year to recover from the worst flooding in decades.

Officials were only beginning to see the scope of the damage as river levels across Queensland started dropping despite new thunderstorms. Floodwaters were expected to stay high in many areas for at least another week and officials warned evacuated residents to stay away from their waterlogged homes.

"It's important for the community to remember that this event is not over yet," said Brad Carter, mayor of the inundated city of Rockhampton, which has evacuated 500 people. "Those residents who were required to evacuate their homes will not be able to return to their homes until the flood waters recede."

Four thousand people across Queensland have been evacuated from their homes since driving rains that began just before Christmas left much of the region under a sea of murky water. Around 1,200 homes have been inundated, with another 10,700 suffering damage in the flood zone, an area greater than France and Germany combined.

Igloo

US: Winter storm bringing more snow to blizzard-weary North

times square
© Reuters/Lucas JacksonSnow falling in Times Square, January 7, 2011.
Snow fell across the mid-Atlantic and Northeast states on Friday, bringing several inches of fresh accumulation to a region that has scarcely dug out from the Christmas weekend blizzard.

The latest winter storm will drop snow from the Great Lakes east to the Atlantic seaboard and New England throughout Friday and into early Saturday, forecasters said.

The Northeast could see one to five inches of snow from Maryland north into Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut, forecasters said. Two to four inches accumulation was likely in New York City, they said.

Igloo

India shivers in deadly cold snap: dozens killed

Image
© Associated PressIndian-administered Kashmir has been hardest hit by the cold weather
An intense spell of cold weather has disrupted life across northern India, reportedly claiming two dozen lives.

The capital, Delhi, has been badly hit by the cold snap, along with Indian-administered Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

In Leh in Kashmir, temperatures dropped to -23.6C - this winter's lowest - on Sunday, weather officials said.

Delhi, which is experiencing one of its coldest winters in years, has been hit by thick fog which disrupted flights.

Sunday was Delhi's coldest day this winter with temperatures dipping to 7.8C - cold by the standards of the Indian capital.

Indian homes rarely have central heating - a regular feature in buildings in the West.