Storms
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Igloo

US: Up to 6 inches forecast for East Coast


MSNBC
Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:25 UTC
National Weather Service issues winter storm watch for Pa., Md., Va. and W. Va

It may still be October, with the World Series in full swing, but some parts of the East Coast could be in for an unexpected wintry blast of up to 6 inches of snow this weekend.


The National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch for Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia from Friday night through Saturday afternoon as a storm blows through the region. Even more snow was expected to fall in higher elevations, including the Laurel Highlands and the Pocono Mountains, forecasters said.
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© Vyto Starinskas/APRutland, Vt., residents woke up to this view to the east on Friday, as a storm left a cover of snow, in Killington, Vt. There were up to six inches of snow atop Killington.
Temperatures were expected to drop into the 30s across much of the Northeast by Friday morning. Boston got its first dusting late Thursday night.

Forecasters warned that the early snow could bring down tree limbs - something that Colorado got a dose of this week.

About 12,000 homes and businesses along Colorado's Front Range were still without power Friday morning following a fall snowstorm that downed trees and power lines. Outages were in metro Denver and Boulder and in Greeley, Fort Collins and Loveland to the north. The storm Tuesday and Wednesday brought about six inches of snow to Denver and about a foot to Greeley.
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Snowman

US: Snow blankets Denver area - soon after 80-degree day

Keith Coffman
MSNBC
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:51 UTC
Six inches falls, cutting power to tens of thousands

A heavy, wet snowstorm descended on the Denver area early on Wednesday morning, causing widespread power outages and numerous car crashes and minor injuries in the Centennial State.


Just two days after record high temperatures, six inches of snow fell in the Denver area forcing the closure of roads in the mountains and eastern planes. Another two to five inches is expected before the storm moves out on Wednesday evening, according to the National Weather Service.

There were no fatalities but numerous car crashes and slide-offs causing minor injuries, the Colorado State Patrol said.

Some 87,000 customers east of the continental divide and north of Denver were without power, public utility company Xcel Energy, Inc. said in a statement.
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Cloud Lightning

Tourists Flee Hurricane Rina In Mexico


Sky News
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Sky News
Tourists are cutting their holidays short in Cancun, Mexico, as Hurricane Rina bears down on the Yucatan Peninsula.

The storm was a Category Two on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale measuring hurricane intensity on Wednesday afternoon, with winds of 110mph.

It could become a Category Three major hurricane with winds of up to 115mph by Wednesday night, the US National Hurricane Centre said.

"Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the centre warned. The storm is due to strike the peninsula late by Thursday.

On Wednesday morning temperatures in Cancun were falling ahead of the storm as rain showered the popular resort area.

Most schools were closed as residents rushed to make preparations for the hurricane.
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Cloud Lightning

Two Killed by Floods in Ireland


Wall Street Journal
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:21 UTC

Dublin - A policeman drowned and a woman's body was located in a flooded residential apartment block, as a shopping mall and businesses in the Irish capital were hit early Tuesday by the heaviest rainfall in over 40 years.

Ireland's national weather service - Met Eireann - said rainfall of up to 85mm (3.3 inches), equivalent to an average month's rain, fell across the Dublin region in a period of three hours Monday night.

A policeman was washed away by flood water while directing traffic on a bridge on the River Liffey in County Wicklow. His body was located nearby. Irish police also said they found a body of a woman in a flooded apartment complex in Dublin.
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Cloud Lightning

Deadly Floods Tear Through Italian Riviera

Nick Pisa
Sky News
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:08 UTC
debris in Brugnato, Italy
© SkyNewsA rescue worker walks through the debris in Brugnato, Italy
At least nine people have been killed and five others are missing after flash floods hit the Italian Riviera turning roads into rivers and washing cars out to sea.

The initial death toll was raised as the body of a missing rescue worker was recovered from the town of Monterosso.

Officials said Sandro Usai, 40, had drowned after being engulfed by flood waters as he tried to unblock drains in the town.

The huge downpour had triggered off landslides along some of Italy's most picturesque coastline, including the Cinque Terre which is a popular destination for British holidaymakers.

Fire crews and civil protection teams worked their way through the flood-ravaged towns of Vernazza and Monterosso where cars were washed into the sea and roads turned into rivers.

Distraught mayor Angelo Betta said: ''Monterosso does not exist any more.
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Bizarro Earth

US: Unusual Northern Lights Set Southern Skies Afire

Jorge Valencia
The Roanoke Times
Wed, 26 Oct 2011 01:30 UTC
Aurora Borealis
© AP Photo/realclearwx.com, Brian EmfingerA photo provided by storm chaser Brian Emfinger shows the aurora borealis lighting up the Ozark, Ark., sky on Monday. In the Alleghany Highlands in Virginia, residents who said they saw an aircraft, heard an explosion then saw a fireball may have seen the lights, the Alleghany County sheriff said.
The solar storm that stirred colorful northern lights Monday surprised skywatchers unusually far south, including some who may have mistaken it for a mountain fire in the Alleghany Highlands.

The lights are usually visible near the North Pole and South Pole when solar storms happen in the spring. But for the second time in a decade, the lights, called aurora borealis, stretched as far south as Arkansas.

"They are very rare events," said NASA scientist Bill Cooke, who posted aurora photos on the Marshall Space Flight Center's blog. "We don't see them this far south that often."

People in the upper Alleghany Highlands began calling 911 about 9:30 p.m. Monday, reporting that they saw what appeared to be a small aircraft, heard an explosion, and saw a fireball on a mountain near Ogle Creek Road, said Dunlap Fire & Rescue Chief Travis Mullins.

Firefighters from four fire stations, sheriff's deputies from Alleghany County and Greenbrier County, W.Va., and state troopers searched the area until about 1:30a.m., then resumed the hunt Tuesday morning.
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Meteor

Sky Lights Up Red And Green As Reports Of Fireball Entering Atmosphere Conflict With CME, Northern Lights Report


The Intel Hub
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
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Geomagnetic Storm / Incoming CME Impact Throughout Canada And United States

Reports of some sort of meteor event in North and South Carolina as well as Georgia are lighting up the internet as large parts of central and eastern United States witnessed red and green lights across the sky from what was an apparent CME hit.

According to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center, a moderate Geomagnetic Storm Monday evening caused the Northern Lights to visible throughout much of the country.
SpaceWeather.com relayed a report from the Goddard Space Weather Lab saying, "the impact [of the CME] caused a strong compression of Earth's magnetic field, allowing solar wind to penetrate all the way down to geosynchronous orbit for a brief period."
At the same time widespread reports have came in that indicate a large fireball/meteor was seen in both South and North Carolina as well as Georgia.
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Binoculars

Red Night Aurora Burst Over U.S. Skies


Space Weather.com
Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Shawn Malone
A coronal mass ejection (CME) hit Earth on Oct. 24th at approximately 1800 UT (2:00 pm EDT). The impact strongly compressed Earth's magnetic field, directly exposing geosynchronous satellites to solar wind plasma, and sparked an intense geomagnetic storm. As night fell over North America, auroras spilled across the Canadian border into the contiguous United States.

"Wow, wow, wow! These were the best Northern Lights I've seen since 2004," says Shawn Malone, who took this picture from the shores of Lake Superior in Michigan.
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Cloud Lightning

Thousands Affected By Flooding In Mexico

Mark Dunphy
Irish Weather Online
Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:16 UTC
Several rivers in southeastern Mexico spilled over their banks in recent days. The Usumacinta River alone damaged homes and croplands in multiple cities, and isolated rural areas by washing out roads. The governor of the state of Tabasco estimated that regional floods had affected 90,000 residents.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured these images on October 23, 2011 (top), and October 30, 2009 (bottom). Both images use a combination of infrared and visible light to increase contrast between water and land. Water is dark blue, vegetation is bright green, and clouds are pale blue-green.

MODIS satellite map of Mexico
© MODIS Rapid Response Team/NASA GSFC
MODIS satellite map of Mexico 2
© MODIS Rapid Response Team/NASA GSFC
The Usumacinta River, visible as a thin river in 2009, flows past multiple lakes and ponds en route to the sea. In 2011, many of the water bodies have merged, and water sits on floodplains throughout the region. (This area also experienced severe flooding in 2010.)
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Cloud Lightning

Rina Becomes 17th Hurricane of the Season

Brian K. Sullivan
Bloomberg
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 22:07 UTC
Rina grew into a Category 1 hurricane today and is expected to become stronger as it moves toward resorts on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Rina map
© Weather Underground
Rina's top winds are now 75 miles (120 kilometers) per hour, up from 40 mph earlier today, according to a center advisory at about 2 p.m. New York time. The system is the sixth hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic storm season.

"Additional strengthening is expected during the next 48 hours and Rina is forecast to become a major hurricane by late Tuesday," the center said. "Interests in Belize, the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula and the adjacent islands should monitor the progress of Rina."

Matt Rogers, president of Commodity Weather Group LLC in Bethesda, Maryland, said Rina won't be a threat to Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production.
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