MAD US Weather

15 May 2012 Storm Chase – Pictures

Mark Ellinwood — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:46:49 +0000

I will add more screen grabs to this post by Friday (and update this text), but here’s a handful of shots that I’ve gotten so far:

Video and chase log will be up by the end of the weekend!

May 2012 temperature forecast

Mark Ellinwood — Tue, 01 May 2012 22:55:11 +0000

Was too busy to post this yesterday… another warm month for the U.S. overall, though the cooler periods are starting to last longer compared to the quick cold shots we had during the winter.

Winter Storm Threat: Apr 22-24 (only/final call)

Mark Ellinwood — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:22:35 +0000

This storm is going to be mostly an Appalachian event, with heavy, wet snow creating problems with falling branches and trees and power outages in the areas forecast to get 2-4 inches of snow or more.

The bulk of the snow will fall on Monday as the coastal low deepens and works into eastern PA and central NY. Areas east of the one inch line could see some minor snow accumulation as the rain changes over to snow during the tail end of the event. Snow totals in northeastern OH, western PA and western NY will get a boost from lake enhancement. Locally higher totals are possible in the highest elevations.

Late season snow storm in the Appalachians

Mark Ellinwood — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:18:10 +0000

A strong coastal storm will develop tomorrow into Monday, and this low will actually retrograde inland, eventually making its way into central NY.

This late season storm is expected to bring 6-12 inches or more to the higher elevations of the central Appalachians, with lower totals in the lower elevations as the snow battles against boundary layer temperature issues and warmer ground. Of course, higher snowfall rates could overcome these problems fairly quickly, so we’ll have to keep an eye on places like western PA and western NY as the storm develops to see just how much those areas might get.

The NWS is putting up Winter Storm Watches in the higher elevations and in some of the higher-impact low elevation areas for when the storm moves through late Sunday into Monday. Along the coast, widespread rain totals of 1-3 inches are in the forecast, which will help alleviate some of the drought conditions that have developed over the last several months.

Active week for severe weather in the Plains

Mark Ellinwood — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:23:05 +0000

Severe weather is expected every day this week in the Plains as several shortwaves work into the central U.S. and the large-scale trough pushes eastward. While some days could have problems with instability and capping, the wind profile will be at least somewhat favorable for rotating storms and severe weather in the Plains.

Here’s the SPC maps highlighting the greatest severe weather risk areas through Saturday, with the threat expected to continue into early next week.

April 3, 2012 Texas tornado videos

Mark Ellinwood — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 23:46:11 +0000

U.S. Tornadoes owner/co-author Ian and I have been compiling tornado footage from the outbreak in Texas today. We’re still adding to it, but so far we’ve found 16 videos!

You can view them on the U.S. Tornadoes blog: http://www.ustornadoes.com/2012/04/03/videos-of-the-april-3-2012-tornado-outbreak/

It might take a few seconds to load due to pulling in the video previews from YouTube.

Here’s one of the videos out of Kennedale, Texas:

April 2012 temperature forecast

Mark Ellinwood — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:34:33 +0000

After record March warmth in many areas (except for the West Coast, with some areas receiving record snowfall either in daily values and/or for the whole month of March), we’ll be looking at another warm month. All of the warm signals were in place at the start of last month, but this month the signals are a bit more mixed as the weather pattern tries to change it up some. Still looking at a warmer than normal month overall for most of the U.S.