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Title: California Records Rain and Snow Measured in Feet
Source:
Bloomberg
URL Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010- ... asured-in-feet-from-storm.html
Published: Dec 22, 2010
Author: Bloomberg
Post Date: 2010-12-22 11:24:06 by go65
Keywords: None
Views: 13255
Comments: 28
An estimated 17 feet (5.2 meters) of snow has fallen at a monitor near the Kern River in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains in less than a week, according to the U.S. Hydrometeorological Prediction Center. Central and southern California have borne the brunt of a Pacific storm that has dropped rain by the foot in some places, as well as heavy snow in the mountains, forcing officials to call for the evacuation of 2,000 people earlier this week. “This is definitely a rare occasion for southern California,” Noel Isla, a National Weather Service meteorologist in San Diego, said late yesterday. “The totals in the end will probably be some of the highest in history.” Tanbark in Los Angeles County recorded 21.58 inches (55 centimeters) of rain as of early today, according to the weather service. Twin Peaks in San Bernardino County measured 21.46 inches as of yesterday, weather service records show. About 2,000 residents of McFarland, 135 miles (217 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, were told to leave their homes earlier this week in the face of flooding. The evacuation order has since been lifted. There have been reports of sewage and petroleum leaks caused by flood waters in San Diego, Fresno and Los Angeles counties, according to the California Emergency Management Agency website. In the Sierra Nevada mountains, snow totals are being measured in feet. The estimated 17 feet at the Pascoes near the Kern River is the highest, however 16 feet is believed to have fallen at the West Woodchuck Meadow monitor near the King’s River and 15.9 feet at the Wet Meadow station on the Kern River, according to the hydrometeorological center in Camp Springs, Maryland. High Winds A 164 mile-per-hour wind gust was recorded near Mammoth Mountain, according to the center. A Category 5 hurricane, the strongest on the five-step Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, has winds of at least 155 mph. “A series of moist Pacific systems will continue to inundate the western U.S. through the middle of this week as a plume of deep subtropical moisture continues to stream into the region,” according to a center storm summary. Flood watches and warnings have been posted for much of southern California, Nevada and Utah, as well as western Arizona, according to the weather service. The storm hasn’t caused any flight delays at Los Angeles or San Diego, according to the Federal Aviation Administration website. East Coast This storm may cross the U.S. and bring heavy snow to the East Coast on Christmas or the day after, said Brian Edwards, a meteorologist with commercial forecaster AccuWeather Inc. “There is some potential for some high-impact stuff once you get toward Christmas Day,” Edwards said by telephone from State College, Pennsylvania. “There is potential for a snow storm across a large portion of the I-95 corridor.” Interstate- 95 is the main north-south highway between Maine and Florida, passing through New York and Washington D.C. Edwards said computer simulations aren’t clear on the exact outcome of the storm, which may also pass harmlessly out into the Atlantic. He said there is potential for another storm to hit the West Coast this weekend.
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#1. To: go65 (#0)
I'm eagerly awaiting your gyrations that will attempt to explain this as global warming. Like the snow in Iraq (first time in history), the blizzards shutting down the U.K. (worst in recorded history), the worst snowfall in Minnesota history, the worst winter in Scotlands' history, etc, etc, etc... In other words, everybody's getting POUNDED by the cold, and you're the moron running around telling everyone it's too HOT! So tell me... what have you been smokin'?
Given your obsession with water vapor, I would think that you would be aware of the FACT that warmer air holds more water vapor than colder air. I guess I'm mistaken.
Except that along with the snow, there has also been record cold.
It hit 85 in Palm Springs, 12 degrees above normal. http://www.mydesert.com/article/20101216/NEWS09/12160321/- 1/newsfront/Pacific+gloom+may+bring+rain+to+Coachella+Valley We're also seeing record warm temps in Texas, and unusually warm weather in Colorado.
And this means precisely dick. Look at what's happening RIGHT NOW, all over the fucking WORLD, you dumb-shit.. Headlines from Drudge: FLOOD AND MUD... STRONGEST STORM YET TO HIT S CALIFORNIA... HILLSIDE SLIDES ONTO I-10 RAMP... RADAR... VIDEO: Hail, Tornadoes, Lightning, 'Staggering' Amounts of Rain... State of emergency declared... Syracuse smashes snow records for December... Freak diversion of jet stream paralyzing globe with freezing conditions... From Google News: More snow on the way after lull in Colorado storm Massive Western Storm Drops Snow In Feet, Not Inches Big weather may cause big holiday travel delays 46;
#15. To: Capitalist Eric (#14)
(Edited)
I have been looking: You keep ignoring it. And despite your ranting about water vapor, you keep ignoring the fact that warmer air/seas generate more intense storms. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1427 1) A near-record amount of moisture in the air (or a very slow moving storm). 2) Temperatures cold enough for snow. It's not hard at all to get temperatures cold enough for snow in a world experiencing global warming. According to the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, the globe warmed 0.74°C (1.3°F) over the past 100 years. There will still be colder than average winters in a world that is experiencing warming, with plenty of opportunities for snow. The more difficult ingredient for producing a record snowstorm is the requirement of near-record levels of moisture. Global warming theory predicts that global precipitation will increase, and that heavy precipitation events--the ones most likely to cause flash flooding--will also increase. This occurs because as the climate warms, evaporation of moisture from the oceans increases, resulting in more water vapor in the air. According to the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, water vapor in the global atmosphere has increased by about 5% over the 20th century, and 4% since 1970. This extra moisture in the air will tend to produce heavier snowstorms, assuming it is cold enough to snow. Groisman et al. (2004) found a 14% increase in heavy (top 5%) and 20% increase in very heavy (top 1%) precipitation events in the U.S. over the past 100 years, though mainly in spring and summer. However, the authors did find a significant increase in winter heavy precipitation events have occurred in the Northeast U.S. This was echoed by Changnon et al. (2006), who found, "The temporal distribution of snowstorms exhibited wide fluctuations during 1901-2000, with downward 100-yr trends in the lower Midwest, South, and West Coast. Upward trends occurred in the upper Midwest, East, and Northeast, and the national trend for 1901-2000 was upward, corresponding to trends in strong cyclonic activity." The strongest cold-season storms are likely to become stronger and more frequent for the U.S. The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) began as a presidential initiative in 1989 and was mandated by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-606), which called for "a comprehensive and integrated United States research program which will assist the Nation and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change." This program has put out some excellent peer-reviewed science on climate change that, in my view, is as authoritative as the U.N.-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. In 2009, the USGCRP put out its excellent U.S. Climate Impacts Report, summarizing the observed and forecast impacts of climate change on the U.S. The report's main conclusion about cold season storms was " Cold-season storm tracks are shifting northward and the strongest storms are likely to become stronger and more frequent". The report's more detailed analysis: "Large-scale storm systems are the dominant weather phenomenon during the cold season in the United States. Although the analysis of these storms is complicated by a relatively short length of most observational records and by the highly variable nature of strong storms, some clear patterns have emerged (Kunkel et al., 2008). Storm tracks have shifted northward over the last 50 years as evidenced by a decrease in the frequency of storms in mid-latitude areas of the Northern Hemisphere, while high-latitude activity has increased. There is also evidence of an increase in the intensity of storms in both the mid- and high-latitude areas of the Northern Hemisphere, with greater confidence in the increases occurring in high latitudes (Kunkel et al., 2008). The northward shift is projected to continue, and strong cold season storms are likely to become stronger and more frequent, with greater wind speeds and more extreme wave heights". The study also noted that we should expect an increase in lake-effect snowstorms over the next few decades. Lake-effect snow is produced by the strong flow of cold air across large areas of relatively warmer ice-free water. The report says, "As the climate has warmed, ice coverage on the Great Lakes has fallen. The maximum seasonal coverage of Great Lakes ice decreased at a rate of 8.4 percent per decade from 1973 through 2008, amounting to a roughly 30 percent decrease in ice coverage. This has created conditions conducive to greater evaporation of moisture and thus heavier snowstorms. Among recent extreme lake-effect snow events was a February 2007 10-day storm total of over 10 feet of snow in western New York state. Climate models suggest that lake-effect snowfalls are likely to increase over the next few decades. In the longer term, lake-effect snows are likely to decrease as temperatures continue to rise, with the precipitation then falling as rain".
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#2. To: Capitalist Eric (#1)
I'm eagerly awaiting your gyrations that will attempt to explain this as global warming.
#3. To: go65 (#2)
I would think that you would be aware of the FACT that warmer air holds more water vapor than colder air.
#9. To: no gnu taxes (#3)
#14. To: go65 (#9)
It hit 85 in Palm Springs, 12 degrees above normal.
Aspen Times - Nathan Bilow - 2 hours ago
OnTheSnow.com - 14 hours ago
Replies to Comment # 14. Look at what's happening RIGHT NOW, all over the fucking WORLD, you dumb-shit..
Heavy snow events--a contradiction to global warming theory? Global warming skeptics regularly have a field day whenever a record snow storm pounds the U.S., claiming that such events are inconsistent with a globe that is warming. If the globe is warming, there should, on average, be fewer days when it snows, and thus fewer snow storms. However, it is possible that if climate change is simultaneously causing an increase in ratio of snowstorms with very heavy snow to storms with ordinary amounts of snow, we could actually see an increase in very heavy snowstorms in some portions of the world. There is evidence that this is happening for winter storms in the Northeast U.S.--the mighty Nor'easters like the "Snowmageddon" storm of February 5-6 and "Snowpocalypse" of December 19, 2009. Let's take a look at the evidence. There are two requirements for a record snow storm:
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