Good morning bloggers,
As 2008 comes to a close let's talk about the top weathe events of the year across the nation. There is a clear cut #1 event of the year. Hurricane Ike! I will list my top three events of the year and I have a link for you to click on below. Before we get to the top weather events, let's talk about today. There is an Alberta Clipper racing across the northern plains today producing more snow where they are setting snowfall records for this month. Kansas City is in the warm sector for a few hours this morning. Look at the surface forecast for 11 AM today:
The first front is a Pacific cold front and you can see the Pacific surface high over southwest Montana this morning. Notice that our winds don't shift to the northwest until after this cold front passes. Our forecast high of over 55 that I made last night has a very good chance of being reached before this cold front moves through.
Now it is time to go over the top weather events of 2008. A friend of mine, Robert Henson, is a writer and editor for UCAR, and here are the links to his top 10 weather events of 2008:
Click on the links below for the 10 through 6, and the top 5 weather events of the year. Robert Henson talks about storm systems being powered by "La Nina". You probably know that I feel that it is the LRC that powered these weather events, not La Nina, or El Nino, or other ocean or temperature anomalies. Here are the top 10:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2008/12/the_top_ten_weather_events_of.html
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2008/12/the_top_ten_weather_events_of_1.html
Here are my thoughts on the top weather events of 2008:
Top Weather Events of 2008 by Gary Lezak:
It was a crazy year for weather in 2008 from snowstorms, ice storms, and Arctic air to flooding, drought, wild fires, and severe weather outbreaks. Three events stand out amongst the many weather events that each of our local areas experienced during the past year. Hurricane Ike will go down as the top weather event of 2008 for many reasons. Here are the top events of 2008:
Hurricane season was active in 2008 with Hurricane Ike becoming the third most destructive hurricane to ever make landfall on the United States and this is the #1 weather event of the year. Amazingly Ike began as a disturbance coming off the west coast of Africa and it became a tropical storm in the Cape Verde Islands on September 1st. Conditions became favorable for development and it was obvious that somewhere along the Gulf of Mexico coast was going to be affected in a major way. On September 5th, Ike became a Category 4 Hurricane with close to 150 mph sustained winds and hurricane force winds extending out 240 miles from the eye of Ike. On Friday night, September 12th Hurricane Ike made a direct hit on Galveston, TX wiping out much of the city. Ike cost an estimated $27 billion in damages along the Texas coastal areas. Ike moved inland and he was not done with causing major destruction. The remnants of Hurricane Ike combined with an Ohio Valley frontal system creating strong pressure gradients and led to widespread damaging 70 to 80 mph winds across Ohio. This was Ike’s final blow as it lasted for 3 to 5 hours in Dayton, OH causing major damage without even one drop of rain during the wind storm. Ike ended up being blamed for 174 deaths with 82 killed in the United States. This is the #1 weather event of the year.
The #2 event of 2008 has to be the Super Tuesday outbreak of tornadoes and severe weather. On February 5th and 6th a winter tornado outbreak with deadly force affected the southern states into the Ohio Valley. This was Super Tuesday with 24 states holding their primary elections and caucuses to select their presidential candidates. 87 tornadoes killed 57 people during this horrible two day stretch of weather. This was the largest outbreak of tornadoes in one event since May of 1985.
The #3 event is really related to the weather pattern we were in most of the year. Madison, WI not only set their all time snow record for the winter season, but they shattered it with over 100 inches of snow during the winter last year. I have a theory, it is called the LRC and you can learn about it by going to www.LRCWeather.com. The weather pattern that sets up during the fall lasts through the next winter and spring. So, it is no surprise that Madison, WI continued with the wet trend and ended up having their wettest year on record as well. This wet pattern led to major spring flooding through parts of the Midwest causing many deaths and thousands of people were displaced from their flooded homes some of which were washed away by rising rivers. The flooding repeated a few more times before summer finally settled in
There were many other weather events that likely stand out so click on the links above. What will 2009 bring? The wild weather ride started weeks ago and it will be another fascinating year ahead.
Gary