The computer models forecasting Hurricane Irene’s track have shifted back west today, decisively ending the eastward “trend” of the forecasts, and bringing New Jersey, New York City, Long Island, and Southern New England very much back into the bullseye of the risk zone. This also increases the risk of a direct hit (rather than a glancing blow) in North Carolina,… Read more »
The 0Z GFS computer model shifts Irene’s landfall point to the east, again — from NYC/Long Island to Cape Cod. The rightward trend continues. This hurricane may yet stay out to sea, folks. By the way, I’m blogging at Pajamas Media’s “Weather Nerd” again, at least for the moment.
As if Hurricane Irene’s menacing approach wasn’t enough, an earthquake of preliminary magnitude 5.9 struck northeastern Virginia about 20 minutes ago, and — as is typical for earthquakes in the eastern two-thirds of the country — was felt far & wide, from Toronto to the Deep South. I haven’t heard any damage reports yet. (I just learned about this via… Read more »
…I’ve just had no time to blog for the last week-and-a-half. My evening free time is largely taken up holding a baby, and, well, it’s hard to type while you’re doing that. But hey, at least nothing newsworthy/blogworthy has happened during that time, like, oh I don’t know: • Michelle Bachmann wins the Iowa Straw Poll; • Generic Republican drops… Read more »
Tropical Storm Dora has formed in the Eastern Pacific, south of Mexico, and is expected to become a major hurricane within the next three days. This has produced an amusing tweet exchange among those of us familiar with the storm’s Nickelodeon namesake (Loyacita’s favorite show in the universe by far): Andy Glockner: “Can you say dangerously high winds? Say it!… Read more »
The wild and deadly tornado season of 2011 rolls on, with Southern New England — my old stomping grounds — the latest target. Check out this incredible video of a tornado crossing the Connecticut River in Springfield, Massachusetts: At least four people are dead in Massachusetts, in what’s being called the state’s worst tornado outbreak in a century. And the… Read more »
While we were all joking about the Rapture, a real-life calamity of apocalyptic proportions (on a local scale, anyway) struck Joplin, Missouri, which was devastated yesterday by a huge, powerful tornado that is already being blamed for 89 deaths. The photos of the utter destruction are stunning, reminiscent of last month’s Alabama tornadoes. It seems almost certain that the ultimate… Read more »
This video is some of the best footage I’ve seen conveying the extent of the damage in the areas most devastated by the April 27 tornado outbreak in Alabama: Alabama Weather Blog continues to be the go-to source of information about the calamity’s aftermath. And there’s lots of the on-the-ground relief effort information at Toomer’s for Tuscaloosa. Oh, and here’s… Read more »
Very lucky, as this excellent graphic from the front page of the Tuscaloosa News shows. Note the green area labeled “UA” — that’s the campus, and it just avoided a direct hit from the massive tornado that devastated Tuscaloosa: As things stand, life at the university has been tremendously disrupted — power out, nearby buildings destroyed, some student housing damaged,… Read more »
[UPDATE, 2:00 PM MDT: Since I composed this post, the death toll has risen from 247 to 272. So yesterday’s disaster is now #8 on the list below, #6 if you exclude manmade disasters, #4 if you also exclude heat waves, or #3 if you do all of that and you think the listed “Storm of the Century” toll is… Read more »