Weather records just keep falling
Worldwide weather patterns are becoming more and more unusual with each passing season or year. In Coeur d’Alene and other parts of the Inland Northwest, it was the case of three winters. The first one was in early November, then in mid-December, and then in mid-February when we picked up moderate to heavy snowfalls. In-between those periods, we had very little of the white stuff.
In the middle of the country, areas east of Interstate 35, which runs from San Antonio, Texas northward through the middle of Oklahoma, then through the middle of Iowa and into eastern Minnesota, have reported flooding rains and heavy snows in the northern portions. However, to the west of this interstate, it has been extremely dry. Farmers in these areas of the U.S. Great Plains have seen their wheat literally “ripped out of the fields” by strong winds up to 70 miles per hour in some cases. By the way, hurricane-force winds are at 74 mph.
In the Northeast, there were three “Nor’easters” that hit this part of the country earlier this month in a span of 10 days. Cliff tells me that since 1620, there has never been three back-to-back-to-back violent storms to hit this region in any month.
In California, recent storms have been appreciated as the 2017-18 rainy season has been drier than normal. Los Angeles International Airport, as of last weekend, reported close to 3 inches of rain, compared to a normal of 7.34 inches. Last year, they had around 11.50 inches. Farther to the north in Sacramento the recent rains are helping, as they are about 80 percent of their normal seasonal precipitation. In early March, they were below 50 percent.
Just like the title of this column says, “weather records just keep falling.” According to data from the National Climatic Data Center, since Jan. 1, 2018, there have been over a whopping 32,000 weather records that have been broken across the United States. The majority are warm records with nearly 14,000 that have fallen. Cold records account for a little over 10,000. There were close to 5,500 precipitation records smashed and over 2,600 snowfall records that have been broken since the beginning of 2018.
But, if you think that’s something, over the last 12 months, nearly an amazing 135,000 high, low, precipitation and snowfall records have been broken, many that have stood for at least 100 years in the U.S. alone. The new weather records include high temperature and high minimum records near 68,000, low and low minimum temperatures are close to 33,000, precipitation is about 28,000 and snowfall is about 6,000.
Globally, the National Climatic Data Center reports that more than 200,000 weather records have been smashed over the last 12 months. However, smaller weather stations may not have been included in this figure. Cliff and I believe that the worldwide total may be close to 500,000.
This pattern of wide weather “extremes,” is showing no signs of letting up in the near future. Cliff told me that he sees the potential of three hurricanes threatening the U.S. coastlines from mid-August through September, a weather-type pattern similar to the three “back-to-back-to-back” Nor’easters that hit the northeastern U.S. earlier this month.
Based on the current data, including the latest sea-surface temperatures, conditions are favorable for the formation of strong hurricanes. Ocean waters near the equatorial regions are still cooler than normal and there are no forecasts for rapid warming in the coming months. The warmer El Nino ocean water event often inhibits tropical storm and hurricane formations due to wind shear.
In terms of our local weather, from the end of this month into the first week of April, there will be more storms moving into the Pacific Northwest. Much of the moisture that falls will likely be in the form of rain in the lower elevations. However, it’s still possible that we still could see more measurable snowfall, so Cliff and I think that it’s a good idea to keep snow tires on into the first part of next month, just to be on the safe side.
Assuming we do get a little more snowfall, our final total for the 2017-18 season should end up around 90 inches, compared to the normal of 69.8 inches. Our seasonal precipitation since Jan. 1, is getting close to 10 inches of rain and melted snowfall. The normal is close to 7 inches.
This above normal precipitation pattern is expected to continue until at least the middle of April. Later in the spring, however, Cliff and I expect conditions to turn drier than normal.
By the way, we got our first 60-degree day on March 12. It’s possible that our first 70-degree day will be around the middle of next month.
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Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com