The start to spring does not mean an end to fierce blizzards unfolding as is evident with a blizzard threatening eastern New England and Atlantic Canada at midweek.

The blizzard is expected to swipe eastern New England and slam Atlantic Canada Tuesday night through Wednesday night.

The rest of the East Coast will escape the worst of the storm, but there is still nuisance-to-disruptive snowfall in store for the spine of the Appalachians, Virginia and the rest of the Northeast.

The blizzard could easily halt travel and cause school cancellations and other significant disruptions to daily routines.

While there is no question that a large swath of Atlantic Canada will be targeted by the fierce blizzard, the coverage area across eastern New England will be determined by how close the storm tracks to the coast.

The current projected path of the storm puts southeastern Massachusetts, including Cape Cod, and Down East Maine at greatest risk for fierce blizzard conditions.

A track closer to the coast would expand the blizzard threat to more of eastern New England -including the I-95 corridor - and eastern Long Island, while a track farther offshore would cause the blizzard to only graze Cape Cod and Down East Maine.

Those in Norwich, Conn.; Providence, R.I.; Boston, Mass.; Portsmouth and Manchester, N.H.; and Portland, Maine, are among the residents in eastern New England who should keep a close eye on this storm in the event the blizzard area is expanded westward.

However, there can be near-blizzard conditions in these cities for a time during the height of the storm. This threat does not include New York City, where up to a few inches of snow will fall.

RELATED:
AccuWeather.com Winter Weather Center
What Is Bombogenesis?
Winter Weather-Related Watches, Advisories

Snowfall totals across far eastern Long Island, Rhode Island, southeastern Massachusetts and Down East Maine will be on the order of 6 to 12 inches with a potential for some communities to top a foot.

Strong winds in the heart of the blizzard will severely blow and drift the snow around, making driving extremely dangerous, if not impossible, and possibly overwhelming road crews. Motorists driving during the height of the storm run the risk of becoming stranded on interstates and highways.

The strong winds alone, which could gust between 40 and 60 mph, are possible of causing tree damage and power outages. The highest wind gusts will be along the coast.

The winds will also kick up extremely rough seas across the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. Coastal flooding may ensue along the coasts of New England and Atlantic Canada.

The blizzard will not take shape in time to severely impact the rest of the East Coast; however, that does not mean nuisance-to-disruptive snowfall will be avoided.

The storm is currently in its infant stages and will continue to spread nuisance snow from the northern Rockies to the central Plains through Monday. That snow will spread across the Midwest to the spine of the Appalachians Monday night.

"Where the snow falls at night and first thing in the morning, the odds are greater for an accumulation on roads. However, the warming effect of the March sun during the midday and afternoon could only be negated by a very heavy snowfall rate," stated AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

Such heavy snowfall is expected to occur on an isolated basis until the evening and overnight hours of Tuesday when the storm begins to rapidly strengthen.

Paving the way for the return of snow to the East Coast will be yet another blast of arctic cold.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Off-the-Charts Hottest and Coldest Places on Earth

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Monday, March 24, 2014

A man skis past the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., March 17, 2014, the morning after yet another snow storm. (KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)

After bitter cold shocked the Northeast, ice encrusted the South, snow blanketed the Midwest and drought persisted in the West, many of the nation's largest cities experienced weather this winter that was more typical of other locations.

The cold weather this winter had a significant impact on heating costs with the greatest effect on propane prices. In the Midwest, propane prices spiked up more than two dollars per gallon between December and January, according to the United States Energy Information Administration. In addition to the rise of heating costs, schools across the nation searched for alternate solutions for snow days, as school delays and cancellations mounted.

Coming off the winter season, so far in March, the Northeast, Midwest, South Central states and portions of the Southeast have all experienced temperature departures of at least 2 degrees Fahrenheit below normal for this time of the year.

As the official winter season is now over, accumulated snowfall in many of the nation's largest cities are well above seasonal averages. For example, Chicago has received 79 inches of snow so far, which is 42 inches more than the seasonal average.

RELATED:
March Temperature Extremes Not a Factor in Spread of Common Cold
Jump to Infographic
Spring Flood Outlook: Winter's Deep Freeze Leaves Parts of US Vulnerable

With spring here and cold lingering, many people are wondering why this winter was so harsh.

The answer starts with a large pool of warmer-than-normal water over the Gulf of Alaska, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jason Nicholls.

"This water allowed a strong high to build and persist over the West Coast and just offshore," Nicholls said. "This high forced the jet to buckle and push south into the eastern United States and provided almost a direct southward path for arctic air to drain into the central and eastern U.S."

In addition to the jet stream pushing south, a buildup of snow in western Canada early in the winter allowed the bitterly cold air masses to move easily into the U.S.

To find out where your city should have been located in the U.S. based on the average temperature this winter, view the graphic below.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Skiers make their way up the slopes near uncovered terrain at Park City Mountain Resort in Park City, Utah, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Jim Urquhart)

Despite the abundant snow in the Midwest and Northeast this year, recent seasons have been milder. As a result, snow sport interest groups have been looking at ways their industry can adapt their businesses in uncooperative seasons.

One such group is Protect Our Winters, an organization that defines itself as "the environmental center point of the global winter sports community, united towards a common goal of reducing climate change's effects on our sports and local economies."

The group was founded by a professional snowboarder, Jeremy Jones, in 2007.

"I spend time in Europe every year, and just seeing, in Chamonix for example, you have this famous glacier that's a very well-traveled ski run," Jones said. "As I started coming back a year later realizing that I used to be able to snowboard [where I stood] and to see this receding glacier."

Jones also visited a former resort in British Columbia that was unable to continue its operation because of repeated winters without enough snow. Experiences such as these inspired him to use his clout to bring attention to the struggles that milder winters present to athletes and businesses.

RELATED
AccuWeather.com Ski Forecast Center
Top Eight Secret Ski Spots in North America
Winter Weather Center

In conjunction with The Mountain Collective, a collaboration of six major Western ski resorts that provide shared passes to skiers and snowboarders, Protect Our Winters stated, "fewer ski days would not only reduce enjoyment for skiers, boarders and other winter sports enthusiasts, but also cause significant economic impact to an industry that supports 965,000 people and contributes $66 billion to the U.S. economy alone."

In recent years, many resorts have been feeling those economic impacts. This year's snowfall has been a welcome relief to North American resorts that have been struggling the past few seasons, but many in the winter sport community are wary that more mild winters may be in the future. Low snow amounts for some resorts in Europe provide a wider image of ski conditions on a global scale.

"Southeast Europe had less snow than normal [this year]," said AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Jason Nicholls. "There was also a lack of snow from England to France and western Germany. These areas were stormy but lacked the cold for snow."

Porter Fox, features editor of Powder Magazine and author of "DEEP: The Story of Skiing and the Future of Snow," said that he's encountered residents in the West who say that for many years they have just not been seeing the snow they were once used to. With extreme to exceptional drought holding tight to much of the area, manmade snows have been relied on to help keep many trails open.

Ski resorts are also adapting to winters that receive below-normal levels of snow by increasing the type of activities available at these locations.

"I think the industry is engaged in adaption in a serious way, both in terms of snowmaking, but also in terms of offering experiences to guests on a year-round basis," said Mike Kaplan, president & CEO of Aspen/Snowmass.

Offering mountain biking trails, hiking opportunities, horseback riding or other summertime activities is giving resorts an opportunity to make up revenue lost in mild winters.

"We did have a couple tough years," Kaplan said. "We were really waiting for it to start snowing again. It was a relief to get into the summer season where we're going to spin those lifts either way because we're going to have our mountain bikes trails open."

Others are being more conscious of their energy spending, both for economic and environmental reasons.

Jerry Blann, president of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, said that his community in the northwestern part of Wyoming is very aware of the challenge ahead of them. With Wyoming's largest industry being energy production and tourism, Blann said that state congress is lobbied from what he sees as conflicting sides of economic and environmental focuses.

For his resort, Blann said that they are aiming to have a 10 percent reduction in their energy uses from 1995 to 2015.

"At the end of the day, I'd say that's what mountain people are all about; we're used to having to adapt to whatever Mother Nature is going to give," Kaplan said.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

March continues to be much colder than average for Americans living in the path of the wiggly polar vortex. Record low temperatures were set overnight across the northern Great Plains and the North Atlantic regions, and the spring sun won't bring much warmth today, forecasters predict.

Expect high temperatures for March 24 to hit well below seasonal averages, with near-record cold expected in Maine and Massachusetts, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. Today's record low maximum of 26 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 3 degrees Celsius) for Boston was set in 1888. [Photos: The 8 Coldest Places on Earth]

Here are some of the overnight record lows from around the country:

• Lewisburg, Maine: 14 degrees F (minus 10 degrees C)
• Portland, Maine: 11 degrees F (minus 11 degrees C)
• Bridgeport, Conn.: 20 degrees F (minus 6 degrees C)
• Islip, N.Y.: 20 degrees F (minus 6 degrees C)
• Binghamton, N.Y.: 10 degrees F (minus 12 degrees C)
• Lewisburg, W.Va.: 14 degrees F (minus 10 degrees C)
• International Falls, Minn.: minus 26 degrees F (minus 32 degrees C)

The frigid air is the latest Arctic blast to move across the region from Canada, and it owes its southerly extent to fast-moving fingers of wind within the jet stream. Two of these "jet streaks" are positioned above the East Coast, creating a low-pressure zone between them that draws in cold air from the north. As this low-pressure system moves offshore tomorrow, a powerful storm is expected to develop Tuesday night offshore the Mid-Atlantic coast, which will bring snow to much of the region, the NWS forecasts.


High temperature forecast for the United States on March 24, 2014. (Credit: NWS)

Yet even as temperatures plunged across the East, the South and the West were breaking heat records. On Sunday (March 23), Fort Lauderdale, Fla., tied a record high temperature set in 1839, hitting 90 degrees F (32 degrees C). The mercury also busted 80 degrees F in Miami on Sunday, tying the old record set in 2005. More than 4,000 miles (6,400 km) to the north, Cold Bay, Alaska, continued the northern state's unusual warm streak, with a new overnight high of 38 degrees F (3 degrees C). And San Diego, Calif., set a new record minimum temperature of 61 degrees F (16 degrees C) Sunday.

The big span in temperatures between East and West reflects that the East Coast's big chill is mostly a regional event. For example, the months from December 2013 to February 2014 were the eighth warmest on record for the planet, the U.S. National Climatic Data Center said in a report released March 19. The last time the Earth had a record cold month was in December 1916.

Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

• Countdown: 2013's Wildest Weather
• Fishy Rain to Fire Whirlwinds: The World's Weirdest Weather
• The Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

This stunning image of a lightning strike over Kuwait was captured last December by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and released on March 24 by NASA's Earth Observatory. The ISS recently installed a new instrument to help study the physics and composition of such bolts in detail on a daily basis.

Lightning bolts flash across Earth's atmosphere as often as 50 times per second, which adds up to about 4.3 million times a day and 1.5 billion times a year, NASA officials wrote in an image description. Some of those strikes emit gamma radiation -- a type of radiation more commonly associated with exploding stars and nuclear fusion -- in bursts known as terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs). The scientists will use the new lightning imagery and data from the ISS to try to understand what triggers lightning during storms in general, and what causes these rarer bursts of TGFs. [Electric Earth: Stunning Images of Lightning]

"The fact that TGFs exist at all is amazing," Doug Rowland, a space physicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center involved in this new lighting research, said in a statement. "The electron and gamma-ray energies in TGFs are usually the domain of nuclear explosions, solar flares, and supernovas. What a surprise to find them shooting out of the cold upper atmosphere of our own planet."

Researchers think these TGFs may be related to enigmatic red bursts of lightning called red sprites, which travel upward from thunderstorms and can take on ornate shapes that look like jellyfish. Red sprites are just one of several types of lightning that researchers are still working to understand the origin of. In fact, lightning, in general, is a mysterious phenomenon, with scientists still not sure exactly how lightning forms, though the working hypothesis suggests it forms when an updraft of warm air reaches a height where the temperature is just above freezing; at this point, ice crystals and frozen particles interact with each other to produce an electric charge separation; when that separation becomes great enough an electrical breakdown occurs -- a lightning flash.

Follow Laura Poppick on Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

• Images: Red Sprite Lightning Revealed in Stunning Photos
• Electrifying Images of Volcano Lightning
• Photos: Lightning Seen from Space

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

In this photo provided by Christopher Laski, a large apartment complex under construction is consumed by fire, sending black smoke billowing into the sky and drawing hundreds of emergency personnel, Tuesday, March 25, 2014, in Houston. (AP Photo/ Christopher Laski)

Windy conditions helped spread a fire Tuesday that destroyed an apartment complex under construction in Houston, fire officials said.

The fire was reported about 12:30 p.m. CST, northwest of downtown Houston, and quickly escalated to a five-alarm response by the Houston Fire Department.

Share this on Facebook?

One person was rescued from the scene but was not injured, the fire department said in a news release. All the construction workers were accounted for.

At the time of the fire, winds were out of the northeast between 10 and 15 mph, with gusts up to 23 mph, AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, officials said.

Weather shouldn't play a factor in the investigation and cleanup, Kottlowski said.

"It will be clear tonight and the winds will drop," he said. "Humidity will increase tonight and tomorrow."

More than 80 units have been dispatched to the scene with more than 200 personnel. At least 14 ladder companies, 26 engine companies and 5 EMS transport units were responded.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

(Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

As a storm develops into a powerful blizzard along the New England coast, frigid air will pour in across the Midwest, South and mid-Atlantic into Wednesday.

The cold air will make for yet another painful morning in many communities.

The unusually cold air for late March will challenge record low temperatures Wednesday morning from Detroit to Cleveland; Cincinnati; Pittsburgh; London, Ky.; Nashville, Tenn.; Charlotte and Columbia, S.C.; Charlottesville; Va.; Beckley, W.Va.; and Harrisburg, Pa.

Freezing temperatures will dip into the Deep South Wednesday morning to Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and northern Florida. The cold could damage some tender plants and blossoms.

As a major blizzard focuses over Atlantic Canada on Wednesday, the circulation around the storm will create gusty winds and low AccuWeather RealFeel(R) temperatures along the coast from North Carolina to Maine.

Motorists and pedestrians are urged to use caution in areas that received rain, wet snow or a wintry mix from Tuesday. Plunging temperatures can cause some surfaces to turn icy Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Winds can top 40 mph from the mid-Atlantic to New England coast for a time.

In some cases the combination of wind, temperatures and other atmospheric conditions will make if feel 20 degrees lower than the actual temperature. In some cases, this will translate to RealFeel Temperatures in the single digits, teens and 20s.

RELATED:
Forecast Temperature Maps
Ten Tips for Running in the Cold
Spring Blizzard to Graze Eastern New England, Slam Canada

Little wind is in store on Wednesday for most areas from the central Appalachians to the Midwest.

While the March sunshine will allow temperatures to recover a bit during the midday and afternoon hours on Wednesday in the Midwest, Northeast and South, actual temperatures will still average 10-20 degrees below normal.

Temperatures will take another dip Wednesday night.

A more substantial temperature rebound is forecast for Thursday into Friday, when temperatures are predicted to reach or exceed normal levels for late March. However, some showers are in the offing.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

As waves of cold air continue to push southward from the Canadian Prairies, episodes of snow will persist around the Great Lakes region into the weekend.

A storm forecast to bring a warmup with showers and thunderstorms to the Mississippi and Ohio valleys on Thursday into Friday will spread a swath of snow from parts of the Dakotas to northern Minnesota and Wisconsin and part of the Upper Michigan Peninsula.

While a broad area of heavy snow is not expected, a few inches of snow can fall on a narrow zone in this area. Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., is one of a few locations that can receive enough snow to shovel and plow.

Most areas within this swath will have little to no accumulation from wet snow or a rain/snow mix.

However, just enough can fall on a cold ground to create slippery travel in Minneapolis, Green Bay, Wis., and Fargo, N.D.

RELATED:
Winter Weather Confines Consumers, Employees
AccuWeather Winter Weather Center
Winter Shatters Expense Records in the North, Causes Chaos in the South

Looking forward a few days to Saturday, it appears as though another storm system can bring snow, this time to areas in the Ohio Valley.

Flakes could fly in places like Toledo, Ohio, where one of the coldest winters in 20 years has already set the record as the snowiest winter ever, with records that date back to the 1800s.

With no more than a couple of inches of snow possible across the region, this is not likely to be a big storm either, but in a winter that many just want to be over with, signs of spring remain few and far between.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Ice floes fill the Hudson River as the New Jersey waterfront is seen during sunset on January 9, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Afton Almaraz/Getty Images)

Despite the arrival of spring, the icy grip of winter still retains a stranglehold on much of the Midwest and Northeast. The 2013-14 winter season is one of the coldest winters in 20 years, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Dombek.

"It's probably the coldest the Northeast has seen since 1993-94," he said in early March.

With snowfalls approaching annual all-time record highs in many of the major metropolitan areas across the country, the winter season has shattered expense records in the North.

According to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Jack Boston, the reason behind the record-breaking winter is due to a blocking high pressure ridge over Alaska, the Yukon and the Northeastern Pacific Ocean.

"That system deflected the jet stream across the North Pole, down through Canada and into the United States," he said, citing unseasonably low temperatures as a result of this burst of arctic air.

The cool air from the North meets with the jet stream and moisture in the South to create storm systems, and this is the main reason behind this year's heavy snowfall totals, Boston said.

Toledo, Ohio, experienced their snowiest winter ever, with a record breaking snowfall of 84.8 inches. Weather data for the city has been collected since the late 1800s, according to AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Brian Edwards.

Toledo's average annual snowfall is usually 37.8 inches. The previous record snowfall was recorded in the winter of 1978-79 at 73.1 inches.

"The high snowfall totals were more due to actual storm systems rather than lake-effect snow," he said, adding that Erie, Pa., received 130.7 inches of snow compared to the annual 95 inches and that a total of 122 inches fell in Buffalo, N.Y.

"It's impressive," he said. "Everybody is way above normal."

This year, Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, were both hit with more than a 220 percent of their average annual snowfall. Cincinnati has received 47.1 inches, making it the fourth-snowiest winter on record for the city.

With about a 230 percent of the average annual snowfall, Detroit was slammed with 90.7 inches of snow, and Chicago got 80 inches this season, making it the third-snowiest winter on record for both cities.

"Below-average February temperatures were observed across much of the northern and central contiguous U.S., with the largest departures from normal across the Midwest," according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In addition to the snowstorms walloping the Midwest, cities in the Northeast have also approached all-time highs in snowfall totals as well as experienced record-breaking cold spells.

According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, February 2014 ranks 37th for coldest February on record nationwide.

Philadelphia experienced a 314 percent of their average annual snowfall, with a total of 67.6 inches of snow, making it the third-snowiest winter on record, while Norfolk, Va., and Washington, D.C., were hit with more than double their annual average in snow this year.

RELATED:
Winter Weather Confines Consumers, Employees
AccuWeather Winter Weather Center
Winter Shatters Expense Records in the North, Causes Chaos in the South

"Looking at preliminary data, the Northeast was cooler than normal during February," according to NOAA's website. "Western areas of New York and Pennsylvania were the coldest, with departures as low as minus 10 degrees."

The lingering cold has also set the stage for late-winter storms carrying into early spring.

On March 20, Washington, D.C., was hit with the largest March snowstorm since 1999.

The storm dropped 7.2 inches of snow, making it the third-largest snowfall on record for late-March. The only competitors include the March 28 to 29 snowstorm in 1942 which dropped 11.2 inches on the city and on March 27 to 28 in 1891 where snowfall totaled one foot.

"This weather pattern is very stubborn about breaking," Boston said. "That is why many parts of the northern and eastern U.S. are having this slow ending to winter."

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments