Abnormal Jet Stream Persists

Houston Skyline with storm January 9, 2012

ODD JET STREAM CONFIGURATION PERSISTS

The nation's first major winter storm rumbled through Texas yesterday, bringing much appreciated heavy rains. The storm set also spawned the year's first two tornadoes, and brought record-setting heavy snows to West Texas. A wide swath of 3 - 5 inches of rain fell over much of Eastern Texas and Southern Louisiana, bringing isolated flooding to the drought-ravaged region. Houston, Texas received 4.06" of rain, breaking the previous record rainfall for the date of 2.54". It was the heaviest rainfall for Houston since the 4.87" that fell October 15, 2007. Drought-stricken Texas has now received the heaviest precipitation, relative to average, of any state in the U.S. during 2012, thanks to a highly abnormal jet stream pattern that is keeping the northern polar branch of the jet stream far to the north in Canada. The latest GFS model forecast predicts that this unusually dry pattern will persist for at least the next ten days, with the possibility of it breaking down during the last week of January.

Houston to New Orleans Radar estimates of rainfall January 9, 2012

Year's first tornado hits Texas City

The first tornado of 2012 touched down near 1pm CST in Texas City yesterday. The twister hit the Mall of the Mainland, damaging its roof and blowing out windows of parked cars. No injuries were reported, but the storm flooded the mall with 2 - 3 inches of water, and the mall remains closed today. A separate tornado affected Fort Bend County, Texas, but caused no damage or injuries. January is typically the quietest month of the year for tornadoes in the U.S.; during the past three years, we've averaged seventeen tornadoes in the month of January. A few more tornadoes are possible today, as NOAA's Storm Prediction Center predicts that a slight chance of severe weather will continue along the cold front of the storm that spawned yesterday's tornadoes. New Orleans, the Florida Panhandle, and most of Mississippi and Alabama are at risk of seeing a few tornadoes and damaging winds from severe thunderstorms.

Heavy snow in West Texas 

sets all-time snow records for Midland

Yesterday's storm dumped 10.6 inches of snow on Midland, Texas, setting a record for the heaviest 1-day snow in city history. The previous record was the 9.8" that fell December 10 - 11, 1998. Midland's total snowfall for the winter of 2011 - 2012 is now 19.5". With winter not even half over, this smashes their previous seasonal snowfall record of 13.9", set in the winter of 1946 - 1947. Remarkably, Midland (population 111,000) has had more snow this year than America's four snowiest cities with population greater than 75,000--Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo (in New York's lake-effect snow belts), and Duluth, Minnesota.

Frosty windows in Alaska

Heavy snows hit Southern Alaska

If you're wondering where all of the snow that usually hits California's Sierras and the northern tier of U.S. states is going, the answer is Southern Alaska. This winter's highly abnormal jet stream pattern is slamming an unending series of heavy snow storms into Southern Alaska, where the snow totals are unbelievable. 

A snow storm on Sunday dumped 15.2" of snow on Valdez, Alaska, bringing the total snow this season to 290.5". That's 24.2 feet (7.4 meters), and is 12 feet (3.7 meters) above what the city normal has by January 10.  The Alaska state snowfall record is 974.1" (81.2', or 24.7 meters) at Thompson Pass in 1952-1953, just up the highway from Valdez. This record is beyond reach, since the site is no longer operating. The latest forecast for Valdez calls for another 10 - 15 inches of snow today.

Yesterday the Wolf Moon shined over a very dry Florida peninsula.

Warm  and Dry Year for Florida in 2011 

While temperatures at the start of 2011 were colder than normal. . . above normal temperatures dominated for much of the rest of 2011. The overall warmer weather pattern led to an average temperatures for 2011 that were among the ten warmest on record.

Severe to extreme drought conditions early in 2011 eased for some areas of the state as spring rains were heavier-than-normal, but then quickly drought conditions worsened into summer due to well below normal rainfall and one of the latest ever starts to the rainy season. Rainfall during the late summer (through October) eased drought conditions for some areas while others remain exceptionally dry.

We have received no rainfall, so far, in 2012. There is some hope that parts of the peninsula might receive rainfall tomorrow from a mild cold front approaching from the west.