Have recent rains eased Los Angeles’ water shortage? The short answer is, “Yes.” The longer answer is “Yes, but…” Los Angeles has been experiencing a water shortage for decades. Interestingly, water-use restrictions put in place have actually lead to a 15% savings across the Metro area while savings in the city itself have been [...]
Impressive snow totals are coming in across the West and Southwest. Key to remember though: This is a "high altitude" snow. Meaning, most significant accumulations have occurred above 5500ft MSL and major metro areas are below this altitude. Various snow reports, as of this morning: Flagstaff Airport, AZ… 28 inches Big Bear Lake, CA… [...]
Industrial machinery, pharmaceuticals, toys, food – all are famous (at times, infamous) imports to the United States from China. Due to the strong jet stream winds over the central North Pacific, you can now add one more import: Smog. Last week, YWB blogged about the rate of energy consumption in China due to the extreme [...]
It’s been a week of heat, wind and fire for areas of Australia. Cooler weather for the east coast over the past few days has followed a week of extreme heat in the Southeast, while a return to warmer-than-normal temperatures for many areas begins today. Fire Weather Warnings continue to be posted for areas [...]
The National Weather Service has a program that rates both organizations and communities as “storm ready” based on the level of preparedness updating those organizations have undertaken. So far, NWS has given the rating to 29 such entities. One example of an update for the 21st century: gone are the days that companies rely [...]
You’ve been hiding under a rock since the 1940s if you’re unaware airplanes have been flying into hurricanes to send back detailed and otherwise unobtainable information to weather forecasters. One of NOAA’s (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) missions is penetrating hurricanes from their base in Florida. They use jet aircraft for high-altitude research and turbo-props [...]
(990 KB) Listen on posterous This week’s American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting is four days of weather and climate professionals from across the nation (and the world) coming together to discuss the latest advances in the atmospheric sciences. As you might suspect, many of the presentations at a scientific meeting like this can be [...]
Your Weather Blog typically doesn’t post FWDd emails to the blog. Occasionally however, one lands in our Inbox of particular relevance, fascination or beauty and we feel compelled to share with you. In this case, please enjoy the spectacular photography of Clark Little and the text that accompanied the email. ImpactWeather provides wind and seas [...]
ImpactWeather Service Development Coordinator and meteorologist Shawn Rampy is in Atlanta this week with developer/meteorologist (and Hurricane Severity Index co-author) Bob Weinzapfel for the 90th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society. As always, ImpactWeather’s highest development priority is to keep more than informed of the latest advances in the science of weather forecasting and [...]
Snow Melting in Vancouver, Site of 2010 Winter Olympics. Many people are gearing up for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in less than a month. And there are worries that the recent mild winter weather will melt the snow. A series of Pacific storms have moved through Vancouver with rain and unseasonably warm temperatures [...]