Category: Posts EN

Elsa Picking Up Strength, Now a Hurricane Skirting the Florida Coast

Written by Team Morecast

 

Tropical Storm Elsa intensified over the very warm waters of the eastern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday and was reclassified a hurricane on Tuesday evening. Strong winds and heavy rains are raking the western Florida peninsula. The close passage of the cyclone is hampering rescue efforts associated with the tragic condo building collapse in Surfside, Florida. However, conditions should improve there as the storm pulls away on Tuesday. The hurricane is moving steadily north and will be making landfall on Wednesday morning near Cedar Key, Florida.

 

 

Elsa passed between Jamaica and Haiti over the weekend, then western Cuba on Monday morning. The Florida Keys were next by Monday night (see tweet video above). A peak gust of 70 mph was recorded at Key West. Elsa has turned north and is moving parallel to the west coast of Florida, pulling even with Tampa as of Tuesday night. The west coast of the peninsula is experiencing the stronger, eastern side of the cyclone. However, Elsa is a rather small storm so the worst impacts are limited to the coast and offshore areas. The Big Bend region of Florida will see the worst conditions Tuesday morning, including damaging winds and a significant storm surge likely up to 4-5 feet in prone areas.

 

 

Elsa is expected to move north through northern Florida on Wednesday before affecting Georgia and the coastal Carolinas. The most widespread hazard will be flash flooding (see rainfall forecast above), although locally gusty winds and even a few isolated tornadoes are possible. The storm will pick up speed as it moves northeast towards Cape Cod and Maritime Canada Friday into Saturday.

Once In A Lifetime Heatwave Bakes Northwestern U.S./Southwestern Canada

Written by Team Morecast

The U.S. Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada are currently in the midst of a dangerous and historic heatwave, unlike ever seen before in this region of the world. Since Saturday, record high temperatures across the region have not just been broken, but have been downright obliterated. These records have not been just daily and monthly, but all time records. This heatwave, the result of an extensive dome of upper level high pressure, known as a ridge, is so rare that the likelihood of occurrence is once a millennium or greater.

When looking at the numbers, they are truly staggering, and more typical of the American Southwest than the Northwest. Sunday’s high of 104 degrees (40 C) in Seattle, Washington is the highest temperature ever recorded in that city, besting the previous record of 103 degrees (39.4 C) set in 2009. That was after hitting 102 degrees (38.8 C) on Saturday. The first time that the city reached the century mark during two consecutive days. Previously, Seattle has only hit 100 degrees (37.7 C) or above on three other occasions. The city even had a record high low when the minimum temperature on Sunday morning only reached 73 degrees (22.7 C), the highest low ever recorded.

Even more impressive than Seattle, were the numbers reached in Portland, Oregon. On Sunday the mercury rose to a sweltering 112 degrees (44.4 C) shattering the previous all time record high of 107 degrees (41.6 C) set in 1981, and that’s after Saturday’s high of 108 degrees (42.2 C) already hit that milestone. Most noteworthy, however, is the high of 116 degrees (46.6 C) in Lytton, British Columbia. This temperature is the highest temperature ever recorded in all of Canada, surpassing the previous all time high of 113 degrees (45 C) set in 1937.

These extremely high temperatures would be tough to handle in any other location, but what makes this situation more dangerous and unique is that many people that live in this corner of the globe do not have air conditioning. With average daytime highs in the mid to upper 70s (23-25 C) during the summer, the need for air conditioning is minimal, and heatwaves of this magnitude, or in general, are not common.

The searing heat has already led to thousands of people throughout Oregon and Washington losing power, as well as countless others being admitted to the hospital with heat exhaustion. Because of this, cooling centers have been opened without any limits on capacity. Hotels have also been booked solid, a boon for an industry decimated by Covid, as residents seek an air conditioned refuge.

More records are likely to fall by the waist side in the coming days as the heat rages on. The forecast highs of 111 degrees (43.8 C) in Seattle and 113 degrees in Portland (45 C) on Monday would again be new all time record highs. Areas further to east may top out in the 115-120 degrees ( 46-49 C) range. Exacerbating the heatwave is the ongoing severe drought throughout much of western North America.

Tropical Storm Claudette Brings Tornadoes, Flooding Rainfall to the Gulf Coast

Written by Team Morecast

 

Slow-moving Tropical Storm Claudette, named early Saturday morning, moved ashore later in the afternoon. However, heavy rains from the outer bands of the cyclone have been affecting the central Gulf coast for days. Portions of far southeast Louisiana, southern Mississippi, and southern Alabama have been particularly hard hit. Widespread rains of 5-10 inches (125-250 mm) have fallen across this region. Isolated totals of 12-14 inches (300-350 mm) have been reported, leading to serious flooding.

 

 

 

 

Strong winds have been less of an issue with the storm. A few stations have reported gusts in the 50-60 mph (80-100 kph) range. However, Claudette has also spawned several tornadoes over the Mid-South. Ten tornado reports were received by the Storm Prediction Center. The most intense tornado destroyed a mobile home park near East Brewton Saturday morning, injuring almost two dozen people. Claudette has been downgraded to a tropical depression as of Saturday evening. The remnant low is also picking up speed, moving to the northeast. As the storm speeds up and weakens, the threat for tornadoes and flooding will diminish tonight. Claudette is the first named tropical cyclone of 2021 to make landfall in the Atlantic basin. Experts predict a fairly busy season which will peak in mid-September. Lead photo courtesy Flickr user Tom Good.

 

Brutal Heat Bakes the Western US, Intensifying the Extreme Drought

Written by Team Morecast

 

A heat wave is pushing temperatures to all-time record marks from the Intermountain West into interior California and the Desert Southwest. Triple digit heat has expanded as far north as Idaho and Montana, and as far east as Iowa and Missouri. Several cities have seen or will see record-shattering temperatures. The high on Tuesday in Salt Lake City was 107 deg F (42 deg C), tying the all-time record. Only twice before (2002 and 1960) has this mark been reached. It’s all the more impressive since these records are being broken in mid-June, typically a significantly cooler month than July and August. Las Vegas nearly matched their all-time record of 117 deg F (47 deg C) on Wednesday afternoon. Billings, Montana saw temps reach 105 deg F (41 deg C) on Tuesday, hottest ever recorded in the month of June. Temperatures may get even warmer for some areas from Thursday into Friday. The forecast for Phoenix, Arizona is for highs to exceed 115 deg F (46 deg C) on four consecutive days, tying the all-time record.

 

 

 

This blast furnace of a heat wave is only exacerbating an already critical drought emergency in the Southwest. The current drought dates back to the fall of 2020. Little to no rainfall has fallen in the past several months. As spring has turned to summer, this has created a vicious cycle of increasingly dry soil contributing to hotter air temperatures, which leads to drier soils, and so on. The crippling drought is putting intense pressure on freshwater supplies. Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US, provides fresh water for farms and homes from Nevada to Mexico. Steadily increasing water consumption and climate warming have put a strain on lake levels that dates back at least two decades. However, the recent hot, dry weather has accelerated the process. June is already the peak of irrigation demand for farmland in the Southwest and recently the lake level has been dropping up to a foot per week. It’s currently at 36% of full capacity, the lowest since the lake was originally filled in the 1930s. This has triggered sweeping restrictions on water usage in the Southwest. Federal officials promise even tighter restraints if the lake levels continue to drop as forecasts indicate they will.