Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, has broken its seasonal snowfall record, with 132.6 inches, or 336.8 centimeters.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/winter/story/2012-04-08/anchorage-snow-record/54110016/1
Hi folks, it's been a very quiet stale period of weather for us in Ontario over the past week, average sums it all up. Not an amazing amount of sunshine, some windy and cloud and the odd day with showery rain. The pattern continues into the weekend with unsettled conditions and more showers on both Sat & Sun and not overly warm either with temps between 9-13c across the board. No real sign at the minute of a return to those incredibly warm/hot early summerlike conditions we had in March.
Elsewhere, it's also been largely uneventful in the U.S. also. Parts of ME last weekend experienced a snowstorm of sorts which also brought unsettled wintry weather to the Canadian Maritimes. The weather however set for a turn to the worse again over the next 36hrs in parts of the Mid-Central U.S.
Over the past couple of days, Thunderstorms bringing severe hail to parts of TX have caused some disruption most notably to American Airlines, who at one point cancelled over 200 flights due to aircraft damage caused by the storms. These Thunderstorms will mix with more intense unstable air over KS, OK and other Tornado-Alley states to set course for an outbreak starting tomorrow. Some Tornado/Severe Weather experts and predictions i've seen call for a significant outbreak 4 or 5 on a scale 1-5, with 5 being exceptional.
One very good point to come out of all the significant Tornadic activity that has affected the states over the past 12 months is that there is even more accurate forecasting and more especially public awareness of such impending events which increases the chances of life preservation and property preparedness.
Good 3-1 win for the Blue Jays Graeme last night over the Red Sox, good positive start to the season on the whole for the ball club with a 4-2 record lying 2nd in the AL East. They are well and truely Toronto's favourite sports team right now for one reason or another!
Have a great weekend everyone.
In keeping with the Calgarian Spring, weather here has been up and down, particularly today. We we're to expect 10-25mm of rain from a system coming up from the South, bringing enough warmth to keep it rain. At least that's what the guys in Ottawa said. And if it were in Ottawa, they probably would have been right. Here, not so much.
What actually transpired started as a rain event, but temperatures dropped right down through the afternoon and became a very heavy snow event instead. The heaviest I have seen all season, with snowflakes the size of side plates.
Environment Canada, with all the accuracy of hindcasting has posthumously issued the following warning:
City of Calgary 8:41 PM MDT Thursday 12 April 2012Snowfall warning forCity of Calgary issued 10 cm of snow tonight. An intense low pressure centre is tracking through Southeastern Alberta tonight and Friday bringing rain to portions of Central Alberta and heavy snow along the foothills. Precipitation fell predominantly as rain today in Southern Alberta with 20 to 25 mm reported by mid afternoon. As the system moves northward, 20 to 30 mm of rain is expected over Central Alberta tonight and Friday.Rain changed to heavy snow earlier than expected in the Airdrie and Calgary regions. By the time the snow ends overnight, local accumulations of up to 25 cm of snow is expected. Heaviest snow within the Calgary region will fall over higher elevations in the western sections of the city. Snow will begin to taper off later this evening in Calgary.In the Banff region, heavy snow has fallen over the mountain passes but the town site continues to rain. Rain will change to snow in Banff this evening and 10 cm is forecast by Friday morning. Mountain passes could receive a total of 25 cm by Friday.In the Jasper and Kananaskis regions heavy snow is forecast over the higher elevations with a total of 10 to 15 cm of snow expected by Friday morning. In the townsites, rain will change to snow this evening giving 5 to 10 cm of snow.Snow levels will lower in the Nordegg region bringing 10 to 20 cm of heavy snow tonight. Within the Rocky Mountain House region snowfall amounts will vary based on elevation with accumulations potentially reaching 10 to 15 cm by Friday evening. Snow will taper off Friday night as the low weakens and moves into Saskatchewan.
Notice the highlighted bit. By "earlier than expected" they meant earlier than Friday evening (24 hours away), which is when the first flakes were supposed to fall. Nice bit of misdirection. Though, to be fair, it's not often that it snows here and rains up in Banff. It does go to show that cold air sinks!
Anyway, we are fully white, under 3-4" of snow. Don't expect it to last - the sun and temps tomorrow will put it to bed. All moisture welcomed though, we need it for sure. And we have been getting it more too - there's been a few moderate snow events over the last few weeks - nothing that lasted but all good wet stuff.
Peter
July 2011 - June 2012 StatsElevation: 1084mLatitude: 51° 6' NWarmest Temperature: 30.4c 29/08/11Coldest Temperature: -32.4c 18/01/12Days with thunderstorms: 4Days with rain falling: 24Days with snow falling: 43Days with snow lying: 99Maximum snow depth: 6" (15cm)Current snow depth 4" (10cm)
Edited by user 13 April 2012 03:20:13(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
Fascinating weather over Ontario today: bit of a classic spring temperature gradient. For example it's +25c in Toronto right now but -5c in Thunder Bay. Zooming in, it's currently -3c in Timmins and +18c in Sudbury. They're about 135 miles apart as the crow flies.
Hello all, the weekend's significant Tornado outbreak across the Central Plains & Mid-West produced over 120 Tornado touchdowns and countless reports of hail damage. The most affected state was OK, where on Friday and again Saturday night, Tornadoes ripped paths upto a mile-wide in some spots with worst affected Norman, OK on Friday night and more substantial damage done to Woodward, OK on Saturday evening with an EF3 confirmed to have gone thru the town of 12,000 residents. Sadly, a sixth person died earlier this morning resulting from this Tornado, but remarkably these were the only fatalities from the weekend outbreak. A testimont again to the increased awareness of such events from the public and their prepardness for bad weather.
As Graeme posted a crazy 24hrs back here in Ontario. Monday saw very strong wind gusts between 65-90kph across a wide area of the GTA ahead of a cold front which produced the most extreme temp swings along it's boundary and thus weather type. Here's a breakdown from EC on the wind and snow readings from the storm :
==weather event discussion==The passage of a sharp cold front brought very strong gusty winds to parts of Southern Ontario Monday afternoon. Several stations reported wind gusts in excess of 90 km/h, meeting the wind warning criteria. These strong gusts blew down trees and power lines, and blew over a transport truck on highway 400 near Bradford. The winds were so strong that reduced visibility was reported in blowing dust north of Orangeville and near Bradford.In addition to the wind, temperatures soared into the high twenties over Eastern Ontario. Ottawa and Cornwall were close to breakingThe daily maximum temperature record but fell short by half aDegree. However, both Brockville and Kemptville set newTemperature records Monday afternoon.-------------------------------------------------------------April 16 location peak wind gust (km/h)Time(lcl)1:39 PM London airport 963:00 PM Borden 953:00 PM Elora (N of Kitchener) 833:00 PM Hamilton airport 804:00 PM Waterloo-Wellington 934:00 PM Egbert (S of Barrie) 876:00 PM Toronto Pearson 80Location new record old record yearBrockville 28.4 c 24.4 c 1973Kemptville 28.3 c 27.6 c 2002This weather summary contains preliminary informationAnd may not constitute an official or final report.END/OSPC
Weather summary for Northern Ontario issued by Environment Canada at 9:45 AM EDT Tuesday 17 April 2012. ----------------------------------
--------------------------- ==weather event discussion==
A strong low pressure system brought winter-like conditions to much of Northern Ontario beginning Sunday night and snow in some areas continued into this morning. A combination of snow, ice pellets and freezing rain affected areas from Fort Frances to north of Lake Superior and east to the Quebec border. Snow amounts in excess of 20 cm were reported at several stations, while areas from Marathon To Wawa to Timmins experienced an extended period of freezing rain. Below are significant snow totals and the duration of freezing rain reported for this event up to 8 AM today.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Location snow amount (cm)
Atikokan 27
Cameron Falls 7
Marathon 10
Armstrong 11
Geraldton 25
Nagagami 27
Kapuskasing 36 (snow and ice pellets)
Wawa 10
Timmins 9 Location freezing rain duration (hours)
Thunder Bay 3
Wawa 2.5
Chapleau 3
Timmins 14
Toronto & Hamilton both had a high of 25c/77f. The highest temp this April by some way, following 20c that was the high on Sunday in Dundas. The feeling not quite as warm as that due to the strength of the wind. In contrast, the snow in Northern portions of Ontario, significant snow in one or two spots. Crazy weather! Today it's down to 10c now the cold front has passed, little or no rain on it.
The weather still on a mini rollercoaster for the GTA thru the rest of this week with cooler weather tomorrow followed by potentially awonderful, windless day and sun on Thursday at 19c then more rain and even snow possible come Saturday and high forecasted at just 5c!
Southern Ontario in Spring......marvellous!
Take Care
Edited by user 17 April 2012 20:28:46(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
Hello folks, interesting spell of weather developing for many parts of the Northeast U.S. & E Canada early next week more on which in a second. Firstly, a very pleasant spell just past Wed-Fri with temps well into the 20sC, a lack of sunshine however not too breezy so it felt very comfortable. Rain overnight has ushered in much cooler air, just 4c here in Dundas at 11am.
Today and tomorrow stay mixed, we may manage a high around 13c by the end of the afternoon. However the entertainment comes from a lp system that will track into the Northeast by Sunday night. There's been a massive amount of debate and conjecture about this one over on Accuweather, the models haven't been dealing particulary brilliant with it but the general theme is for rain and strong winds to develop and in some spots the rain will turn to snow. Especially high ground.
Both Toronto & Hamilton's forecast for Mon & Tue is for a mix of wintery precip and just 4-5c. The doubt is how much cold air gets sucked in and how far down the cold air goes, this will determine snow amounts and distribution/location.
Probably looking at snow not settling due to the main energy at the minute being forecasted for daytime, higher elevations in Ontario particulary the Ottawa valley could do well.
Winter's last stand (hopefully) Outlook for May showing sustained warmth even hot weather and average rainfall for Southern Ontario. Maybe summer will make a early appearance after it's brief visit in March?
Have a great weekend everyone!
Ontario late blizzard.April is the cruelest month.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goyJEkUtcjk
Edited by user 25 April 2012 16:56:50(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
Indeed, and it's cool again in eastern Canada/NE States this weekend. Sub freezing in the big cities of Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal this morning after some cool temperatures yesterday (+3.5c the max in Ottawa). Further north it's decidedly chilly in central and northern Ontario with Timmins, for example, expecting a low of -13c which would easily break the daily record low. To the east there's some light snow flurries around in the Maritime provinces.
Stateside it's a real north/south split temp-wise with cool air over the Midwest, Great Lakes and NE and much warmer conditions in the south (mid to high 80s for Dallas, Memphis, Atlanta). In between the inevitable spring severe weather with Kansas and Missouri the prime spot for severe thunderstorms including the risk of tornadoes right now.
Looking ahead it should turn much milder through southern Ontario this week with temps up to around 20c or above by Thursday. At the sametime it looks like turning hot through the SW states, into the southern Rockies and Plains, with the heat expanding slowly northwards if the latest GFS is to be believed.
A tough few days for the Blue Jays Stewart, culminating with up and coming star Brett Lawrie literally throwing the game away last night against the Mariners. Still, it's early season and the club is around .500. Plenty to be positive about.
Have a good weekend everyone.
Hello folks, yeah a good start to the season slightly put into the chiller (a bit like the weather!) this week for the Blue Jays. Early days and there's always tonight's game, hopefully they can show some steel this campaign when in a slide, unlike what has happened on some occasions over the past 5 season's or so, where a slide turned into a crisis with more than a worrying regularity.
As for the weather, that snowstorm up in Orangeville back on Monday was a very localised event. Even 'normal' high ground for snow around these parts saw very little if any snow, certainly not lying stuff from last Monday's storm which brought unseasonably low temps to much of he Eastern 3rd of N America. In Toronto/Hamilton and down to Niagara all that fell was cold rain, very cold rain with the biting wind.
The week hasn't really recovered from the storm either with continued below average values and as Graeme reported very cold at night with a ground frost. Another frost expected tonight, temps may get down to -6c in rural prone spots but the general trend as Graeme discussed is for milder, even warm weather to take over as the calender changes into May. EC currently have 25c/77f as a high for Thursday, today it's just 9c!
With the warmer air will come showers though so no heatwave, just yet. But hopefully more typical early May weather for the GTA, weather that the plants and wildlife around here can start to enjoy.
Whatever your upto, make it a great weekend everyone.
Crazy Golf Ball sized hail storm in Missouri yesterday
This has ads associated with it, sorry!
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/video--golf-ball-sized-hailstones-hit-quiet-neighbourhood.html
A bit late, but here is the picture I took mid-April heading home from work of the 10-25mm of rain that Environment Canada had forecast.
The rest of April was up and down in terms of temperature - even up to 25c on the 23rd of April! Didn't last though and the previous week has been farly cool, cloudy and rainy. Which is good, the moisture needed and everything starting to green up, almost as if Spring was here.
Next week is looking pretty promising, lots of sunshine and temperatures in the high teens. After the rain on Saturday of course, oh well.
July 2011 - June 2012 StatsElevation: 1084mLatitude: 51° 6' NWarmest Temperature: 30.4c 29/08/11Coldest Temperature: -32.4c 18/01/12Days with thunderstorms: 4Days with rain falling: 33Days with snow falling: 45Days with snow lying: 102Maximum snow depth: 6" (15cm)Current snow depth 0" (0cm)
Edited by user 04 May 2012 18:11:44(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
Hello folks, you got to love Environment Canada Peter, well........great pic for rain incidentally! lol!
I feel as if these posts are getting more and more infrequent and for that i apoligise. That dreaded 4 letter word beginning with W takes up more time than it should. Even when i get over 2 weeks off in just a month's time posting looks remote as my family are visiting Ontario this summer instead of me going back to Scotland. So, entertainment, wine, beer and a bit of sightseeing (not necersary in that order!) will be plentiful. I will endevour to have more a life outside the office now the summer nights are here if not as of yet, total summer weather.
Past week sums up the rollercoaster that the GTA has been on since really the start of 2012. Started cold early last week with some frosts and cool days, some of which have reportedly damaged crops down in the Niagara region costing the economy more hard-pressed $. Then we had a mid-week warm up of some note, 28.5c recorded in Hamilton on Thursday ahead of a cold front which brought a lively Thunderstorm to the local area late on Thursday night and also some more Thunderstorms to other parts of the GTA with some fairly large rainfall totals in a short time being measured.
Once that cleared, it's been a cooler but average weekend with some cloud and sunny spells, temps this afternoon at 17c/63f.
Outlook is for unsettled conditions to be in the ascendancy over the week ahead with showers or longer spells of rain Mon-Thur, drier at the minute on Friday.
Further South in the U.S. there's glorious sunny conditions on both coasts today, high's in the 60s for the NorthEast, touching 70f in D.C. On the West Coast, CA will see high's into the 70sF, with the only unsettled weather for the high plains and Chicago and further South in TX, OK, KS where temps into the high 80sF later will spark a Thunderstorm or two, which have the potential to turn Severe. However, so far compared to this time last year it's been reasonably quiet on the Tornado front.
Hello folks, looks like it's been very quiet on here so everyone else must be suffering from the same time constraints that i am. Generally the weather has settled down here in Ontario over the past 10 days or so with good sunny spells and decent temps, temps actually climbing over the weekend toward the mid-70sF and on one or two days just over 25c. Still a nagging wind there which has made it feel less warm at times but definately more settled May-like conditions overall.
This morning we've got a band of scattered showers with the odd Thunderstorm moving west to east across the GTA lowering temps overnight ahead of it's passage. In it's wake, a cooler afternoon with temps struggling to 20c. However, the mostly settled weather returns into the weekend and temps are forecast to break thru the 25c/77f mark possibly into the 80sF by Sunday as things stand.
Summer doesn't offically start for over 2 weeks yet, but things are now going a better direction compared to the rather cool and unsettled weather so far this Spring season. Outlook from Brett Anderson's lrf on Accuweather for this summer is for average conditions both in terms of rainfall and temps for Southern Ontario. For his overall predictions on the rest of the Canada for Summer 2012, click here - http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/anderson/the-summer-forecast-for-canada/65122.
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/city/pages/on-143_metric_e.html
Warming up nicely to near 30C in Toronto on Sunday. Wish to be there right now as we are planning to move there hopefully by 2013 or 2014.
I am not sure how they use it. Some who post here from Canada may know.
Edited by user 18 May 2012 07:54:28(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
Hello folks, looks like it's been very quiet on here so everyone else must be suffering from the same time constraints that i am.
Yes, you hit the nail on the head there Stewart. Busy busy busy. And with the unrelentingly depressing weather we've been having of late, I've not had the heart to look at the weather in NA. You can see why, I'm stuck here in single figures gloom while it's wall-to-walll sun in T.O. this weekend with highs forecast at 25c today and 28c tomorrow. Even hotter in the western Great Lakes with Chicagoland in with a shot of hitting 90f today (32c).
In answer to the question about Canadian summertime - you come across the usual distinction of the meteorological summer starting on June 1st and astronomical summer June 20th. Though you will still read and come across many weather-related stories that define summer along astronomical terms.
I see Brett is reporting that the ECM is calling for a hot start to summer for you Stewart: http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/anderson/long-range-clues-through-midjune/65335
I know there's quite a few TWOers who keep an eye on the excellent Kimmirut webcam - it's made for good viewing of late as the thaw sets in up north: http://www.kimmirutweather.com/
Well, if you can't beat them, join them (vicariously) so I'll be settling down with a beer later to take in the Blue Jays/Mets game. Hoping for more of what happened last night as the Jays thumped the Mets 14-5 in the first inter-league action of the year!
Enjoy the weekend.
Certainly a hot day shaping up over Ontario: it's already 27c in Hamilton, 11am local time. Meanwhile up in Timmins it's 30c at 11am. A high of around 32c expected. The record high for May is 33.3c so it's not going to be far off that! Ottawa too forecast to hit 32c and the record May high is 32.8c (at the airport, though the record is 35c at the other official station for the city).
Hello folks, the weather has switched it seems from spring straight into summer without much need to hang about in the build-up to summer category. Temps for the past few days have been climbing well above normal and now today we have record setting highs across the Greater Toronto Area and Toronto & Hamilton in particular.
At 4pm EST, Toronto was sitting at 31c while Hamilton was at 29c. Both new temp records for the date and for Hamilton a 34-year record smashed. Here's how the local press are reporting on things :
CTV : http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120525/toronto-hot-weather-120525/20120525/?hub=TorontoNewHome
Hamilton Spec : http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/730846--hamilton-sets-a-heat-record-at-29c
It's breezy here in Dundas this afternoon, but very hot. The humidex is up at 37, that's why it's summertime values in springtime! All this heat will inevitably lead to a breakdown and it comes into Southern Ontario later tomorrow as a warm front mixes with the superplume of hot air creating showers and more likely Thunderstorms. Brett Anderson over on Accuweather forecasts a very wet night for some areas of the GTA and SouthWestern Ontario on Saturday into Sunday.
Once the storms pass, cooler air will arrive and temps lower to the mid to high teens C by Tuesday with still the risk of one or two showers. However, this seems likely to be a temporily blip in the warmer air as long range forecasts including the latest one issued by Brett suggest a warmer than average, even hot June on the way with temps +25c and above more likely than not. Interesting weather developing potentially for a hot Ontarian summer!
Have a great weekend!