Midwest's Big Blow

[don]

Visible satellite image of the October 26, 2010 superstorm taken at 5:32pm EDT. At the time, Bigfork, Minnesota was reporting the lowest pressure ever recorded in a U.S. non-coastal storm, 955 mb. Image credit: NASA/GSFC.


Cell Rotation

Tornadoes, violent thunderstorms, and torrential rains swept through a large portion of the nation's midsection yesterday, thanks to the strongest storm ever recorded in the Midwest. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center logged 24 tornado reports and 282 reports of damaging high winds from yesterday's spectacular storm, and the storm continues to produce a wide variety of wild weather, with tornado watches posted for Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, a blizzard warning for North Dakota, high wind warnings for most of the upper Midwest, and near-hurricane force winds on Lake Superior.

The mega-storm reached peak intensity late yesterday afternoon over Minnesota, resulting in the lowest barometric pressure readings ever recorded in the continental United States, except for from hurricanes and nor'easters affecting the Atlantic seaboard. So far, it appears the lowest reading (not yet official) was a pressure of 28.20" (954.9 mb) reduced to sea level reported from Bigfork, Minnesota at 5:13pm CDT. Other extreme low pressures from Minnesota during yesterday's storm included 28.22" (956 mb) at Orr at 5:34pm CDT, 28.23" at International Falls (3:45pm), and 28.23" at Waskuh at 5:52pm. The 28.23" (956mb) reading from International Falls yesterday obliterated their previous record of 28.70" set on Nov. 11, 1949 by nearly one-half inch of mercury--a truly amazing anomaly. Duluth's 28.36" (961 mb) reading smashed their old record of 28.48" (964 mb) set on Nov. 11, 1998. Wisconsin also recorded its lowest barometric pressure in history yesterday, with a 28.36" (961 mb) reading at Superior. The old record was 28.45" (963.4 mb) at Green Bay on April 3, 1982. The previous state record for Minnesota was 28.43" (963 mb) at Albert Lea and Austin on Nov. 10, 1998.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/Jef...?entrynum=1674

[jpatter666]

Re: Midwest's Big Blow

In the Great Depression we had the Dust Bowl and huge storms sweeping the midwest -- it's only suitable they return now.

[we_are_toast]

Re: Midwest's Big Blow

Welcome to the new climate. Get used to it.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: Midwest's Big Blow

People mostly use wind speed to categorize a hurricane, but the scale also is defined by barometric pressure at the eye:

Category 1
Hurricane has a central barometric pressure of 28.94 inches or more and winds of 74 to 95 mph. The storm is accompanied by a 4 to 5 foot storm surge and causes minimal damage

Category 2
Pressure 28.5 inches to 28.93 inches, winds from 96 mph to 110 mph, storm surge 6 to 8 feet, damage moderate.

Category 3
Pressure 27.91 inches to 28.49 inches, winds from 111 mph to 130 mph, storm surge 9 to 12 feet, damage extensive.

Category 4
Pressure 27.17 inches to 27.90 inches, winds from 131 mph to 155 mph, storm surge 13 feet to 18 feet, damage extreme.

Category 5
Pressure less than 27.17 inches, winds greater than 155 mph, storm surge higher than 18 feet. Damage Catastrophic.

By that scale the storm would rank as a category 3 hurricane.

[Starving Steve]

Re: Midwest's Big Blow

When I lived for a few years on the high plains of Colorado, the wind never stopped blowing. One wind storm had winds so strong that they blew the overpass over on I-25, near Castle Rock, Colorado. Once again, for slow-readers here, the freeway overpass being constructed near Castle Rock, Colorado blew-over. This was in the late 1980s, if my memory serves me correctly.

I stood out on the high plains near Colorado Springs, and I was almost able to fly. I leaned so far forward into the wind in that storm that my arms acted as wings and almost lifted me off of the ground.

But wind on the Great Plains is hardly news. The wind never stops blowing. Hurricane-force wind happens every week in places like Colorado Springs, Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, Rock Springs, etc.

The tumble-weeds on the Great Plains blow from Mexico to Canada, and then the tumble-weeds blow back again, from Canada to Mexico. The route is Chihuahua to west Texas to eastern Colorado, to Wyoming, to eastern Montana, and on to southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan.

On top of Pike's Peak, the City of Colorado Springs runs a diner for tourists in the summer. Next to the diner, there is a logging-chain hanging next to a metal measurement-arc.......... I will let the reader guess what that logging-chain measures.

[don]

Re: Midwest's Big Blow

I was in Florida when Hurricane Wilma roared through. Estimated wind speed was 110 on the east coast. It passed directly over us. Got to go outside during the eye lull. Where I was the aftermath, two weeks without electricity, was much worse than the immediate storm damage. Waited in line for 7 hours for a fill-up of gas. Many of the stations had no backup generators. Non-perishable food lasted about a day and a half in the supermarkets, then the shelves were empty.

There definitely was an upside, breaking through the normal bullshit MSM anesthetic. Plenty of feelings of cooperation, the euphoria of crisis management. Where I was staying was predominantly Northeast retirees. Their normal interaction with the grounds maintenance people was treating them as invisible. When the cleanup crew came down the street after Wilma, they ran out of their houses with bottled water and thank yous. I got some great shots but unfortunately didn't have my camera for that extraordinary scene.

[we_are_toast]

Re: Midwest's Big Blow

But wind on the Great Plains is hardly news. The wind never stops blowing. Hurricane-force wind happens every week in places like Colorado Springs, Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, Rock Springs, etc.

Here's my peak winds for the last several days:

Today 55.9mph
Yesterday 51.2
Day before 63.7
"" 51.7
"" 71.2

I'm not looking forward to our windy season, which starts next month.

[cmalbatros]

Re: Midwest's Big Blow

You should try living in Scotland, gets very windy every winter. They have had recorded winds on the Forth bridges @over 140mph & in Shetland Isles they had , I think, winds of over 170mph.

[Diarmuid]

Re: Midwest's Big Blow

Welcome to the new climate. Get used to it.

Do you have an intellectually honest bone in your body?

Does the science allow detection of such expected changes in tropical cyclone intensity based on historical trends? The authors say no:

The short time period of the data does not allow any definitive statements regarding separation of anthropogenic changes from natural decadal variability or the existence of longer-term trends and possible links to greenhouse warming. Furthermore, intensity changes may result from a systematic change in storm duration, which is another route by which the storm environment can affect intensity that has not been studied extensively.

The intensity changes projected by various modelling studies of the effects of greenhouse-gas-induced warming (Supplementary Table S2) are small in the sense that detection of an intensity change of a magnitude consistent with model projections should be very unlikely at this time37,38, given data limitations and the large interannual variability relative to the projected changes. Uncertain relationships between tropical cyclones and internal climate variability, including factors related to the SST distribution, such as vertical wind shear, also reduce our ability to confidently attribute observed intensity changes to greenhouse warming. The most significant cyclone intensity increases are found for the Atlantic Ocean basin43, but the relative contributions to this increase from multidecadal variability44 (whether internal or aerosol forced) versus greenhouse-forced warming cannot yet be confidently determined.
...
What about changes in location of storm formation, storm motion, lifetime and surge?

There is no conclusive evidence that any observed changes in tropical cyclone genesis, tracks, duration and surge flooding exceed the variability expected from natural causes.

Bottom line (emphasis added)?

. . . we cannot at this time conclusively identify anthropogenic signals in past tropical cyclone data.

The latest WMO statement should indicate definitively (and once again) that it is scientifically untenable to associate trends (i.e., in the past) in hurricane activity or damage to anthropogenic causes.

http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/20...ective-on.html

[charliebrown]

Re: Midwest's Big Blow

Don't have an anonometer. I do have a barometer but not recording.
On Tuesday morning, I had a reading of 29.05 30 miles west of Chicago.
It may have been lower during the night while I was not watching it.

I do have one lower reading of 29.00, I think this was a severe thunderstorm in August of 2008
I had probabley 60+ mile an hour winds judging from the saw of the trees.
No lost large boughs.