Tornadoes

Tornadoes occur more frequently within the continental United States, however, under the right conditions a tornado can occur anywhere in the world.  The Midwest is a haven for tornado formation because maritime tropical air from the south mingles with continental polar air from up north to form unstable conditions. These conditions can cause severe thunderstorms, hail, flash flooding and the occasional tornado. According to Wikipedia and http://www.weather.com/, there have been a reported 1407 tornadoes, but, only 1019 have been officially confirmed.  Of the 1019 confirmed tornadoes there were 36 casualities. Plus, there were 3 confirmed deaths in other regions of the world.  According to the Enhanced Fujita scale, which tracks the wind speed and damage a tornado creates, most of the tornadoes which touched down within the United States were either EF0 or EF1.  Recently, the United States had its largest outbreak of tornadoes within a 4 day period (occurred Oct 24-27, 2010); however none of the tornadoes went above a category EF2.
The largest casualty total for a tornado occured in the year of 1925. It was "widely accepted" that 695 people died within a tri state area.  The "tri-state tornado" happened in Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois.  Most of the people that perished were those that resided within southern Illinois. 

Tornadoes are one of nature's greatest phenomenoms but also a major threat to civilization.  A tornado can wreck havoc on a major city if the right conditions intensify to create an EF5.  Imagine the damage a 200 mph tornado can create, if we know how much damage a 125 mph hurricane can make.  I love states such as Texas and Louisiana, but, I moved away from those states because 1.) Texas is, I believe, the major hub for tornado formation and 2.) Louisiana gets its share of tornadoes too, but you also have to wonder about the chance of a hurricane coming ashore.  So, that's why I reside in little old Yuma, Arizona. Sure there's a chance a major earthquake may hit since we live along a fault line but I will take my chances.

Chilly weather this week

It has been rather chilly especially in the morning here in Yuma.  It feels as though I am living somewhere else, like Santa Barbara, CA, instead of in Arizona. Here's a link into Yuma's monthly weather for October, http://www.weather.com/weather/monthly/USAZ0275.  As you can see there was a dramatic decline in temperature from October 4 to the 5 and also from October 17 to 18.   What is ironic is that we have had an abnormal high temperature for the month of October and also an abnormal low temperature.  The cold weather has me already thinking about Christmas, matter of fact, just yesterday I went to Target to buy a couple of pine scented candles.  It seems as though this winter will be much colder than ones that I've experienced in Yuma.  My first year in 2005 was pretty chilly but other years were sort of warmer and wetter.  I know in class we discussed La Nina and El Nino, and right now we are experiencing La Nina. It's forecast that we will have a drier and warmer Christmas, but I am going to have to disagree with a portion of that statement.  I believe we will have a drier Christmas but I feel that this year will be much chillier. So, what exactly is causing such a dramatic decline in temperature for us this year?  I tried researching it but came up empty.  My prognosis is that we are experiencing a cold front a lot earlier this year from northern Canada or Alaska. But, I believe "usually" rain is associated with the cold front that comes from up North every winter. However, I am grateful for an early break from the hot weather we were experiencing in the beginning of October. Hopefully we will have great weather for a while, that is until July comes around.

What is a Nor'easter?

So, I was scanning my 5th favorite website, http://www.weathers.com/, and came across a system called the Nor'easter.  I thought to myself, what in the world is that?  Supposedly, according to Wikipedia (my 3rd favorite website), the Nor'easter is a macro scale storm system along the east coast of the United States. This storm can cause major flooding, hurricane type force winds and heavy rain or snow.  On Thursday night, the east coast would feel the impact of the Nor'easter storm which will bring 40 to 50 mile per hour winds.  Meterologists expect that the strong gust of winds will topple trees and knock out power to thousands of eastern American citizens.  It is reported that rain can average levels of up to 1-2 inches, although higher amounts of water is not uncommon.  Usually, after this storm flows through the east coast cool cold weather comes in from England accompanied by snow (Christmas time already!). 



The storm system will cause a lot of headaches for those that are traveling.  Those traveling through by plane will experience heavy delays or even cancellations due to the fact that the winds are so strong it may cause planes to crash.  Heavy traffic congestion is also expected on highways and interstates too. Coming from a relatively large city (New Orleans), I know it must be hell going through these traffic congestions.  I could remember it would take me 2 1/2 hours to get home from the French Quarter.  Just imagine how long it would take these guys to get home. I love rain and snow just as much as the next guy but just being in heavy traffic and add the strong gust of winds is one of the main reasons I can not see myself living along the northern east coast. I love my southern states a lot more.

Crazy Weather hits Arizona

http://www.weather.com/outlook/videos/iwitness-amazing-video-of-hail-storm-18431

A wicked hail storm moved over the Phoenix/Glendale area in Arizona on Tuesday.  It was reported that golf sized hail was pelting Phoenix for a good 5 minutes.  Not only did central Arizona get hit with a hail storm but northern Arizona became a haven for tornadoes, which is not common in the state of Arizona.  According to a report on cnn.com, it was said that temperatures
dramatically dropped from the mid 80's to the 50's. By looking at the video I felt really concerned about the citizens within the central Arizona area. Imagine being caught in a hail storm such as the one displayed in the video.  While I witnessed the video showed in my blog, I couldn't help but wonder about many of those that had cut rate insurance such as the Allstate commercials and the so called "mayhem". The hail caused a tremendous amount of damage which could turn a nice looking car into junk.  In another video which failed to upload on this blog showed the aftermath of the hail storm.  Fog began to rise due to the evaporation of the ice crystals and created an eerie scene. It was a scene seen on a Nightmare on Elm Street movie. As for the tornadoes in the Flagstaff area, there were no reported injuries or deaths but many citizens were left homeless due to the damage the storm caused.  Thankfully, the tornado did not cause much damage as we all know how damaging a storm system such as this can be. On, Tuesday I traveled to San Diego for a seminar and the storm system that  I witnessed over the mountain tops were both beautiful but at the same time scary.  The temperature changed about 20 degrees as we neared the low pressure system.  But I must say it felt great to be in a cooler temp than what we were experiencing in Yuma at that time.

More Flooding

More flooding this week has presented problems for the United States however in a different region.  The eastern region of the US has face constant downpour enabling cars to be engulfed by high waters, as shown in picture above.  The downpour is in relation to Tropical Storm Nicole which may bring flooding throughout the eastern coast from the Carolinas to Maine.  It was just reported today that not only will people within the region have to worry about flood water but now there is a high wind advisory all along the Atlantic coast. 

As you can see it is a major front infiltrating the Atlantic coast with low pressure and bringing lots of rain with it.  Someday maybe Yuma, AZ can get rain like this again.  I remember back in 2005, my first year here in Arizona, I experienced what was called monsoon season and it was raining practically everyday during one month.  I have yet to experience anything like that again.  Of course it'll rain every now then but they are just teasers. My first son was born in 2008 and he'd never experience rain at all until he was almost two.  The family took a little trip to visit grandpa and grandma in Spring, Texas, which is a subdivision of Houston.  The visit was in the month of August, which for anyone familiar with weather it was hurricane season.  It poured the entire time we were there and there was a Hurricane that was heading our way, which actually caused damage to downtown Houston and major roof damage to Reliant Stadium.  Since, my son hadn't ever seen rain or even knew of the word, he would and was very scared especially during the lightning storm.  My parents house overlooks a lake so it is quite funny when something we (as adults) think is beautiful or just WOW someone as is petrified or terrified of the same situation.