Major Disaster Declared for Maine

‘Vacationland’ Declared a Federal Disaster Area

Maine Severe Winter Storm, Snowstorm, and Flooding (DR-4208)

The White House has declared a major disaster exists in the State of Maine in the areas affected by a severe winter storm, snowstorm, and flooding during the period of January 26-28, 2015.

Most of the damage caused by the severe winter storm, snowstorm, and flooding occurred in the counties of Androscoggin, Cumberland, and York.

The Federal Coordinating Officer for federal recovery operations in the affected area said additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.

Related Links

• Major Disaster Declared for Vermont February 4, 2015
• Federal Disaster Declarations
• Federal Disasters
• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters Index

State of Emergency Declared in Maine after Record Snow

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC HAZARDS
EARLY SEASON BLIZZARD
POWEFUL NOR’EASTER
STATE OF EMERGENCY
SCENARIOS 887, 560, 477, 444, 177, 111, 066, 064, 027, 025, 023, 02
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Massive “nor’easter” brings record snow to Maine

Gov. LePage issued an emergency proclamation after a rare, early season storm brought record snowfall to the state of Maine.

The powerful storm knocked out power to about 150,000 homes and businesses and made travel conditions treacherous across The Pine Tree State.

About 53 cm (21 inches) of snow fell in Cary, near the border with Canada, with double-digit totals reported across the state.

“Snow also fell as far south and east as Charleston, South Carolina — the earliest flakes on record in the city — over the weekend,” said a report.

Related Links

• Freeze Warning for Eastern Third of U.S. November 2, 2014

Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in New England

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC HAZARDS
EXTREME TEMPERATURE FLUCTUATIONS
MULTIPLE CROP DISASTERS
EXCESSIVE COLD, FROSTS, FREEZES, HAIL
MAIN SCENARIOS 900, 666, 444, 187, 178, 177, 157, 111, 02
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Extreme Weather and Climate Disasters Destroy Crops in 27 Counties across 4 States

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has declared multiple crop disasters for an additional  27 counties in four states—New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont—due to the losses and damage caused by extreme weather and climatic events that have occurred during the 2014 crop year, so far.

Designation #1

Damages and losses caused by extreme temperature fluctuations, excessive cold, frosts, freezes and hail that occurred from Dec. 1, 2013, through April 30, 2014

• New Hampshire. Belknap, Grafton, Rockingham, Carroll, Hillsborough, Strafford, Cheshire, Merrimack, Sullivan and Coos counties.
• Maine. Oxford and York counties.
• Massachusetts. Essex, Franklin, Middlesex and Worcester counties.
• Vermont. Caledonia, Essex, Orange, Windham and Windsor counties.

Designation #2

Damages and losses caused by extreme fluctuations, freeze and hail that occurred on May 22 through May 25, 2014

• New Hampshire. Cheshire, Hillsborough and Merrimack counties.
• Massachusetts. Essex, Middlesex and Worcester counties.

Crop Disasters 2014

Beginning January 10, 2014 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least 2,620 counties across 41 states. Most of those designations are due to the drought.

Those states are

• Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. [FIRE-EARTH has documented all of the above listings. See blog content.]

Notes:
i. USDA trigger point for a countywide disaster declaration is 30 percent crop loss on at least one crop.

ii. The counties designated as agricultural disaster areas, as listed above, include both primary and contiguous disaster areas.

iii. Counties may have been designated crop disaster areas more than once due to multiple disasters.

iv. The U.S. has a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents.

v. The disaster designations posted above were approved by USDA on October 1, 2014.

Crop Disaster Links

• Multiple Crop Disasters Occur in 11 States October 3, 2014
• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in 10 States September 25, 2014
• Drought Crop Disasters Declared in U.S. West  September 18, 2014
• FREEZE Destroys Crops in Ohio, Pennsylvania  September 18, 2014
• Crop Disasters Declared in Five States September 12, 2014
• Crop Disasters Declared in Six States Posted on September 5, 2014
• Federal Disasters
• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters Index

Crop Disaster Declared For 8 States Due to Extreme Weather

EXTREME WEATHER & CLIMATIC EVENTS
MULTIPLE CROP DISASTERS
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Crop disasters declared in 43 counties due to drought, flash flooding, flooding, excessive heat, excessive rain, lightning, high wind…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated ten counties in two states—Maine and New Hampshire—as crop disaster areas due to losses caused by flash flooding, flooding, excessive heat, excessive rain, lightning and high wind that occurred April 1 – October 31, 2013.
Those counties are

• Maine: Androscoggin, Oxford, Sagadahoc, Cumberland, Franklin, Kennebec, Lincoln and York counties.

• New Hampshire: Carroll and Coos counties.

Excessive Moisture and Heat

USDA has designated a total of eight counties in Massachusetts and Connecticut as crop disaster areas due to losses caused by excessive moisture and heat that occurred during the 2013 crop year.

Those counties are

• Massachusetts: Hampden, Hampshire, Berkshire, Franklin and Worcester counties.

• Connecticut: Hartford, Litchfield and Tolland counties.

Crop Disaster Declared for 25 Counties in Four States due to Drought

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated 25 counties in four states as crop disaster areas due to the recent drought. The disaster designations are for the states of California, Oregon, New Mexico and Colorado.

• The disaster designation areas in California are Del Norte, Humboldt and Siskiyou counties.

• Oregon: Curry and Josephine counties.

• New Mexico:  DeBaca, Harding, Rio Arriba, Taos, Chaves, Los Alamos, Roosevelt, San Miguel, Colfax, Mora, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Guadalupe, Quay, San Juan, Union and  Lincoln counties.

• Colorado: Archuleta, Conejos and Costilla counties.

Notes:
1. USDA trigger point for a countywide disaster declaration is 30 percent crop loss on at least one crop.

2. The total number of counties designated as agricultural disaster areas includes both primary and contiguous disaster areas.

3. The U.S. has a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents.

4. A number of counties have been designated crop disaster areas more than once due to multiple disasters.

5. The disaster designations were approved by USDA on February 5, 2014.

2014 Federal and Agriculture Disaster Declarations

• UPDATE: Drought Causes Crop Disaster in 25 Counties across 4 States February 6, 2014
• California Drought Worsens February 6, 2014
• California Drought Could Paralyze the U.S.  February 2, 2014
• California Drops State Water Allocation to Zero  February 1, 2014
• California Drought Intensifies January 30, 2014
• California Communities Could Run Out of Water in 60 to 120 Days January 29, 2014
• Drought Disaster Declared for Multiple Counties in Four States January 25, 2014
• California Declares Drought State of Emergency January 18, 2014
• California Governor to Declare Drought Emergency January 17, 2014
• High Fire Danger in Southern California amid Driest Conditions on Record January 17, 2014
• 520 Counties across 16 States Declared Crop Disaster Areas due to Drought January 16, 2014
• Crop Disaster Declared in 40 Counties due to Drought January 16, 2014
• Crop Disasters Declared in 6 States January 10, 2014

Related Links

• Drought 2013
• Agricultural Disasters Index

Mass Blackouts Continue in Freezing US, Canada

EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS

Up to 650,000 homes in northeastern US and southeastern Canada still without electricity days after deadly ice storm

Dozens of fatalities reported in the region, many caused by carbon monoxide poisoning from heating appliances.

The ice storm severely impacted a vast area in the US, from Michigan to Maine, and large parts of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada.

Toronto’s Mayor called the ice storm “one of the worst storms in Toronto history.”

The ice storm also battered New York state, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, forcing New York Governor to declare a winter ice storm emergency on Friday in four counties where more than 2 inches of ice covered the roads.

States of emergency were in effect across many towns, cities and counties during the ice storm.

Low Temperature Embarrass MN

Low Temperature in the U.S. on Thursday, December 26, 2013 was -28 degrees (-33ºC) at Embarrass, MN
(as received by 7 am EST December 26), reported NWS Weather Prediction Center.

Record Daily High and Low Temps

As of December 24, 2013 some 983 daily record high temperatures and 1,124 daily record low temperatures were broken or tied across the U.S. for the month, according to National Climatic Data Center (NCDC)  in Asheville, North Carolina.

Related Links

• Major Blackouts in U.S., Canada as Deadly Storms, Tornadoes Kill 18 December 24, 2013

“Complex” Storm System Buffeting Central and Eastern U.S.

EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS

Heavy snowfall and freezing rain forecast this weekend

A complex storm system will impact the Central and Eastern U.S. this weekend: NWS

Heavy snowfall is forecast across parts of the Midwest into the Ohio Valley and on to the Northeast, while freezing rain could impact the central Appalachians into southern New England this weekend,  said NWS.

Up to 10 inches of snow could fall on parts of the affected region, including the state of Maine, starting Saturday night.

Emergency Proclamation for Maine

Meantime, Maine Gov. Paul LePage issued an emergency proclamation on Friday waiving the U.S. Department of Transportation rules for at least two weeks and ensuring that heating fuel transport and delivery trucks could operate extra hours because of the frigid temperatures and a propane shortage throughout the region.

U.S. Weather Hazards Map (Hazmap)  for Saturday, December 14, 2013. Source: NWS.

Recent Extreme Weather Events

• Major Winter Storm Battering Southern Plains through Ohio Valley December 6, 2013
• Major Winter Storm Affecting Much of the U.S. December 5, 2013
• Massive Winter Storm Engulfs Much of Western, Central and Northern U.S. December 4, 2013
• Massive Storm System Impacting Western and Central U.S. December 3, 2013
• Nor’easter Spawned by Deadly Thanksgiving Storm November 27, 2013
• Deadly Thanksgiving Storm Moves East November 26, 2013

Crop Disaster Declared in Maine and Montana

14 Counties in Maine and Montana Declared Agricultural Disaster Areas

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated seven counties in Maine as a agricultural  disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by excessive precipitation that occurred from May 8 – September 25, 2013.

• The disaster areas in Maine are Somerset, Aroostook, Franklin, Kennebec, Penobscot, Piscataquis and Waldo counties.

Montana Disaster Designations

USDA has designated seven counties in the state of Montana as crop disaster areas due to losses caused by hail, high winds and severe storms that occurred July 8 – August 3, 2013.

• Those areas are Custer, Carter, Fallon, Garfield, Powder River, Prairie and Rosebud counties.

Crop Disaster Losses 2013

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has declared 3,858 county-level crop disaster areas across 43 states, so far this year.

The crop disasters for year 2013 include losses and damages caused by

DROUGHT
FLOOD
Flash flooding
Excessive rain, moisture, humidity
Severe Storms, thunderstorms
Ground Saturation, Standing Water
Hail
Wind, High Winds
Fire, Wildfire
Heat, Excessive heat, High temp. (incl. low humidity)
Winter Storms, Ice Storms, Snow, Blizzard
Frost, FREEZE
Hurricanes, Typhoons, Tropical Storms
Tornadoes
Volcano
Mudslides, Debris Flows, Landslides
Heavy Surf
Ice Jams
Insects
Tidal Surges
Cold, wet weather
Cool/Cold, Below-normal Temperatures
Lightning
Disease

Notes:
1. USDA trigger point for a countywide disaster declaration is 30 percent crop loss on at least one crop.

2. The total number of counties designated as agricultural disaster areas includes both primary and contiguous disaster areas.

3. The U.S. has a total of 3,143 counties and county-equivalents.

4. A number of counties have been designated crop disaster areas more than once due to multiple disasters.

5. The disaster designations were approved by USDA between January 9 and October 30, 2013.

Recent Crop Disaster Designations

• Crop Disasters

NE U.S. Blizzard, Rainstorm GOES Movies

Late winter rainstorms pummeled  NE U.S.

And the severe weather season hasn’t even begun yet!

The northeastern U.S. was pummeled by blizzards, swamped by heavy flooding, and battered by late winter storms. Two movies of the events were captured by NASA Satellite GOES-12 between February 1 and 16, and March 8 and 16, 2010.

This is a still image of the well-developed storm on March 15, 2010 at 2115 UTC (4:15 p.m. ET) the New England coast. Source: NASA GOES Project

“Following the Nor’easter ‘parade of blizzards’ in February this year, another week-long parade of storms flooded the upper Midwest and Northeastern U.S. in March,” said a NASA GOES Project official. “The merge of three storms in the Midwest was unusual, where the normal pattern is a series of spring storms carried by the prevailing westerlies (winds).”

“The movie was created by overlaying the clouds observed several times per hour by NOAA’s GOES Imager onto a true-color map previously derived from NASA’s Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land-mapping instrument. The infrared channels on GOES detect clouds day and night, which are portrayed as grey for low clouds and white for high clouds. The movie compresses nine days into two minutes. It illustrates how continental-scale land/sea/air phenomena come together to make large late winter storms.” NASA Website said.

“Heavy rains that hit the northeast cause flooding, fatalities, power outages and damages. Downed trees from rain-soaked roots toppled power lines. Outages were reported in Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Literally thousands of trees were reported felled in Connecticut and New York. Flooding forced evacuations and put roadways under water. As far north as Maine, parts of the state received more than eight inches of rain. ”

Total rainfall for the first 19 days of March:

• Boston: 7.45″
• Bridgeport, Conn: 4.02″
• Newark, NJ: 5.24″
• New York City: 4.72″
• Portland, Maine: 3.57″ of rain.

Most of that rainfall was caused by the storms.

The link to the movies: (Unfortunately, the movie were available only in one format, MP4, as of posting.)

1. GOES Movie of the Northeastern US Floods
2. GOES Blizzard movie

Note: The second movie linked to above, is a 2-minute movie compressed from GOES satellite data recorded February 1-16, 2010, capturing two blizzards which hit the Baltimore, Md. and Washington areas.

During the first two weeks of February, Washington, DC,  was put out of action by two blizzards which dumped heavy wet snow as follows:

• 5 inches fell on February 3
• 24 inches fell on February 6
• 12 inches on February 10.
• A second, back-to-back storm followed on February 16 dumping 10 inches on Philadelphia and New York, but spared Washington and Baltimor.

“These storms are called Nor’easters because the counter-clockwise circulation around a low pressure system on the Atlantic coast pushes moist sea air from the north-east into arctic air over the land. This windy mixture creates a very efficient snow-making machine from Boston to Washington. ‘The GOES movie illustrates how succeeding storms form along the Gulf coast, travel up the Atlantic coast, pause over the mid-Atlantic states, and finally slide out to sea,’ said a NASA official with GOES Project.” Source: NASA/EO website.

Related Links:

• Winter Officially Starts Today!
• Ready to Welcome Climate Refugees?
• Global Weather Chaos
• The World Is Rapidly Collapsing
• Deadly Winter Storm Paralyzes United States
• Deadly Weather in Your Area?
• US Northeast Snow Records Broken
• Humongous Snowstorm Paralyzes Eastern U.S.
• ‘Humongous’ storm spreads across the US

Ice storm paralyzes northeast US

Massive ice storm knocks out power to 1.4 million homes and businesses across seven states

Felled branches lay on Brattle Street in Worcester yesterday after the ice storm. Governor Deval Patrick declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts. (JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF). Image may be subject to copyright.

A powerful ice storm has knocked out power to 1.4 million homes and businesses across  seven states in New England, forcing the state of Maine to shut government offices.

States of emergency have been declared in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and in parts of Maine and New York state.

“This is a very, very serious situation right now,” New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch said after declaring an emergency in his state, in what the authorities described as the worst outages in 30 years.

The storm has killed at least 4 people so far and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage across northeast United States.

Are You Allowed to Live Free of Toxic Pollution?

The Right to Live Free of Toxic Pollution Must Be Made A Fundamental Human Right!

Of nearly 90,000 chemical compounds in use, the majority of which have never been tested for health effects, only a fraction are registered and of those only a handful have been banned by EPA in the last thirty years. Meanwhile, about 2,000 new chemicals are introduced each year.

See Main Entry: The Right to Live Free of Toxic Pollution

Related Links:

• Top EU court backs citizen rights in air pollution
• Initial Condition No. 6. Understand your human rights!

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EPA Sued Over GHG Pollution

The states of Massachusetts, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday for failing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks. The lawsuit came one year after the Supreme Court ruled that the agency had the power to do so.

Main Entry: 18 States Sue EPA Over GHG Pollution
Original Report: 18 states sue EPA over greenhouse gas pollution