Deadly Snowstorms: States of Emergency Declared in Bulgaria

States of Emergency Declared in Nine Bulgarian Municipalities after Deadly Snowstorms

Hundreds of towns in southern Bulgaria remain without electricity following massive snowstorms, said a report.

States of emergency were declared in the municipalities of Smolyan, Kardzhali, Haskovo, Laki, Pazardzhik, Rakitovo, Plovdiv, Sarnitsa and Velingrad, the local media reported.

Up to 2 meters of snow blocked roads, downed power lines and forced hundreds schools to close, leaving tens of communities remain cut off from the rest of the country, said the report.

At least five people were reported dead as a result of the mammoth snowfalls, including a “65-year-old man was found frozen to death,” and three snowboarders killed by an avalanche in Pirin mountain on Sunday, “as the country continued to grapple with huge snowfalls that have massively disrupted power supplies and caused travel chaos in parts of the country.”

“The situation also remained serious in the Kurdzhali region, mainly in Ardino and Kirkovo, with the latter having seen nearly four meters of snowfall.”

A powerful storm with hurricane-force winds brought the snow to the Balkan Peninsula, and surrounding regions, producing hurricane-force winds over the Adriatic Sea, which lasted more than 48 hours.

The storm severity affected southern Italy, Croatia and Serbia, with blizzards, as well as flooding, and landslides.

Italian village breaks snow records with a dump of more than 256.5cm in 18 hours

A small village in southern Italy became the  snowiest places in the world after it received more than 2.56 meters (101 inches) of snow in less than 24 hours.

An intense storm left Capracotta buried under a deep blanket of snow, forcing the residents to climb out of their first-floor windows, or dig tunnels from their front doors.

The village may have set a new world record for most snow in 24 hours, shattering the previous high of 193cm (75.8 inches) held by Silver Lake, Colorado, USA.

“In Colorado, they had two meters of snow in 24 hours, but here it took just 16 hours for that amount to fall,” said the mayor of the village [population: ~1,400.]

The neighboring village of Pescopennataro received more than 240cm of the powdery precipitation.

High winds created blizzard conditions with snow drifts up to four meters deep in several places.
Other towns and villages in the southern Italian region of Molise were also affected, including Campobasso, Pescocostanzo, Pescopennataro and Vastogirardi.

States of Emergency Declared in SC, NC

North and South Carolina proclaim states of emergency as severe winter storm approaches

Governors in North and South Carolina have declared states of emergency as a severe winter storm approaches.

Gov. Haley proclaimed a State of Emergency for 31 counties in the Upstate, Pee Dee and Midlands of South Carolina.

Gov. McCrory also proclaimed a State Of Emergency for the entire state late Wednesday.
McCrory activated the State Emergency Response Team for the second time in two weeks.
“We are preparing for as much as eight inches of snow across the majority of the state,” he said. “We are anticipating the worst.”

Meantime, the local media reported more than 2,000 crashes on icy roads, throughout the state.

“Between midnight and noon, State Highway Patrol troopers responded to approximately 700 calls for service; of those, 400 were collisions. Yesterday, troopers responded to nearly 3,000 calls for service including 2,300 vehicle crashes. The Highway Patrol typically responds to approximately 1,000 calls in a 24-hour period,” said a report.

States of Emergency Declared in Alabama and Georgia
State of Emergency were proclaimed in Alabama and Georgia as the exceptionally severe weather approached Tuesday.

• Louisiana Declares State of Emergency amid Severe Weather Warning

10th Day of State of Emergency in Tennessee

• States of Emergency Declared in Tennessee and Virginia

Salt Shortage in Ohio

Meantime, Ohio reported major salt shortages in many parts of the Buckeye State.

Record Snow in Boston

Boston has shattered several snowfall records, so far, including snowiest February and snowiest month ever. The total amount of snow measured  at Logan International Airport is now 101.8 inches for the season, said The National Weather Service (NWS), which makes the winter the second snowiest on record, so far, less than 6 inches behind the all-time record of 107.6 inches set  during the 1995-96 winter.
[The city has also smashed the record for most sub-freezing days ever recorded in February.]

Historic Cold Causes at lest 74 Fatalities

At least 74 deaths have been attributed to the historic cold and record snowfalls, which have also caused major travel disruptions, and forced schools, businesses and government offices to close repeatedly across most of the U.S.

Lowest Minimum Temp (Daily Records)

Between 1 and 24 February, at least 1,883 new record low temperatures have been set across the United States, and 314 other records tied, said National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).

NWS has issued the following forecast

… a fresh batch of Arctic air surges through the central U.S

A fresh batch of Arctic air will continue to plunge through the central U.S. as another strong surface high slides down from Canada. A cold front at the leading edge of the frigid airmass will trigger light snow showers while it presses from the Middle Mississippi Valley to the central Appalachians. Flow into the terrain should force some upslope snow along the Rockies…and weak impulses aloft should help enhance amounts over the central to southern Rockies and adjacent High Plains.

Boston Breaks More Snow Records

Record 72 inches of snow on Boston over 30 days, record 42.2 inches for February

A record 72 inches of snow on Boston over 30 days has paralyzed “The Walking City,” causing massive commuting delays and forcing the head of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to resign.

Boston has also set a new record of 42.2 inches for total snowfall in February, with more than two weeks left to end of the month.

Meantime, a new storm system is forecast to dump as much as two additional feet of snow on parts of New England.

Earlier today, the National Weather Service (NWS) issued the following forecast, warning of  “highly amplified weather pattern across the United States.” And an intense nor’easter bringing heavy snow and blizzard to eastern New England by early Sunday is forecast to produce “brutal subzero wind chills,” with the effective temperature falling to as low as minus 35 degrees in places.

Dangerous wind chills will continue Friday across much of the Northeast, into central Appalachians

[…] low pressure systems dropping southward out of Canada towards the East Coast… will then undergo what meteorologists call Miller-B type cyclogenesis near the New England coast, and this occurs when a low pressure system approaching from the west transfers its energy to a coastal low that rapidly intensifies and deepens.

The storm system will be followed by a “truly arctic airmass,” producing the coldest weather of the season, for parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S. this weekend, said NWS. 

Record Snowfall Buries New England

Boston breaks snow record

Boston sets a record for the most snow in 30 days with 61.6 inches, breaking the previous record of 58.8 inches, which fell during and after the 1978 Blizzard.

As of Monday p.m., a total of 76.5 inches of snow had fallen at Logan Airport, where snow is officially measured, so far this winter.

The latest snowstorm, which has killed at least one person in Massachusetts, forced the closure of schools, businesses and  cancellations of hundreds of flights , so far this week.

Massachusetts Governor Baker issued a statewide snow emergency Sunday evening, urging employers to close businesses and non-essential employees to stay home.

Gov. Baker Declares State of Emergency for Mass.

Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency Monday evening “for the Commonwealth to pursue mutual aid initiatives with other states.”  He also announced state office closures for non-emergency personnel who live or work in Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk or Suffolk counties, according to the State’s website.

“Three storms in two weeks have dropped historic amounts of snow on the Commonwealth, complicating cleanup and snow removal efforts, despite round the clock shifts,” said Baker.

“The state of emergency shall remain in effect until notice is given in the Governor’s judgment that it is no longer necessary,” said a statement issued by the state officials.

MBTA Closure – Tuesday, February 10th, 2015: The MBTA has announced all subway, trolley and commuter rail services will be suspended to allow maintenance crews to clear snow and ice from tracks, the third rail and switches. Bus services will be available on an extremely limited basis and customers will not be able to make transfers at customary intermodal points due to suspended rail services.

 

Hard Freeze Kills Crops in Wyoming, Montana

RAPID CLIMATE CHANGE
EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS
EARLY HARD FREEZE
CROP DISASTERS
SCENARIOS  666, 560, 477, 444, 177, 170, 111, 02
.

Early hard freeze destroys crops across 12 counties in Western U.S.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated  a total of 12 counties in two states—Wyoming ant Montana—as crop disaster areas due to damages and losses caused by an early hard freeze that occurred from Sept. 10 through Sept. 12, 2014.

The disaster designation are as follows;

• Wyoming.  Big Horn, Park, Fremont, Hot Springs, Johnson, Sheridan, Teton and Washakie counties.
• Montana. Big Horn, Carbon, Gallatin and Park counties.

Crop Disasters 2014

Beginning January 10, 2014 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least 2,891 counties across 44 states.

Those states are

• Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan. Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, 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 above disaster lists include both primary and contiguous disaster designations.

iii. Some 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 December 17, 2014.

Latest/ Recent Crop Disaster Declarations

• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in Eight U.S. States December 11, 2014
• Crop Disasters Declared for 7 New York Counties December 11, 2014
• Federal Disasters
• Drought
• Agricultural Disasters [Index]

 

Crop Disasters Declared for 7 New York Counties

DISASTERS CAUSED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS
RECORD SNOWFALL
FLOODING
HIGH WINDS
CROP DISASTERS
SCENARIOS  887, 560, 477, 444, 177, 111, 063, 027, 025, 023, 02
.

Record snow, freeze, flooding and high winds destroy crops in NY

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has designated seven Western New York counties as crop disaster areas, due to losses caused by record snow, freeze, flooding and high winds that occurred November 17-24.

The crop disasters declaration is for Genesee, Erie, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming counties.

Crop Disasters 2014

Beginning January 10, 2014 USDA has declared crop disasters in at least 2,775 counties across 41 states.

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. Some 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 December 10, 2014.

Latest/ Recent Crop Disaster Declarations

• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in Five States November 27, 2014
• Drought Destroys Crops in Five States November 21, 201
• Drought Destroys Crops in Georgia, Florida October 17, 2014
• Crop Disasters Declared in Five States October 10, 2014
• Multiple Crop Disasters Declared in New England October 4, 2014
• 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]

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
.

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

Nor’easter Pummels the U-S East Coast

Powerful snow storm triggers blizzard conditions in parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut

The third snowstorm in 3 weeks brought strong winds, heavy snow, claps of thunder and blizzard conditions to the U-S East Coast.

Fifty-seven centimeter (22.5 inches) of snow in Hartford, Connecticut, set a new one-day record. As of January 12, 2011, all but two of the U.S. states had snow cover.

U-S Snow Cover

Continental U.S. Snow Cover Map. As of January 12, 2011, Florida was the only state without snow cover.  Image source:  NOHRSC

Continental US Snow Depth Chart. Image source:  NOHRSC. Click image to enlarge.

January 12, 2011
Area Covered By Snow: 70.9%
Area Covered Last Month: 35.1%
Snow Depth
Average: 6.9 in
Minimum: 0.0 in
Maximum: 895.5 in (2,274.4cm)
Std. Dev.: 11.3 in
Snow Water Equivalent
Average: 1.4 in
Minimum: 0.0 in
Maximum: 435.1 in (1,105.1cm)
Std. Dev.: 3.0 in

Snowstorm along the U.S. East Coast

Fifty-seven centimeter (22.5 inches) of snow in Hartford, Connecticut, set a new one-day record. “The storm began developing late on January 11, as a snow-making system that had hit the Southeastern U.S. rode up the Atlantic seaboard and merged with another system crossing from the Midwest.”  The natural-color image above was captured by MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite at 10 am EST on January 12, as the storm center passed over southern New England. Click image to enlarge. Download larger image (6 MB, JPEG)

A rare view of snow across the southern U-S

A rare view of snow across the southern United States! A snow system moved across the United States between January 9 and January 11 prompting the governors in 6 southern states to declare states of emergencies. MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the above image on January 12, 2011. Click image to enlarge. Download larger image (9 MB, JPEG)

Forty-nine U-S states had snow cover

Source: NOAA

• U.S. Snow Cover on January 11, 2011 – High Res Version

Snow Cover Animations:

• Snow Water Equivalent: Season — Two weeks — One Day
• Snow Depth: Season — Two weeks — One Day
• Average Snowpack Temp: Season — Two weeks — One Day
  
• SWE Change: Season — Two weeks — One Day
• Snow Precipitation: Season — Two weeks — One Day
• Snow Melt: Season — Two weeks — One Day
• Blowing Snow Sublimation: Season — Two weeks — One Day
  
• Surface Sublimation: Season — Two weeks — One Day
• Non-Snow Precipitation: Season — Two weeks — One Day

Click Below for 31 Day Animations

• Northern Hemisphere
• United States and Canada
• Alaska
• Europe/Asia

Related Links:

• U-S Snowstorm Headlines
• Global Climate Extremes INTENSIFYING
• Deadly Snowstorms Hit North America

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

US Northeast Snow Records Broken

2010 Year One of the Extremes?

In Winter Officially Starts Today! posted on December 20, 2009, Fire-Earth Warned ‘The Heaviest Blanket of Snow in 100 Years Covered Most of the Northeast US Yesterday’ would be

A Dry Run for Climate Chaos Heading Our Way

So far the Moderators’ prediction has proved 100 percent correct!

As the federal offices in the capital remained shut for a fourth day, public transport reduced by up to 95 percent of the services in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, on Thursday, and as thousands of flights canceled throughout the Northeast and many highways closed, due to blizzard conditions, new snow records were set in the area.

• The National Weather Service (NWS) reported that Wednesday’s blizzard had set a new record of 110cm (54.9 inches) in Washington breaking the capital’s 110-year-old record (54.5 inches set in 1898-99).
• Baltimore broke its all-time seasonal record with 183cm (72 inches).
• Philadelphia’s 2009-10 snowfall record of 179cm (70.5 inches) has so far surpassed its previous all-time record of the 65.5-inch total set in 1995-96  winter.

Meanwhile Maryland Governor Martin O’Mally declared a state of emergency, keeping government offices closed in the state.

FIRE-EARTH Forecast for the rest of 2010 (assuming there would be an end to the winter):

Expect soaring temperatures throughout North America and most of Europe. Prepare for primordial, swampy weather!

And this is just Year One for the weather extremes caused by climatic chaos that is heading our way!

• For a weather briefing by NWS click here.
  

Related Links:

• Snow covers 70 pct of the U.S.
• 6 feet of snow blankets the Alps
• 2010 Disaster Calender – January
• The Storms Attack on California
• California: Powerful new storm sails ashore
• Transitory Impact of AO is the ‘Good News’
• December Snowstorm Only a Cat 3 on NESIS Scale
• United Kingdom of Ice
• State of Emergency in Oklahoma, S. Dakota, Texas
• ‘Humongous’ storm spreads across the US
• You Don’t Bring A Gun To A Snowball Fight!
• Winter Officially Starts Today!
• Deadly Winter Storm Paralyzes United States