NATIONAL STORM SUMMARY

 

FEBRUARY 1017

 

1-4: A system approaching the West caused rain and snow. Precipitation was mainly light in the Northwest.  Heavy precipitation fell across California.  Amounts were near a tenth of an inch to almost 2 inches.

 

5-11: A weather system in the West caused heavy precipitation across to the West Coast on Monday. Amounts ranged from a hundredth of an inch at NFG to 1.59 inches at SBP. Amounts were over 2 inches in Oregon. Heavy precipitation fell across the South with amounts from a trace to over an inch. Light snow fell across New England.

 

At least seven confirmed tornadoes hit southeast Louisiana Tuesday, causing major damage as a wave of severe thunderstorms swept through the region. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said at a news conference at least seven confirmed tornadoes touched down in the state, including two in Livingston Parish, and one in six other parishes. He declared a state of emergency in the wake of the storms.  Edwards said while there was a wide range of destruction, "the Lord has blessed us with not a single fatality at this time." There are at least 20 people reported injured statewide, according to Edwards.  New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the city suffered "a terrible blow," and that the tornado that struck the east side of the city traveled around two miles and affected a half-mile swath of land.  "I want to think we've been through many things together, and we will get through this together with prayers," he told reporters. The large tornado in New Orleans touched down northeast of downtown along Interstate 10 and Chef Menteur Highway, Fox 8 reported. Over 15,000 customers are without power in several areas of the city and surrounding area, according to Fox 8. Laci Blondell, the school director at Schaumburg Elementary School in New Orleans told Fox News even though the building sustained some damage, all the students were safe. "Luckily because of an amazing staff that we have and all the practice procedures that we've had previous to today," she said. "All of our students are accounted for and safe as well as our staff members. And it was truly truly a blessing to have everybody." James Thomas, a resident of Eastern New Orleans, told the Associated Press his his whole neighborhood shows storm damage, but his house escaped the tornado.  "It's bad. I've never seen it this bad," he said. "As far as I can see, treetops are off, power lines down."  Thomas said he saw the twister coming, grabbed his motorcycle helmet and ran into his bathroom. The room then went pitch-black, he heard hail on the window, and came outside afterward to see a damage trail or about 20 to 40 feet from his house. NASA said in a series of tweets the tornado in Eastern New Orleans impacted the Michoud Facility, but only minor injuries were reported and personnel are being accounted for. Yoshekia Brown, who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, lost everything again on Tuesday when three-quarters of her home in New Orleans East collapsed in the storm. Brown told the AP she was at work when she got a weather alert on her phone, looked at a weather map and realized it was affecting her neighborhood. She then drove home to check when her brother called to say, "Sister, your house is gone." "I lived in between two blighted properties. One of those would have been gone before my house," Brown said. "It wasn't real until I walked up. I can see into my living room. I can see into my front bedroom. It's just gone. Like the movie Twister." Her 2-year-old son and three dogs survived the storm, and her home was insured. Brown said she's not sure what to do next, but "something good has to come from this." Tornado watches covered large parts of Louisiana and Mississippi and the line of severe storms prompted multiple tornado warnings. At least seven homes were damaged in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, located northwest of New Orleans, according to Deputy Emergency Management Director Brandi Janes. "Two of them are completely gone... all the way to the ground," she told the AP. Janes said she knows of two injuries in the parish, both minor, but didn't immediately have any information on whether the homes that were destroyed were occupied when the storm struck. The tornadoes are part of storm system moving across the Deep South that lit up radar monitors and prompting multiple tornado warnings from Louisiana to Alabama as the system brought hail, high winds and twisters to the New Orleans area. One of the warnings described a "large, extremely dangerous and potentially deadly" twister south of Hammond, Louisiana. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters President Trump plans to contact officials in the hardest-hit areas. The National Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said 2.7 million people in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama would be at the highest risk of severe weather on Tuesday. Fox News' Willie Inman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A weather system in the West on Wednesday and brought precipitation to the region.  Amounts ranged from two hundreds of an inch to .87 of an inch. The East was unsettled with rain and storms to the south and snow to the south.  The heaviest precipitation fell across the South with amounts from fourteen hundreds of an inch to almost 2 inches.

 

A deep surface low caused heavy snow across the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast on Thursday with near or blizzard conditions. In addition to the heavy snow, the rapidly deepening surface low was causing Strong winds across much of the eastern Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast regions, with gusts in excess of 30 miles per hour, especially along the coast. Amounts ranged from 2 inches at Rochester Vermont to 18 inches at Ludlow Massachusetts.  At least one person is dead and snow emergencies have been declared in two major Northeast metro areas as Winter Storm Niko brings blizzard conditions and rapid accumulation to the region.  Officials in Boston declared snow emergency Wednesday.  Philadelphia authorities also declared an emergency Wednesday, but it was lifted Thursday afternoon. New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio is urging city residents not to venture out into the streets if at all possible. Governors in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are also urging people to stay off the roads, the Associated Press reports, to keep them clear for plows and emergency vehicles. In New Jersey, State Police officials told the AP that troopers have responded to 300 crashes and 350 calls to assist motorists since midnight. The speed has been reduced to 35 mph Thursday along the 122-mile length of the New Jersey Turnpike.

 

A warm front lifting north caused light snow across the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic caused light snow. A system moving into the West caused heavy precipitation along parts of the West Coast. About where as high as 3.28 inches at Emigrant Gap, Ca.  and 3.15 inches at Truckee, Ca.

 

12-18:  An intense low off the Northeast Coast caused heavy snow in the Northeast.  Heavy snow fell across New York State and New England on Monday, closing schools and government offices, snarling roads and canceling flights. The storm brought blizzard conditions across eastern Maine, with strong winds, heavy snow and visibility reduced to one-eighth of a mile in some areas. The Maine Department of Transportation was forced to pull its plows off the roads in portions of the state early Monday afternoon. "We are urging all citizens to stay off roads unless absolutely necessary," the Maine State Police said. "The roads are treacherous and visibility is reduced down to only a couple hundred yards at best." The deepest snowfall totals by state as reported to the National Weather Service included: Amounts were 10-17 inches in New Hampshire, 4-20 inches in New York, 7-17 inches in Vermont and up to 26 inches in Cary, Maine.

 

A weather system moving into the West caused heavy precipitation on Friday. At least one person was killed by a strong Pacific storm in Sherman Oaks around noon according to the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Associated Press. A tree was pushed onto power lines, which snapped and electrocuted a 55-year-old man. The patient was transported to the hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival. Reports of mudslides and power outages were widespread along the California coast, where inches of rain were expected to cause major travel problems. Four people were injured in Salinas' Chinatown Friday afternoon after strong winds brought down a tree, KION-TV reported. The extent of those injuries was not immediately known. In Los Angeles, 16 college students were evacuated from an apartment complex near UCLA after a large tree fell on the building. No one was injured in the incident, according to The Los Angeles Times. Mudslides became a major concern Friday afternoon, and along U.S. Route 101, one such slide closed the northbound lanes of the mud-covered freeway north of Ventura, according to the California Highway Patrol. Another mudslide closed Highway 154 at Painted Cave and Gibraltar. The city of Duarte, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles, ordered the evacuation of more than 200 homes below a burn scar by 7 a.m. Friday, according to the Associated Press. In several areas across the state, burn scars from recent wildfires left the land unstable, and residents were asked to move away from those locations as the rain arrived. Voluntary evacuation orders were issued for parts of Camarillo Springs, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Office of Emergency Services. The Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department issued an evacuation warning for the greater Sherpa fire burn area. The County Office of Emergency Management issued also issued an evacuation warning for parts of Solvang west of Santa Barbara. More than 50,000 Southern California Edison customers were without power at 2 p.m. PST Friday afternoon. Several crashes were reported in the San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties and power outages have been reported in Cayucos, Santa Margarita, San Luis Obispo, Arroyo Grande, Nipomo, Santa Maria, Orcutt, Vandenberg Village, Los Alamos, and Buellton, according to KSBY.com. Powerful winds brought down trees crushed cars at Morro Bay High School and forced rangers to evacuate campers at Morro Bay State Park. Students were put on lockdown at the high school after several trees fell on campus, crushing two cars and the school’s solar panels. Precipitation amounts were moderate across California bit precipitation over an inch were observed across Washington and Oregon.

 

19-28: Downpours swelled creeks and rivers Monday in Northern California, threatening to cause even more flooding in the already soggy region. In the San Joaquin Valley, residents were patrolling levees for signs of danger, reviewing evacuation plans and filling hundreds of sand bags after the San Joaquin River kept rising. "Our community is pulling together like real champs," said San Joaquin River Club resident Paula Martin, who is helping coordinate emergency plans for the private neighborhood of 800 homes. Martin said the neighborhood has sirens in a clubhouse and church that can warn residents of impending flooding.

The National Weather Service issued flood, snow and wind advisories, including a flash flood warning for the Soberanes burn area in Monterey County. Winds could reach 60 mph in the San Francisco Bay Area. Santa Cruz County had seen 2.8 inches of rain in 24 hours and could see up to 8 inches before the storm passes Tuesday. Marin County got 2.3 inches of rain while close to an inch fell in San Francisco. Forecasters said rainfall in San Francisco has already surpassed the normal annual amount for the wet season that begins in October.

The city has logged 24.50 inches of rain since Oct. 1, said National Weather Service forecaster Bob Benjamin. The average rainfall for the year ending Sept. 30 is 23.65 inches.

The San Joaquin River was approaching the top of levees and could remain at that level for four days, said Tim Daly, a spokesman with the San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services.  Elsewhere, high water was receding in the farm community of Maxwell, about 70 miles north of Sacramento, where dozens of people sought higher ground Friday after creeks topped their banks and inundated houses. "We're not seeing anything like we did the other day," said Colusa County Assistant Sheriff Jim Saso. About 60 miles east, the water level also kept falling at Oroville Dam, where a damaged spillway had raised major flood concerns and prompted the evacuation of 188,000 people a week ago. An upper low and surface low pressure caused rain and storms along the gulf coast.

 

Jim G. Munley, jr.
http://www.jimmunleywx.com