New Update @ 1:21 pm the barometric pressure @ LAX fell to 29.07 inches of mercury or 980.0 MB
Old Report @ 8:20 am Pacific standard time on January 21st, 2010 the barometric pressure at Los Angeles International Airport fell to 29.20inches of mercury or 988.8 MB -millibars. This breaks the previous record reading of 29.25″ or 990.6 MB. set January 17th 1988. Pressure data records at LAX date back to 1931:)
Phoenix and Tucson have also been dealing with flash flooding and the S. CA storm moves east. Heavy rain and mountain snow is expected across Arizona along with high wind gusts. Believe it or not, a blizzard warning has been posted above 7,000 ft. in SE Arizona until Friday morning on January 21st. including the higher elevations around Tucson. Also, a TORNADO WATCH has been issued until 10 pm.
@ 1:41 pm Thursday JAN 21st, 2010-National Weather Service Meteorologist detected WIDESPREAD FLASH FLOODING in Central Gila Co. in E. Central AZ and East Central Maricopa County in S. Central AZ. Flooding is expected along US HWY 60 between Apache Junction and Globe as well as Canyon Lake and Saguaro Lake. Never Drive your vehicle into areas where water is covering the roadway. Just one foot of flowing water is powerful enough to sweep vehicles off the road. Also, Agua Fria river above Rock Springs is under a flood warning until late Friday night on the 22nd. Record Flooding is forecast. Flood Stage is 16 ft./// stage at 2pm Thursday the 21st was 15.6 ft.//// Forecast is for 30.7 ft by 7am Friday/// 9.8 ft. Sat/// 7.2 ft. by Sunday
Snow on I-5/Grapevine Shuts Down & Flooding/Mudslides All Over
The strongest of a series of 4 storms this week has been pushing into Southern California Thursday January 21st, 2010. The 4th storm of the week is bringing more heavy rain Thursday, also heavy mountain snow, snow to I-5 -Grapevine, strong gusty winds and some severe thunderstorms to S. CA. Coastal Flood Warnings are in effect, High Surf Warnings, Flash Flood Warnings, Winter Storms Warnings for heavy snow in the mountains 1 to 2 more feet above 5,500ft and 6-12″ above 4,000 ft with gusty wind, Gale Warnings for the beaches, and some severe thunderstorm warnings. This is the last storm of the week. Sunnier weather is forecast for the weekend. Los Angeles on Saturday, a morning shower, then clearing 46/54/// Sunday: Mostly Sunny 44/57 /// Monday: 47/63 Partly Sunny.
Here’s a mudslide capurted on video in Southern California this week in the “burn areas”. The areas that had fires over the summer and the extreme runoff from the flash flooding this week.
Below: Southern California fire August 28th, 2009///La Canada Flintridge Station Fire 24hours compressed into 6 amazing minutes! This is one of the burn areas that are seeing mudslides!
If you have plans to fly into O’Hare Airport or Midway Airport, deicing will be needed today the 20th into Thursday the 21st. I used to work on the ramp for America West Airlines at O’Hare Yes, I wore a burgundy jump suit and had a blast driving the tugs/carts and talking to the pilots on the headsets while pushing back the plane.
Last check, the temperature was 32, the freezing mark in Chicago, with moisture moving into the city. A Freezing Rain Advisory started at 3pm and goes until 6 am on Thursday the 21st of January. Ice accumulations of around one tenth on an inch is the forecast, the evening commute will likely be slick. Be alert when driving or walking
What’s causing the Freezing Rain ? Well, high pressure will remain parked over SE Canada, this high will feed the cold low level air in on pretty strong easterly winds. Low pressure over Northern Missouri will pump in the moist air and that moisture will override the cold air at the surface producing the freezing rain event.
Since Monday the 4th of January, 2010 I have been comparing official low temperatures and high temperatures to the 4 television stations in the Seattle market. I simply look at the highs & the lows & match them with the Official Reading. Here are the weekly results.
Tuesday’s Official reading on the 19th for Seattle 48/60 .01″ of Rain//// Q-13 43/53 sun & showers -5 low -7 High= -12//// KIRO: 41/49 Breezy/sun/showers -7 low -11 high= -18 for Tuesday //// KING: 41/50 sun/showers -7 low, -10 High=-17 //// KOMO: 43/50 showers, limited sun -5 low, -10 high= -15
Wednesday’s Official reading on the 20th for Seattle 42/57 Trace of Rain///Q-13 41/49 -1 low,-8 high= -9///KIRO 39/48 -3 low, -9 high= -12 ///KING 40/49 -2 low, -8 high= -10///KOMO 43/53 -1 low,-4 high= -5
Thursday’s Official reading on the 21st for Seattle 45/56 Trace of Rain///Q-13 39/50 -6 low, -6 high= -12///KIRO 39/48 Dry -6 low, -8 high= -14 ///KING 40/48 -5 low,-8 high= -13/// KOMO 43/50 -2 low,-6 high= -8
Friday the 22nd Official Reading for Seattle 40/48 NO RAIN///Q-13 38/49 sun&showers -2 low,-1 high= -3, KIRO 38/47 Dry -2 low, -1 high= -3 ///KING 38/47 -2 low, -1 for the high= -3 /// KOMO 41/51 Dry -1 low, -3 high = -4 Saturday the 23rd Official Reading for Seattle 40/49 .09″…. I stopped at Friday because I didn’t have KING or KIRO’s Saturday Forecast
TOTALS: 3rd Week Comparison Results from Tuesday the 19th through Thursday the 22nd of Jan: 1st) KOMO -32, 2nd) Q-13 -36, 3rd) KING -43, 4th) KIRO -47
FIRST WEEK 01/04/10 1st) Q-13 with -17 points 2nd) KOMO -23, 3rd) KING, -24 4th) KIRO -26.
Areas of Southern California were placed under tornado warnings on Tuesday January 19th, 2010, including Long Beach, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Laguna Beach and San Diego.
Shortly before noon on Tuesday, rotation was indicated on radar near Catalina Island. This developed into a large mesocyclone in 15 min. to a half hour. 4 waterspouts were spotted and as the thunderstorm cell moved onshore near Long Beach there were reports of a tornado touchdown causing damage, one was in Costa Mesa and another in Sunset Beach. One very excited guy caught the roof being peeled off of a building. The video is below and pardon his french.
Radar Snap Shot with Rotation West of Long Beach-Rare S. CA Mesocyclone
More weak tornadoes are possible on Wednesday and Thursday.
Below is video of Meteorologist Dallas Raines at his best January 19th, 2010. I used to do the weather on KCBS in Los Angeles 2001-2002 before getting an bigger offer in New York City. By the way this severe weather outbreak is rare for Southern CA. Blame it on the storm track and El Nino. More severe weather is likely Wednesday and Thursday.
Below is one of the tornadoes captured on video as it weakens, even a woman in the video is questioning where it is a tornado, it was a tornado in Orange County and it was in it’s weakening phase January 19th, 2010.
Below is video and photos of the storm damage on the 19th and the storm in progress including the high surf in S. CA.
Thursday 10 AM Low off the NW Coast/Low in S. CA/Low in Gulf of Alaska
Lightning in California on Tuesday January 19th
Bert in Long Beach, CA sent this to me/ His patio is getting drenched !
As I was talking to a friend in Long Beach about a strong thunderstorm cell moving into his area, a TORNADO WARNING was issued at 12:36 pm for south central Los Angeles County including the city of LONG BEACH!
The storm cell is moving fast-NE @ 35 mph!
The TORNADO WARNING is now in effect for Huntington Beach until 1:30 pm as the cell moves fast. The TORNADO WARNING continues until 2 pm for Anaheim(Walt Disney Land), Santa Ana, Irvine, Huntington Beach, Laguna all the way to San Diego.
More strong thunderstorms with damaging winds, very heavy rainfall, lightning, hail, and isolated tornadoes or waterspouts are likely Wednesday into Thursday.
Strong 969 MB Low off the NW Coast/2nd of the week 01/18/10
Local STRONG EAST winds of 40 to 50 mph with gusts as high as 80 in and around ENUMCLAW late on the 18th and into the early morning on the 19th of January. The 2nd strong low pressure system about 250 miles off the NW Coast will move north into early Tuesday increasing the easterly surface pressure gradients across the Cascades. The strongest winds were in and around Enumclaw, but I also found stronger gusts in the Cascade foothills including strong wind reports around Snoqualmie, North Bend , Bellevue & Issaquah, also the Pacific Co. area.
A High Wind Warning was Effect until 2 am Tuesday, January 19th for the East Puget Sound Lowland/foothills and Pacific Co. including Long Beach and Raymond.
High Wind Warning SW WA/Foothills & OR Coast
At 8:57 pm on the 18th, a trained spotter 4 miles WNW of Enumclaw reported an East wind sustained at 50 mph with gusts to 80 mph. 01/18/10
The following are maximum wind speed reports from around Western Washington Sunday night the 17th of January into Monday morning:
Arlington 37 mph sustained wind with gusts to 51 mph. Bellingham 36 to 61. Boeing Field 25 to 45. Sea-Tac 25-43. Bremerton 23 to 38. Chehalis 30 to 41. East Sound 21 to 54. Everett/Paine Field 33 to 60. Friday Harbor 35 to 53. Hoquiam 37 to 62. McChord AFB 35 to 51. Olympia 37 to 55. Quillayute 29 to 61. Shelton 20 to 49. Whidbey Island 40 to 63. Anacortes gusts to 54. Lopez Village 36 to 57. Crystal Mtn. 71 to 113. Hurricane Ridge in the Olympics 68 to 127. Mt. Baker 45 to 65 miles per hour. Alki Point -West Seattle 44 to 59. Destruction Island 64 sustained with gusts to 70 mph.
The worst of the wind was between 11pm on the 17th until the early morning on the 18th. Here are some of the late night reports.
Sea-Tac S 24 G36 @ 5am, McChord AFB S 35 G 48(4am), Everett S 29 G 43(4am)(3am gusts to 56)(6am G40), Fort Lewis SE 25 G 40, Bellingham SE 22 G 43(Gusts to 38 at 6 am), Friday Harbor SE 30 G 47(gusts to 51 at 6 am), Whidbey Island NAS SE 23 G 46(gusts to 58 at 2 am), Forks S 29 G 61 mph, Hoquiam S 30 G 51(gusts to 60 at 3am), Arlington gusts over 50, Olympia has seen a gust to 54 mph
Winter Storm Warning Ventura Co./Los Angeles Co. Mountains except Santa Monica Range
A very powerful west to east Jet Stream (150-200 mph) will allow a series of powerful Winter storms and each one will bring periods of Heavy Mountain Snow/Heavy Rain & Thunderstorms to the lowlands and High Winds in areas the week starting January 18th, 2010.
1st storm-mainly Monday had some gusts in the mtns. as high as 75 mph. The snow is not expected to affect the I-5 corridor with the first storm, it is important to note that strong winds and heavy rain will still create dangerous driving conditions. Strong thunderstorms are likely again with hail, strong wind gusts, and isolated weak tornadoes or waterspouts on Wednesday & Thursday. Long Beach, Huntington Beach and Santa Ana had a tornado warning as a thunderstorm cell with strong rotation moved overhead from 1 to 2 pm on the 19th. A waterspout was sighted at 1:02 pm moving NE toward the coast at 30 miles per hour. The TORNADO WARNING continued until 2 pm for Anaheim(Walt Disney Land), Santa Ana, Irvine and Huntington Beach.
Another STRONG storm system will affect the forecast area Wednesday and Thursday, January 21st. The snow level was between 6,500 & 7,000 ft. on Monday and then lowered to 5,000 ft. Monday night the 18th. A WINTER STORM WARNING was in effect from 6 am Monday until Tuesday evening on January 19th above 6,000 ft. and included the cities of Acton, Mount Wilson, Sandberg, Lockwood Valley & Mount Pinos. More heavy snow showers and damaging winds will be likely Wednesday afternoon and evening into Thursday and Thursday night. 2 to 4 feet of snow above 6,000 ft. is likely and the snow level on Thursday will likely drop to 4,000 ft. in places. Don’t forget to carry chains, blankets and water/food while traveling in these conditions. Wind will likely be out of the S and SW 35 to 50 mph with Gusts to 75 mph.
Flash Flood Watch continues for the recent burn(Station & Morris Burn areas) in Southern CA. Monday’s storm brought up to 2″ of rain to the coasts and valleys and 2-5″ to the mountains where the snow level was 7,000 ft. Tuesday’s storm had heavy rain and up to 2″ again with isolated tornadoes. More is expected Wednesday and Thursday.
3 storms will likely bring a total of 4-8″ of rain in coastal and valley areas and 8-16″ in the foothills with local amounts over 20″ in the mountains. This will likely be the wettest week since early 2005 for S. CA. Mountain snow could add up to several feet per storm. Snow level lowers to between 5,000 and 6,000 ft. for storm 2 (Tuesday) and 3 (Wednesday-Thursday).
A HIGH Surf Advisory starts at 6am Tuesday to 3 am Friday for large groups of swell that will start arriving at the beaches by Tuesday morning. Dangerous Rip Currents will form and moderate to extensive beach erosion is likely with minor coastal flooding and possible damage to some piers. 1st group will be a long period 15 sec. west swell @ 10 ft. 2nd group will be 17 sec. 15 ft. and 3rd group will have maximum sets to 22 ft. on Thursday. The 4th and largest will be a 17 sec. foot west swell with max sets to 25 ft. on Friday. Even the most experienced swimmers should stay out of the water during this extreme weather event.
Yes, I wore a burgundy jump suit and had a blast driving the tugs/carts and talking to the pilots on the headsets while pushing back the plane.
