WES SPRING BREAK WEEK: 8-12 March 2004

• Sudden high winds linked to deadly water-taxi accident -- Winds that gusted to 50 mph appeared to have contributed to the capsizing of a water-taxi in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, MD last Saturday. One person of the 22 people rescued died, while as many as three additional passengers remained missing on Sunday. [CNN]
• Ice jams causing spring flooding -- The Eastern Region of the National Weather Service reports that the combination of persistent cold weather along with below normal stream flow are creating a dangerous threat for ice-jam flooding in the northeastern United States during this year’s spring thaw. [NOAA News]
• The ocean surface could impact air quality -- A chemistry professor at the Ohio State University reported that halogen ions, or halides, residing near the ocean's surface and in droplets formed by waves may play a role in increasing ozone levels in the air. [Ohio State University Research News]
• A tough test for the Tumbleweed rover -- The Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently announced that a balloon-shaped robot called the Tumbleweed Rover recently completed a 40 mile trek across Antarctica. The rover, which rolled across the cold and dry polar plateau of Antarctica, is intended ultimately to search for water on other planets [EurekAlert!]
• Million year old ground water under the Sahara -- An international team of researchers recently dated groundwater in Egypt's Nubian Aquifer between 200,000 and one million years old. [EurekAlert!]
• Smoke chokes clouds -- Using satellite imagery from the Aqua satellite, researchers at the Goddard Space Flight Center conclude that aerosols from the heavy smoke produced by agricultural burning practices appear to cause a decrease in cloud cover, thereby suggesting a smaller amount of global cooling by aerosols than previously estimated.. [NASA GSFC]
• Changes in climate could affect amount of carbon reaching the Arctic Ocean -- Scientists from the United States and Germany used radiocarbon data to determine that most of the carbon that reaches the Arctic ocean is relatively young at present. However, the recent warming of the Arctic could affect northern peat soils, one of the largest reservoirs of organic carbon on Earth, making the carbon more susceptible to transport to the ocean by rivers. [EurekAlert!]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes-- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, to include drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Global Water News Watch -- Other water news sources can be obtained through the SAHRA Project at the University of Arizona [SAHRA Project]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• 8 March 1998...As much as 15 inches of rain fell across Coffee County in Alabama. Runoff breached an earthen levee on Beaver Dam Creek, sending a 6-ft wall of water into Elba. Four people were killed when vehicles were swept downstream. As many as 400 homes and businesses were damaged and 52 roads were either washed out or flooded. Total damage was 105 million dollars. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 9 March 1956...A whopping 367 inches of snow was measured on the ground at the Rainier Paradise Ranger Station in Washington. The snow depth was a state record and the second highest total of record for the continental U.S. (The Weather Channel)
• 9 March 1987...Gale force winds ushered arctic air into the north central U.S. Some places were 50 degrees colder than the previous day. Northeast winds, gusting to 60 mph, produced 8 to 15 ft waves on Lake Michigan causing more than a million dollars damage along the southeastern shoreline of Wisconsin. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)
• 9-13 March 1891... The Great Blizzard struck southern England and Wales with storm winds on the seas. As many as 220 people were reported dead; 65 ships foundered in the English Channel; 6000 sheep perished. Countless trees were uprooted and trains buried in snow. Up to a foot of snow and snowdrifts of 11.5 feet high were recorded at Dulwich, London, Torquay, Sidmouth and Dartmouth. (The Weather Doctor)
• 9 March 2001...The rain-swollen Tisza River reached its highest level in 100 years peaking at 7.50 m (25 feet) in the village of Zahony, Hungary. Twenty villages were evacuated and more than 30,000 individuals fled their homes due to the flooding. (The Weather Doctor)
• 11 March 2002...The National Ice Center reported that satellite images indicated that an iceberg with an area larger than the state of Delaware had calved from the Thwaites Ice Tongue, a region of snow and glacial ice extending from the Antarctic mainland into the South Amundsen Sea (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 12 March 1888... A blizzard paralyzed southeastern New York State and western New England. The storm produced 58 inches of snow at Saratoga NY, and 50 inches at Middletown CT. Record low temperatures followed the blizzard. The combination of cold and snow claimed 400 lives. New York City received 20.9 inches of snow, Albany NY reported 46.7 inches. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 12 March 1954... A blizzard raged from eastern Wyoming into the Black Hills of western South Dakota, while a severe ice storm was in progress from northeastern Nebraska to central Iowa. The ice storm isolated 153 towns in Iowa. Dust from the Great Plains caused brown snow, and hail and muddy rain over parts of Wisconsin and Michigan. (11th-13th) (The Weather Channel)
• 12 March 1967... A tremendous four-day storm raged across California. Winds of 90 mph closed mountain passes, heavy rains flooded the lowlands, and in sixty hours Squaw Valley, CA was buried under 96 inches (eight feet) of snow. (David Ludlum)
• 12 March 1988...A violent hailstorm struck Katmandu, Nepal during a soccer game at the national stadium. About 80 fans seeking shelter were trampled to death because of the stadium doors were locked. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 13 March 1907... A storm produced a record 5.22 inches of rain in 24 hours at Cincinnati OH. (12^th-13^th) (The Weather Channel)
• 13 March 1977... Baltimore MD received an inch of rain in eight minutes. (Sandra and TI Richard Sanders - 1987)
• 13-15 March 1952... The world's 5-day rainfall record was set when a tropical cyclone produced 151.73 inches rain at Cilos, Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean. The 73.62 inches that fell in a 24-hour period (15^th-16^th) set the world's 24-hour rainfall record. (Accord's Weather Calendar)
• 13 March 1993... The "Great Blizzard of '93" clobbered the eastern US and produced perhaps the largest swath of heavy snow ever recorded. Heavy snow was driven to the Gulf Coast with 3 inches falling at Mobile, AL and up to 5 inches reported in the Florida Panhandle, the greatest single snowfall in the state's history. 13 inches blanketed Birmingham, AL to set not only a new 24 hour snowfall record for any month, but also set a record for maximum snow depth, maximum snow for a single storm, and maximum snow for a single month. Tremendous snowfall amounts occurred in the Appalachians. Mount Leconte in Tennessee recorded an incredible 60 inches. Mount Mitchell in North Carolina was not far behind with 50 inches. Practically every official weather station in West Virginia set a new 24-hour record snowfall. Farther to the north, Pittsburgh, PA measured 25 inches, Albany, NY checked in with 27 inches, and Syracuse, NY was buried under 43 inches. The major population corridor from Washington, DC to Boston, MA was not spared this time as all the big cities got about a foot of snow before a changeover to rain. A rather large amount of thunderstorm activity accompanied the heavy snow. Winds to hurricane force in gusts were widespread. Boston recorded a gust to 81 mph, the highest wind gust at the location since hurricane Edna in 1954. Numerous cities in the south and mid Atlantic states recorded their lowest barometric pressure ever as the storm bottomed out at 960 millibars (28.35 inches) over Chesapeake Bay. 208 people were killed by the storm and total damage was estimated at 6 billion dollars -- the costliest extratropical storm in history. (Intellicast)
• 14 March 1944... A single storm brought a record 21.6 inches of snow to Salt Lake City UT. (The Weather Channel)
• 14 March 1960... Northern Georgia was between snowstorms. Gainesville GA received 17 inches of snow during the month, and reported at least a trace of snow on the ground 22 days in March. Snow was on roofs in Hartwell, GA from the 2nd to the 29th. (The Weather Channel)
• 15 March 1952...Over 72 (73.62) inches of rain fell on Cilaos, Reunion Island in the western Indian Ocean, the greatest global 24-hour total rainfall. (The Weather Doctor)
• 15 March 1988... More than one hundred hours of continuous snow finally came to an end at Marquette MI, during which time the city was buried under 43 inches of snow. Unseasonably cold weather prevailed in the southeastern U.S., with forty-one cities reporting record low temperatures for the date. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

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Prepared by AMS WES Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 2004, The American Meteorological Society.