A CAPITAL WINTER WONDERLAND -- After leaving up to nearly 18 inches of snow across the upper Midwest, a potent snowstorm took aim on the Middle Atlantic states, resulting in a snowbound nation's capital on Tuesday . The storm's low pressure center moved eastward from a position over Missouri on Monday night. By Tuesday night, the storm system had undergone an occlusion process, whereby the cold front initially trailing the primary low pressure center catches the warm front to form an occluded front. Near the end of the occluded front a secondary low pressure center forms. In this particular case, the primary low pressure center was located in West Virginia while the secondary low center was located off the Grand Banks of North Carolina, where intensification may result. A large area of snow was still falling from the Delmarva Peninsula northward and westward into Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Ohio. A variety of winter storm watches and warnings remained in effect across the region.
Some impressive snowfall totals were reported from southern Minnesota and west central Iowa into central Illinois. Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN received a daily record snowfall of 12.5 inches on Monday, with a liquid equivalent of 0.94 inches, also a daily precipitation record. The Twin Cities had a two-day storm total of approximately 16 inches. On Monday, Kearney, NE had 4.0 inches of snow, setting a new daily snowfall record. Other cities, such as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Pittsburgh also received between 5 and 7 of snow.
Snow began falling over Washington, DC on Tuesday morning. By late afternoon, the Washington, DC metropolitan area had between eight and ten inches of snow. Schools and businesses were closed early and traffic was snarled. Because the city rarely sees such snow accumulations, the number of snow-clearing equipment is somewhat limited.
With the snow, afternoon high temperatures across the Middle Atlantic states were some 15 to 25 degrees below the average high temperatures for the date.
The storm system is expected to be situated off the Carolina coast on Wednesday morning. Except for some lingering snowshowers, most of the precipitation should have ended over the Middle Atlantic states.
SEVERE WEATHER MOVES ACROSS THE SOUTHEAST -- Another aspect of the snow-producing storm system that moved across the Gulf Coast states was the severe thunderstorms. These thunderstorms developed as a part of a squall line that traveled eastward ahead of the advancing cold front. By early Tuesday morning, several tornadoes were reported across the southern portions of Mississippi and Alabama, into western portions of the Florida Panhandle. Large hail fell and damaging thunderstorm winds that reached speeds of at least 60 mph also caused damage across these states during the early morning hours.
With the passage of the cold front off the coast on Tuesday, the threat of severe weather diminished across the South.
On Tuesday afternoon, Beaumont, TX reached a record high temperature of 81 degrees for the date.
A FOLLOW-UP STORM? -- A weak storm system was passing across the Rocky Mountains late Tuesday night. The low pressure center in Wyoming. Light snow fell over of the higher elevations of Montana, Wyoming and Utah On Wednesday morning, an area of light snow is forecast to spread eastward across the high Plains of South Dakota and Nebraska ahead of the storm system that was becoming organized along the east slopes of the Rockies. While this storm system would closely parallel the system that produced the heavy snow across the Midwest and the Middle Atlantic States several days before, sufficient moisture may not be available for producing a duplicate storm within a week.
ANOTHER STORM REACHES THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST -- A low pressure system situated over British Columbia's Vancouver Island on Tuesday night was to spread precipitation inland on Wednesday morning. Rain was expected for coastal regions from Washington State south to northern California, while snow was expected at the higher elevations of the Cascades and the Sierras.
Between one and two feet of new snow accumulation was reported across the Sierras as of early Tuesday.
To the south, frost advisories have been posted for Tuesday night to include portions of the Salinas and neighboring valleys of central California.
TEMPERATURE EXTREMES ACROSS THE LOWER 48 -- On Tuesday, the lowest temperature reported in the continental U.S. was 23 degrees below zero at Saranac Lake, NY, while Tuesday's high was 90 degrees at McAllen, TX.
ALASKAN WEATHER -- A large ridge of high pressure centered over the Chukotsk Peninsula was expanding into northwest and western Alaska. Much of interior Alaska cleared, with the exception of the Tanana Valley, where clouds and light snow lingered. A storm system moving eastward along the Aleutians spread clouds and some light precipitation, especially as snow, to the Aleutians, Pribilofs and the Alaska Peninsula. Another low pressure system situated over the northern Gulf of Alaska brought clouds and snow to coastal regions from Prince William Sound and the north Gulf coast to the southeastern coast. Windy conditions were found at Tin City in northwest Alaska, where north winds gusting to 41 mph produced blowing snow. Cape Romanzof in southwest Alaska had gusts to 40 mph, Valdez in south central Alaska experienced gusts to 40 mph and Juneau in the southeast Panhandle had gusts to 37 mph.
On late Monday evening, the temperature at Valdez fell to a record low of 12 degrees.
The lowest overnight temperature in the state on Tuesday morning was 51 degrees below zero at Nuiqsut Airport, and the highest temperature during midafternoon was 41 degrees at Annette.
HAWAIIAN WEATHER -- A large ridge of high pressure located to the northeast of Hawaii on Tuesday helped produce easterly trade winds that ranged between 10 to 25 mph. The high should also continue to provide the islands with pleasant trade wind weather with relatively cloud-free conditions except in the windward slopes were clouds and afternoon showers should develop. Ocean swells from the northwest reached the north shores of Hawaii, resulting in 8 to 12 foot waves along the north shores of Oahu and Kauai on Wednesday. As a result, high surf advisories were posted on Tuesday for the north and west shores of the islands.
From the files of the Aviation Weather Center, Kansas City, MO and Intellicast
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Prepared by Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
© Copyright, 1999, The American Meteorological Society.