(Holy shit) Incredible North Atlantic Storm Spans Atlantic Ocean From US to Europe

[WilliamPitt]

Incredible North Atlantic Storm Spans Atlantic Ocean, Coast to Coast
By Jason Samenow
The Washington Post

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a storm this big before.

The storm shown here stretches west to east from Newfoundland to Portugal. Its southern tail (cold front) extends into the Caribbean and the north side of its comma head touches southern Greenland.

Not only is it big, but it’s also super intense – comparable to many category 3 hurricanes. The storm’s central pressure, as analyzed by the Ocean Prediction Center, is 953 mb. Estimated peak wave heights are around 25-30 feet.

The rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/03/28/incredible-storm-spans-atlantic-ocean-coast-to-coast/?tid=pm_pop

Learn to swim.

[RKP5637]

1. Toto, this is a BFD! n/t

[ewagner]

2. Whoa...

That's affecting a lot of people on this tiny blue dot....

[leveymg]

3. , we're truly f-cked if this is now the new normal, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

[AverageJoe90]

24. Probably not, despite the hysterical cries of the doomsayers.

[Hissyspit]

33. Thank you for your expertise.

[AverageJoe90]

34. Lulz. xD

[leveymg]

40. Tell that to the good people of Staten Island. They'll tell you about hysterical.

[lunatica]

49. So what do you think is the new normal?

The way I see it we've done practically zilch about mitigating the problem of what we dump into the atmosphere and therefore we keep doing it. There won't be a new normal, other than weather that gets more and more intense as time goes on. The problem is that even if this isn't something we will see all the time NOW, it will be at some point in the future because the causes that intensified climate activity are not being addressed.

Theoretically we could not only see these kinds of storms as normal some day, but the weather will, in fact get even worse. Hopefully we can do something to stop that progression at some point before our planet turns into something like Venus.

[AverageJoe90]

53. Yes, we do need to address the issue, but no, this planet is NOT going to turn into Venus........

*Sigh*. And frankly, I'm not sure how repeating the "Venus Syndrome" theory is helping people wake up, either. in fact, all stuff like that has done, is caused people to stick their heads in the sand, on top of being unprovable.

[lunatica]

54. You don't know any more about this than anyone else does

What do you think will happen when all the frozen and trapped methane is in the atmosphere? It's a good bet that what the worse thing that could happen will happen.

You don't have any more of a clue than the rest of us.

[AverageJoe90]

55. Yes, I do. Because it's not possible. Period.

There plenty of reasons why this could not happen on Earth as we know it(at least not with global warming)?

1.)Firstly, Venus's atmosphere is approximately 96% carbon dioxide. Earth's, by comparison, is about .03% percent....that's a difference of many thousands of times' magnitude.

2.)Part of the reason for this, is because of volcanism that is many, many times greater than on Earth, and a far weaker carbon cycle.

3.)Also, look at the paleoclimate data. Even when Earth became some 12*C+ warmer than it is today during the Paleocene era, no runaway warming took place, nor at the end of the last Ice Age, when temperatures jumped 10*C in just a century(something that won't be repeated today, due to special conditions at the time). That alone, should tell you something.

I'll admit I'm not exactly talented when it comes to explanations of things, usually, unless I have loads of material in front of me, and I'm sorry if it's not to your satisfaction, but these are all important things to keep in mind.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. And there was almost a world record high pressure over Greenland, just last week

(I assume it didn't get the record, because I can only find this WP article saying it 'threatens' the record in a forecast).

One more remarkable aspect of this major league block: observations over Greenland are threatening to break the worldwide record for highest barometric pressure of 1083.3 mb, set on Dec. 31, 1968 in Siberia. NCEP’s Ocean Prediction Center analyzed the surface map (from Tuesday night) below, which features a high pressure center of at least 1074 mb over Greenland.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/03/21/record-blocking-patterns-fueling-extreme-washington-d-c-march-weather/

[lapislzi]

18. What does that mean?

How does that affect world weather in the short and long term? Not being snarky; I really don't know much about global meteorology.

Edited to add: I can't know everything! Too much pressure (see what I did there) for this Jeopardy champion #humblebrag

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. To be honest, I can't say what it means at all

It may have meant a particularly large area of stable weather over the north Atlantic; it may have meant stronger winds in some are between it and a neighbouring low pressure area. It may not have meant much at all, short or long term. But it is a measurement used in meteorology, and that an all-time world record was nearly broken, in an area of particular interest (because of melting ice), seems worth noting, in passing at least.

[southernyankeebelle]

31. You sound like you know a lot more than me. When I look at the picture all I see is

clouds and more clouds. Looks like marshmallows to me. I don't understand any of it.

[tavalon]

32. Look at the swirl

A swirl of that magnitude means very strong winds - hurricane force and pretty organized. I've also never seen a "hurricane" that big before. I would hope that would mean the power is dispersed more lightly throughout, but I think it's probably the opposite.

[Sunlei]

48. I believe that Greenland is actually a cluster of Islands bridged by fast rotting ice

[muriel_volestrangler]

50. It's one island, though the centre of its bedrock is currently below sea level

See http://nsidc.org/data/atlas/news/bedrock_elevation.html . However, that's with a couple of kilometres of ice above it, pressing down; if the ice melted, there would be isostatic rebound, which would be enough to get that central depression back above sea level.

Actually, if you look at the NSIDC page, you'll see 'a cluster of islands' is a good description of West Antarctica (anything grey in the picture is bedrock below sea level). If it all melted, it's quite possible that the land on the left of that picture - which is the Antarctic Peninsula (which points towards South America) and West Antarctica (south of the Pacific) would be cut off from the larger landmass of East Antarctica.

[Sunlei]

52. Thanks that is a very cool map link! wonder how much larger each springs floods will be?

population lives so close to the major runoff areas.

[jollyreaper2112]

5. looking for additional coverage

Can't find any. What are they calling it?

[Katashi_itto]

6. Should call it "Thanatos" Destroyer of Worlds.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Perhaps only USA storms are named?

Which is still a dumb idea.....

NPR covering it...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/03/29/175675125/top-stories-huge-atlantic-storm-ncaa-basketball-upsets-harry-potter-actor-dies

[caraher]

30. Only by the Weather Channel

Those names are not official, they're a Weather Channel gimmick. Only hurricanes/tropical storms etc. get names that have any generally-recognized standing

[MindPilot]

8. Odd that a storm that big would not generate headlines on weather.com or accuweather, or weatherbug.

The only source seems to be this WaPo blog. Me thinks 'tis BS.

[unapatriciated]

10. It did, but most of the news coverage was in January, here are just a few covering it.

So you are wrong about it being BS.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=north+atlantic+storm+2013&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#q=north+atlantic+storm+2013&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&ei=IJlVUd_9E8fk4APc4YHQBQ

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. If the same area of low pressure has hung around for 2 months, that would be big news

It would be far bigger news than anything else in this thread. And it's not the same, as we can see by examining some weather in February:

Late on February 7, 2013, the low pressure area that would eventually develop into the February 2013 Nor'easter had a minimum pressure of 1008 mbar (hPa; 29.71 inHg), and was located over northern Florida, while moving northeastward.[28] At the same time, another low pressure area with a minimum pressure of 1011 mbar (hPa; 29.86 inHg) was located over northeast Illinois, moving to the east over the Great Lakes region, producing several inches of snow in the Great Lakes and in Canada.[29] Between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. EST on February 7, the northern low had merged with a secondary low in the same area, and had intensified to 1009 mbar (hPa; 29.80 inHg)[30] By 7:00 a.m. the next day, the southern low had moved over North Carolina and was rapidly intensifying. It contained a large area of precipitation that produced heavy, flooding rainfall across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states, and extended into New England.[31] The southern system moved to the north-northeast, and was offshore New Jersey by 4:00 p.m. on February 8.[32] The two systems merged off the Northeast coast between 4:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. EST on February 8,[33] resulting in heavy snow for much of New England, particularly in southern and eastern New England.

On the afternoon of February 9, as the storm was departing New England and moving toward Nova Scotia, the structure of the extratropical storm on satellite imagery resembled that of a tropical cyclone with a well-defined eye-like feature while located east of Cape Cod.[34]

The cyclonic eye dissipated on the morning of February 10, while the nor'easter was moving out to sea. Later, the nor'easter passed just south of Greenland. During the next several days, the system continued moving eastwards toward the British Isles while weakening, and eventually left the GOES-East satellite covered region. The nor'easter reorganized while it was south of Iceland, and affected the UK and the Republic of Ireland from February 15 to 18.[35] After affecting the UK, the storm became indistinguishable, while turning northeastwards. Late on February 20, the remnants of the February 2013 Nor'easter were absorbed by a more powerful extratropical cyclone to the north.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2013_nor%27easter

North Atlantic weather systems generally cross it from west to east in a couple of weeks, while drifting north, like that one. The one from late January will not the one there now.

[tosh]

21. Here's somehing:

http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/Atl_tab.shtml

From that page, this graphic is impressive:

[Tommy_Carcetti]

9. Looks like something from that movie "The Day After Tommorrow" nt

[MNBrewer]

43. That's what I thought!

[jollyreaper2112]

11. named storms

Only tropical cyclones are named in the Atlantic and Pacific. The Weather Channel started naming winter storms. There's no official policy to name something like this.

The question is whether it will make landfall. Sort of like the Russian meteor, it's so significant only because it occurred over a populated area. While science buffs would be just as happy to know about it impacting in the middle of the ocean, the average person wouldn't know or care. If this storm blows itself out far to sea, nobody but the scientists will have paid attention.

[olddots]

12. CNN does a day on Ballon Boy and this gets little coverage

guess nature and science are too high brow for MSM news

[malaise]

13. Freaking wow!

We've had some serious rain in the North-East - at least one bridge collapsed and people were stranded overnight

[UnrepentantLiberal]

41. Where?

[malaise]

42. in the Buff Bay area of Portland

Jamaica

[UnrepentantLiberal]

45. Sweet.

[In_The_Wind]

14. Holy Crap!

[Botany]

15. High pressure systems in the North Atlantic where we used to have ice packs over land and ...

.... water is changing the planet's weather to a new normal.

Hurricane Sandy, the early spring blizzards and serve cold in the midwest and the east,
and now this super storm.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014434657

[subterranean]

16. You mean North America to Europe.

I don't see where it reaches the U.S., unless you count Guantanamo. Nevertheless, an impressive storm! Even scarier are those giant spikes protruding into the Atlantic and North Africa!!

[Myrina]

17. Looks like one of the ones from 'Day After Tomorrow' ...

[ReRe]

19. I just turned over to TWC a couple minutes ago...

Last edited Fri Mar 29, 2013, 12:02 PM - Edit history (1)

...they were in the middle of a discussion about CLIMATE CHANGE. Commercials now. (11:15am EST). Will hold until the damn commercials have run their course and see if TWC tells about this. I have TWC on this computer, but will have to reboot to get it back up.
It's 11:25am now. Going to reboot and see what I can see on TWC radar...

Edit at Noon, EST: I can't see a thing on my TWC radar. Still haven't heard anything on TV weather channel.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

20. Wish me luck I'm about to fly through all that

I wonder will they cancel the flight?

[BumRushDaShow]

22. Sandy was almost like that

And it had a pressure as low as 940 mb.

[onenote]

23. There's a reason this isn't particularly big news. And why the sky isn't falling.

To quote from Jason Samenow's report on the storm:

"The storm is forecast to remain more or less stationary over the next few days before substantially weakening and then eventually drifting into western Europe in about a week as a rather ordinary weather system."

[AverageJoe90]

25. Yeah, maybe. Still looks pretty impressive, though. =)

[onenote]

28. No doubt its impressive looking.

My point simply made in response to those that are wondering why the media is covering this as a big story. Its because its not a particularly big story in terms of its impact here in the US or even overseas. And making it out to be a big story would only create confusion.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. But, but, but climate change is a liberal ploy!!!!

[David Zephyr]

35. Not again!

Good grief, William. I had no idea. Please keep this old guy posted.

[undeterred]

36. Wasn't George Clooney in this one about 10 years ago?

And his fishing boat went down?

[Sunlei]

37. cool! looks to me like a warm hypertonic solution demonstrating osmotic pressure- planet size

wonder how warm the sea has to get to generate 100 foot waves? another 2 or 3 degrees?

[hunter]

38. Wherever Earth's soon-to-be "Great White Spot" settles, I hope it's not over me.

Living under a year-round hurricane would suck.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Jupiter

[AverageJoe90]

56. Relax, Hunter, that isn't going to happen. Earth isn't Jupiter, you know. n/t

[winter is coming]

39. Damn! Glad I'm not flying to Europe! n/t

[Bolo Boffin]

44. 94% of all global warming is in the oceans.

http://www.livescience.com/28248-deep-ocean-warming.html

I'd always heard the warmer the water, the more energy available to the storms building on top of them.

But Al Gore is so very fat...

[MzShellG]

46. Looks like the storms from The Day After Tomorrow. nt

[TroubleMan]

47. I wonder if that's bigger than Super Typhoon Tip.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Tip

[Coyotl]

51. lots of air movement this time of year

http://hint.fm/wind/