3 dead as wintry weather wallops U.S.

[steven johnson]

Source: CNN

Much of the United States was braced for severe winter weather on Monday, as a major storm hit California while an unrelated first round of wintry conditions snarled morning commutes in the Midwest.

The storm hitting California Monday afternoon was expected to affect weather across the country through Wednesday.

The wintry weather, caused by a weak disturbance over the Midwest, caused the deaths of three people in weather-related traffic accidents Sunday and Monday. The first two occurred Sunday in northern California, the area first hit by the weather.

Forecasters warned that the approaching storm could cause widespread power outages through Wednesday and make travel nearly impossible in some areas. It may spread arctic air southward by midweek.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/weather/12/07/winter.storm/

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The first killer winter storm is moving through the US.

[msongs]

1. perfect storm here in so cal - light/moderate rain all day, more than an inch, no downpours. nt

[Warpy]

2. Light rain in the valley here in NM

but the sun just went down so it'll change to snow soon if it doesn't drop everything on Arizona.

The mountains here are bare. We need this desperately, so I hope Arizona doesn't hog it all.

[Tempest]

8. High winds and heavy rain in Kern County

Mountain passes are expected to be closed tonight from the snow.

[Bette Noir]

10. Perfect weather to stay inside and do my Christmas knitting.

[shanti]

13. another knitter...

:hi:

[tonysam]

3. Pile of snow in Reno, Nevada. n/t

[FirstLight]

6. got almost 2' up here at Tahoe

hey neighbor! :toast:

[tonysam]

9. It might be six inches in front of my place, but that's enough.

I hated the 2005 storm where there were several FEET of snow in Reno from I think three different storms right together.

[SpiralHawk]

4. Pile of Republicon BS here, there, everywhere

as usual...Bill Chickenhawk O'Reilly is once again leading the charge in his phony, trumped up War-Against-Christmas Divide-America and Stir-the-Shitpot Crusade.

For a guy who chickened out of serving Uncle Sam, he is sure a mighty ferocious Chickenhawk Kinky-Felafel Sex Cultural Warrior.

[WriteDown]

18. DU Adbot is that you?

:shrug:

[hedgehog]

5. With all sympathy to the families of those involved, I'm not sure

that three traffic fatalities constitute a killer storm. If a storm comes up unexpectedly with harsher than normal conditions, then the storm can be blamed. But hey, it snows in a lot of places this time of year, every year.

[Bobbieo]

7. Light rain in Yuma. Sure can use it!

[WyLoochka]

11. -8 and light snow in NW Wyoming

most of the snow is supposed go south of here but damn it's cold. The "high" today was 2 degrees.

[kestrel91316]

12. Bitter cold in Los Angeles tonight, supposed to get down to 30F, and

our famous post-storm norther is howling. Wonder what the wind chill is.....

[shanti]

14. i grew up in OC

and remember ice on the puddles in the late 60's. it's very rare for temps to get that low in so cal. it's pretty cold here in sactown tonite too!

[hayu_lol]

15. Light snow cover last night...

and morning temps predicted to be 8 degrees.

Klamath Falls OR

[kestrel91316]

16. 30F out on my balcony this AM in the San Fernando Valley. Glad there's NO WIND.

[PavePusher]

17. Storms do not "cause deaths".

Stupid people not adjusting to conditions cause deaths.

I really hate that line.

[haele]

19. Actually, storms can cause deaths -

I nearly got clipped by a 15 - 20' tree coming down on my way home from work last night on University Ave, came down right in front of me by a car-length and a half. Luckily, traffic was light enough I was able to scoot around. The trunk and back window were hit by a flying (not falling) large palm frond two blocks from the house - I drive a old Focus; if it had been a heavier Eucalyptus branch, it could have crushed the back end.
The older Eucalyptus trees and the 50+ year old Queen Palms really scared me last night; at 5:15 pm it was just dark enough all you could see were these 75 - 120' tall shapes bending and swaying as you drove by and the roads were scattered with large branches and palm fronds, and you were constantly getting "pocked" by twigs and bits of frond you couldn't see hitting your car.
Sustained wind speeds looked to be around 40mph, with 50mph gusts.

I'd say a storm like that could kill the safest driver out on the road. And your only "safe choices" as a driver from about noon to 9pm yesterday were to either hunker down at work or try to make it home and hunker down there.
I wouldn't have stayed at work anyway. Came to work today and found that the north end of the building flooded out around 5:30 pm when a roof seam went and they had lost power for a good 10 hours.

Haele

[Mojorabbit]

20. I'd like some cool weather. 83 degrees today. n/t

[beevul]

21. Zero with 25 mph winds and blowing snow...

Zero with 25 mph winds and blowing snow in Beaver City Ne.

High of 10 tomorrow, with winds.


Brrr.

[Garam_Masala]

22. Lowest temp in 12 years last night here in Vancouver, WA

I can't wait for global warming to warm my body!

[depakid]

26. Bitter cold and windy in Portland when I left on Monday- felt like Montana

27°C (81°F) here in NSW.

The cold's not so bad- it's the long, cold, dark rainy business that really takes the toll in the Northwest.

[steven johnson]

23. Heavy Snowfall, Wind Pounding Midwest, New England

In the West bitter wind chills as low as 40 below were sweeping across portions of southern Montana and biting winds were moving across Wyoming and South Dakota. By the time the storm moves off the Maine coast Thursday night, it may have affected as much as two-thirds of the country according to the national weather service. In Wisconsin, as many as a dozen tractor-trailers were stuck on interstate ramps made impassible by heavy snow where I-39, I-90 and I-94 intersect near Madison according to the state patrol.

This is going to be bad.

Text

A fierce winter storm was leaving dangerous ice, heavy snow and vicious winds in its wake as it slogged eastward Wednesday, snarling traffic and closing hundreds of schools from the Upper Midwest through New England.

More than a foot of snow was expected in parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, where the National Weather Service warned of "extremely dangerous blizzard conditions" and near whiteout driving conditions. Wind gusts of up to 50 mph could build snow drifts between 8 and 15 feet tall.

Parts of New England also girded themselves for bone-chilling wind gusts and snow accumulations of up to a foot by the end of the day.

In Wisconsin, as many as a dozen tractor-trailers were stuck on interstate ramps made impassible by heavy snow where I-39, I-90 and I-94 intersect near Madison, the State Patrol reported.




Heavy Snowfall, Wind Pounding Midwest, New England

[BreweryYardRat]

24. Guess we'll get the remains in a few days.

Florida here. 70s and foggy.

[Garam_Masala]

25. We may be in the beginning stages of another ice age

Ice age happens cyclically every 10-15 thousand years.
We are just about due for one.

[depakid]

27. Yep- those Cascade glaciers sure are expnading down the mountains at an alarming rate!

[Garam_Masala]

28. It takes upto a 1000 years for glaciation to accumulate n/t

[depakid]

29. errr...no

During the winter of 1980–1981, a new glacier appeared. Now officially named Crater Glacier, it was formerly known as the Tulutson Glacier. Shadowed by the crater walls and fed by heavy snowfall and repeated snow avalanches, it grew rapidly (14 feet (4.3 m) per year in thickness). By 2004, it covered about 0.36 square miles (0.93 km2), and was divided by the dome into a western and eastern lobe. Typically, by late summer, the glacier looks dark from rockfall from the crater walls and ash from eruptions. As of 2006, the ice had an average thickness of 300 feet (100 m) and a maximum of 650 feet (200 m), nearly as deep as the much older and larger Carbon Glacier of Mount Rainier. The ice is all post–1980, making the glacier very young geologically. However, the volume of the new glacier is about the same as all the pre–1980 glaciers combined.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_St._Helens#Crater_Glacier_and_other_new_rock_glaciers

[Garam_Masala]

30. I am not talking about some isolated glacier

The last ice age covered more than half of United States land mass.
That did not happen suddenly. It took hundreds of years to build
ice depths upto 4 miles deep.

When ice age ended due to global warming, those glaciers melted
and gave birth to the largest body of fresh water, the Great Lakes.