Tag "National Weather Service"
Midwest, Northeast Brace For ‘Deadly’ Sub-Zero Freeze
(Reuters) ― A blast of super-cold arctic air is bringing dangerous sub-zero cold to the U.S. Midwest and Northeast as the system cartwheels through the Dakotas into Chicago, Illinois, and on to New England.
By Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, Chicago will hit an astounding 20-to-25 below-zero Farhenheit, the National Weather Service said.
“This is dangerous, deadly cold,” said Richard Bann, meteorologist with the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park Maryland.
“Most of the snow will be in the Dakotas, the Twin Cities and Central Michigan, where they might get a foot or more,” Bann said.
“Upstate New York, Vermont and New Hampshire will see less than a foot.
Boston and cities in the east will get less than an inch.” “But it’s going to be cold throughout the east coast,” he said.
“Even parts of Mississippi and Alabama might see an inch or two of snow before this is over.” But Chicago will take the main brunt of the super-cold weather.
“An entire generation has gone by without experiencing this type of cold in the Chicago area.” said Mike Doll, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.
The agency’s Des Moines branch said “dangerous, life-threatening cold air” will impact Iowa from Tuesday morning through Friday morning, with wind chill values on Wednesday likely to range from minus 45 Fahrenheit to minus 55 Fahrenheit across the northern part of the state.
Delta Airlines said it would waive change fees for passengers affected by the winter weather in Chicago, Detroit and areas of the Upper Midwest.
Winds Fanning Colorado Wildfires Won’t Die Down Until Tuesday
June 11 (Reuters) – Gusting winds driving the flames of a largely uncontrolled wildfire are expected to keep fanning the blaze through an 11th day on Monday on the bone-dry hills of southwest Colorado, where more than 2,000 homes have already been evacuated.
“This is not good news for them,” said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
That’s a bad combination,” he said.
Handout .
/ Reuters More powerful wind gusts of 35-45 mph helped drive a largely unchecked wildfire north of Durango to nearly double in size from Saturday to Sunday.
While the winds were dropping on Monday to about 25 mph, Oravec said it was only modest good news.
“It’s still a fan on the fire,” Oravec said.
“The terrain is rough and inaccessible in many areas,” the report said.
The NWS has placed large portions of the so-called Four Corners region of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona under a red flag warning of extreme fire danger due to the dry conditions.
A near-record 10 million acres (4 million hectares) were burned in U.S. wildfires in 2017, the National Interagency Coordination Center said.
Weather system revamp hopes to bring sunshine to US economy
NOAA, which runs the National Weather Service, is the primary government agency that collects and analyzes weather data.
Some tech and insurance companies rely on NOAA data to develop the software for predicting crop yields or flood risks.
Even routine weather such as rain and cooler-than-average days can have an annual economic impact of as much as $485bn in the US, as it affects every economic sector, the National Center for Atmospheric Research says.
Some industries see more impact than others.
“If you look back through time and look at the improvements in our forecasting capabilities, it tracks pretty tightly with bigger, faster computers.
Every time there’s an upgrade in computing power, the models become better and more accurate and that improves the forecasting process,” he says.
The new law directs NOAA to improve forecasts ranging from two weeks to two years, which has traditionally been a benchmark for weather prediction for farmers.
To extend that, meteorologists will start including measurements such as heat stored in the oceans and soil moisture levels on land.
Weather forecasting data is still underused, Gail says, citing a study by the US Department of Transportation showing weather-related delays adds $3.4bn to freight costs annually.
Even “if you could only reduce the impact of severe weather by 5 or 10%, the economy will grow in a noticeable way.
