Blizzard of '26 Peaking This Morning; Southeast New England Hardest Hit

Satellite view this morning of the extreme nor'easter creating
the northeast blizzard. Note the eye-like feature of the
storm center, the cold front extending down through the
Bahamas and the bumpy look to the clouds in
southeast New England, which indicates very heavy snow

As expected the Blizzard of '26 raged all night and is still going strong. 

The only major change is that it made a slight jog to the south, so the northern fringes of the storm won't be as snowy as first thought. That affects us here in Vermont, but we were never going to get the brunt of this thing anyway. 

More on the Vermont forecast further down in this post. 

Southeastern New England and Long Island, New York seem to be the hardest hit places. Again, that was expected, but it's literally cold comfort to the people who live there. Or anywhere else affected by the blizzard.

As of 7:30 or so this morning, more tham 5,600 flights had been canceled today, according to FlightAware.com

Also as of 7:30 this morning, about 463,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Northeast. That number will certainly rise as the storm continues to rage. 

This is still obviously a developing story and there will be much more. But let's break what we've got so far down by regions.

New York/New Jersey/Southern Connecticut

Montauk Point in eastern Long Island reported a wind gust of 84 mph. Stony Brook, Long Island peaked at 74 mph. Many gusts in the New York, metro area and New Jersey were in the 55 to 65 mph range.

Through 7 a.m. Quague New York, on Long Island had 23.5 inches of new snow. Islip, Long Island reported 22 inches of new snow. New London, Connecticut had 17 inches and the Bronx had 15 inches 20. Central Park also reported 15 inches of snow, the most in a single storm since 17.4 inches in 2021. It was still snowing as of 7:15 a.m, so Central Park will likely go over that 2021 total

 There were many reports of 12 to 16 inches in New Jers3ey. It was still snowing at 7 a.m., so those totals will go up. 

So far, about 126,000 customers had lost power in New Jersey and 21,000 or so in New York. 

We're still awaiting word on how severe coastal flooding has been. I did see some video of water entering streets in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  I'm shore there is at the very least beach erosion on the Jersey Shore.

The snow should stay intense in this region until around mid-morning, when it should begin to tape off, west to east. The snow should move out entirely this afternoon, except maybe in central and eastern Long Island. Winds will stay strong and gusty, so the snow will keep blowing around.

Travel bans and states of emergency remain in effect today. 

New England Except Connecticut

Screen shot of WBZ-TV meteorologist Jacob Wycoff
enduring the blizzard blasting through 
Marshfield, Massachusetts this morning. 

The blizzard in southern and eastern New England was absolutely raging as of 8 a.m. today and the region has quite a few hours to go before it all ends.

Large areas of Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts had whiteout conditions. In addition to the heavy snow, wind gusts in the 50 to 65 mph range w4re common. 

As of 7:15 a.m, 20.4 inches of snow had piled up in Exeter, Rhode Island. South Kingston, Rhode Island had 19 inches. As those reports came in, the heaviest snowfall was covering almost all of Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts from about Boston south. 

Snowfall rates of three inches per hour in spots should continue through the morning. Eastern New England should have additional accumulations this afternoon. I'm sure some towns will report 30 or more inches of snow. 

Hourly weather reports from places that still had power were insane. At 8 a.m. Hyannis, Massachusetts reported heavy snow with winds gusting to 69 mph. Nantucket was gusting to 70 mph. Boston at 8 a.m. was reporting heavy snow with north winds at 38 mph gusting to 52 mph. The weather in Providence, Rhode Island was almost identical to Boston, except Providence was gusting to 63 mph .

The snow was pretty wet and heavy, especially south and east of a Boston to Providence line. What will amount to 1 to 2 feet of wet cement style snow propelled by wind gusts to near hurricane force in an area that is both fairly heavily populated and heavily forested means big trouble. 

I'm sure trees and power lines are being absolutely mowed down as I write this. Already, as of 8 a.m., 172,000 Massachusetts homes and businesses were without power and that number was noticeably rising. 

In some areas, residents have been warned that it could take day before power is restored. And while the blizzard rages, nobody can go out and start repairs. It's just too dangerous. 

Live video from Plymouth , Massachusetts showed whiteout conditions and powerful winds. The wet snow driven by those winds appear to have utility poles leaning ominously in some areas of Plymouth. There were still a surprising number of cars o the roads, though.  

On top of everything else, coastal flooding is likely from this all along the New England coast up into Maine.  

VERMONT EFFECTS

That slight jog southward in the path of this giant nor'easter is ensuring that the Green Mountain States is escaping with minor effects.

The storm is still far enough north to keep the winter storm warning going for Bennington and Rutland  counties. Even so, total snow amounts in southernmost Vermont have been cut back a little to 4 to 8 inches.

The National Weather Service have dropped winter weather advisories in Rutland and Windsor counties, as accumulations there will fall short of the 3 to 6 inches that had been predicted yesterday. tw

The rest of Vermont could still see an inch or two of snow, with little or nothing in the Champlain Valley. 

Honestly, that's OK. Most of Vermont is deep in snow, so we didn't need the disruption of a huge blizzard. I'll take today's blustery, cloudy weather with a bit of gratitude. 

The nor'easter will provide us with cold, stiff north winds gusting to 30 mph, so open areas could see a  few problems with blowing snow.

We'll really feel the cold air in the wake of the nor'easter tonight through tomorrow night with lows in the single digits and highs Tuesday barely making it to 20 if that in many areas.

A small system will probably throw a little snow at us Wednesday. Some forecasts had called for a more substantial snowfall this coming Friday, but that's definitely looking less likely. 

Nor'easter Continues Its Storm Surge And Rough Surf Slog Today

Flooding from the nor'easter in North Wildwood,
New Jersey Sunday. Photo from Chris 
Sowers via Facebook. 

 The nor'easter that has been hammering away at the East Coast was still at it this morning, battering shorelines from the Carolinas to Long Island.  

It's a long slog with such a slow-moving storm. It caused damage Sunday, and we'll do it again today. In fact, today will probably we worse, with even more extensive storm surges, flooding and serious beach erosion.

This nor'easter is truly a coastal storm. Almost all the problems it's causing is right along the shore. If you go a couple miles inland, the storm has been causing unpleasant weather to be sure, but not much damage. 

To be sure, the entire I-95 urban corridor from Virginia to New England is miserable, with soaking rains, gusty winds and chilly temperatures. Winds have gusted as high as 58 mph on Long Island.  

Up here in Vermont, the storm, such as it is, seems to be playing out as expected. See further down for Green Mountain State details.

The real problem today will continue to be the storm surges. From about North Carolina north, today's high tides will be the worst of the lot. 

In North Carolina, the storm surges might not be quite as high as Sunday's but they'll be close. The Outer Banks have been battered by huge waves for days, so even if today's tides aren't as strong as Sunday's, they have the potential to create added damage.   

We've been watching homes on the verge of collapse into the ocean and that might happen today. A green house that's been getting hit day after day lost many of its decks Sunday, and the pilings beneath the house look displaced and cracked. Other houses look just as rickety.  

In a video, the News & Observer likened the threatened homes to "terminal patients."

Streets in Jersey Shore communities like North Wildwood were under water Sunday during high tide and the water is forecast to be even deeper today.  Similar scenes hit shoreline towns in Long Island. 

In Delaware, a voluntary evacuation was underway at Bowers Beach due to the destruction from waves. Quite a bit of damage and flooding is anticipated at Delaware resorts like Rohoboth and Bethany beaches. 

The biggest threat for damage in the Northeast today is along Green South Bay Long Island and Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, where major flooding is predicted with today's high tides. 

Holiday events continue to be canceled due to the weather. New York City's 81st annual Columbus Day parade is among the cancelations. 

Southern New England is on the edge of the nor'easter's destructive, with coastal flood advisories up in Connecticut and Rhode Island, Wind warnings and advisories are in effect for Cape Cod and the Islands. 

VERMONT EFFECTS

Things are playing out pretty much as expected in the Green Mountain State today. Southern Vermont is getting a rainy, and in some places windy Monday. The rain is creeping north while weakening. 

Rainfall totals still look like they'll be somewhere near an inch down by Brattleboro. They'll taper off pretty quickly as you head north. Those of us near the Canadian border an expect only a tenth of an inch or less. 

The clouds and rain will keep temperatures down in the 50s today. 

It's going to be a cool week, as brisk north winds take hold especially between Tuesday night and Friday morning. Highs most days will be in the 50s, with maybe even some upper 40s in higher elevations north. 

We'll have to watch things on Thursday, especially north. Those areas won't get much rain. The humidity is expected to get quite low by Thursday. Gusty north winds might well create another big fire hazard. We're getting sick of that situation, but we're stuck with it until our drought eases some.

A little help might in about a week. Long range forecasts are hinting at some rain next Sunday or Monday. 

More Videos: Wildfires, Floods, Tornadoes Continue To Plague U.S.

Flooding in Omaha, Nebraska Thursday after 
severe thunderstorms swept through. 
Note the patches of hail floating in the water.

 Another week another, another period of weird, scary weather across the United States. Part of New Jersey burned in an enormous wildfire. Omaha, Nebraska, for the second time this month, endured intense thunderstorms and hail. 

And as usual for this time of year, Texas has been producing tornadoes. 

Those tornadoes on Thursday are setting the stage for what will probably be a big severe tornado and severe weather outbreak that will bubble along tonight and tomorrow, intensify some on Sunday, then really kick into high gear next Monday and Tuesday.

Here are some video highlights from our recent wild weather. 

Scenes from the New Jersey wildfire.  In terms of extreme wildfires, I swear New Jersey is the new California. They've had some nasty ones over the past six months. As always click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

The area around Omaha, Nebraska has not had a good time lately with severe storms and tornadoes. Last week, tornadoes swirled near the city, damaging and destroying houses in eastern Nebraska and Iowa. Those storms last week including that epic hailstorm in Fremont, Nebraska I posted about recently

Another round of intense storms struck Omaha Thursday, prompting tornado warnings, dumping a lot more hail, and flooding parts of the city.  Here's a video of a car being pushed down a hill be water and dumped into a hail-encrusted lake that formed  at the bottom of the hill. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that 

Earlier this month, intense flooding hit some Midwestern and southern states, including Arkansas. In this video, water tore through Spring River, Arkansas, ripping homes from their foundations and causing extreme destruction. Brian Emfinger documented the aftermath in the following stunning video. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.

This time of year, western and central Texas can be the scene of some powerful and picturesque tornadoes. This one occurred Thursday near Matador, Texas, which is northeast of Lubbock.  It looks powerful, but luckily passed over a sparsely populated area. As usual, click on this link to view the video from Texas Storm Chasers, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Wildfires That Plagued The East During Last Autumn's Drought Are Back

Large wildfire in eastern Long Island,
New York Saturday. Photo via Facebook
from Long Island Advance

The spate of brush and forest fires that harassed much of the eastern United States during last autumn's drought are back. 

Spring wildfires are more common than autumn. Dry weeds and foliage dry out in the strengthening March sun. The landscape hasn't started greening yet.  

If it gets dry and windy, fires can break out under those conditions,  

We've already had large fires in the Carolinas that started last week. At least one of them near Myrtle Beach is still burning.  At last report it was 55 percent contained and had consumed 2,000 acres after threatening several homes.

A 40-year old woman was arrested for starting that fire. Last Saturday, the woman started a fire in her fire pit near the tree line in back of her home while strong, dry winds blew. She did not have a water supply or other fire fighting tools ready when she lit the fire, authorities said. 

On Saturday, three large wildfires broke out on eastern Long island, New York, forcing the closure of major roads, forcing evacuations and damaging two commercial businesses. Two firefighters were hurt, but their injuries are said to be not that serious. 

Investigators are trying to determine if those fires were accidental or did somebody set them. Two of the fires were contained as of Sunday afternoon, and firefighters were making substantial gains on the third one. 

Several fires broke out in New Jersey in the past week, including one that threatened about 30 buildings in Hopewell Junction. A new wildfire broke out amid dry winds gusting to 40 mph on Saturday near Pennsville Township, New Jersey, just across the Delaware River from Wilmington, Delaware. 

Most of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania remained under fire weather alerts today   as the humidity remained low and gusty winds continued. No real rain is in the forecast for most of the Northeast until next Saturday night or Sunday. 

Last autumn's drought that affected the Northeast never really went away. It is still ongoing in many areas, especially in Maryland, New Jersey, southeast Pennsylvania, southeast New York and southern New England.  Those dry conditions are making the usual early spring fires that much more easy to erupt.

Believe it or not, brush and wildfire season is approaching in Vermont. True, many areas are still deep in snow, and that won't disappear immediately, despite the warm air that's in the forecast in the next several days. 

However, the snow will eventually disappear, and before we green up for spring, the dry brush from last year can easily burst into flames and spread rapidly during the type of dry, windy days we often have in April.  

Northeast Wildfires Turn Deadly, And Spread, And Screw Up Air Quality

Satellite photo from Saturday shows wildfire smoke
blowing into New York City, prompting air
quality alerts. Several wildfires are still
burning in the Northeast today. 

The brush and wildfires in the Northeast are starting to become more western style.

They're now extensive enough to cause air quality problems in some areas. They've come close to mowing down houses. And sadly, a firefighter died in while battling a large wildfire in  northern New Jersey. 

Some rain might tamp down the fires temporarily on Monday, but the precipitation does not look like a blockbuster. 

At least nine fires were burning within the broad New York City metro area. At least two wildfires started in New York City itself over the past couple of days. One of them was in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, the other in Van Cortland Park in the Bronx.

The largest fire affecting New York is the so called Jennings Creek Wildfire in and near West Milford, New Jersey. As of late yesterday, it had covered 2,000 acres and had spread into neighboring Orange County New York.

The Jennings Creek Wildfire resulted in one death, as a tree fell on a firefighter as we was trying to battle the blaze.  The fires across the Northeast are burning on land that is so dry that flames are reaching underground into tree roots, making those trees unstable and prone to toppling. 

This fire, and to a lesser extent other fires, drove smoke into New York City, prompting air quality alerts in that region on Saturday.

The wind shifted today, and smoke from that Jennings Creek Wildfire could make its way all the way up to us here in Vermont today. 

The National Weather Service office in South Burlington says some of the smoke from New Jersey will probably make its way into Vermont today.  They don't anticipate any air quality alerts, but you might notice a little haze and a little bit of a smell of smoke, especially in southern and western Vermont. 

There have been air quality problems in and around Boston as well from several fires burning in that city's western, northern and southern suburbs.

Vermont isn't immune from the fires either. A large forest fire was burning in West Brattleboro over the weekend.  The fire had spread across ten acres as of late Friday night and its as not contained, despite the efforts of numerous fire departments. 

A downed power line is believed to have started that fire. 

Today, the fire danger is regarded as very high in most of Vermont, and "merely" high in the Champlain Valley and Northeast Kingdom. Any brush fire that starts anywhere in Vermont today would spread quickly and be hard to contain. 

Forecasted rainfall, as mentioned, doesn't look all that impressive, with maybe a quarter to as much as a half inch in some areas of the Northeast this week. To extinguish the fires once and for all, the region needs a steady, long lasting, soaking rain that can get deep into the ground and moisten the earth far below the surface.

More Scattershot Snow In Vermont, And Very Snow Weirdness Elsewhere

Morning sun cuts through snow flurries Sunday morning
in St. Albans, Vermont. Snow squalls are possible in
the area this evening. 

The flurried to death weekend in Vermont continues this morning as light snow is dusting northern parts of the state.  

The morning snow is mostly the remnants of lake affect snow bands coming off of Lake Ontario. 

 It looks as if the moisture from those snow bands will keep the snow going off an on in the central and northern Green Mountains today. A couple spots up there could earn a couple bonus inches of snow today, while the valleys just get a dusting. 

The excitement comes this evening, when that speeding little storm from Canada zips by just to our north, dragging a pretty dynamic cold front through. 

Here's how it's setting up: 

It was pretty cold this morning, since we had a period of clear skies over a snow cover for  change. Burlington got below 10 degrees for the first time since January 22. Though the low of 9 degrees above was still only a little cooler than average for this time of year.

Right after dawn, especially in the Champlain Valley, south winds began to blow and that is quickly boosting temperatures that will top out close to 30 degrees. A little moisture will pool in the air too, ahead of that cold front. 

The front will produce a quick shift in the wind to the northwest. The shift helps set up converging air. When air converges, you get lift. If it's cold enough, it'll snow.

That's what's going to  happen with this cold front. Not much snow, and it will be in and out of any given spot quickly. But the clash is intense enough that we might see some dangerous snow squalls. 

If you're on the roads this evening in northern Vermont, especially after 7 p.m. be prepared for whiteouts, roads that will rapidly ice up with a quick inch or two of accumulation.

Not everyone will get a squall, but many areas could. At the moment, the timing looks like they''ll come into the International border by 8 p.m. or so and make it to Route 2 by 10 p.m. or so.

After the squalls blow through, that will be pretty much it for any snow in Vermont until Friday at the earliest.

WEIRD SNOWS 

A small storm, similar to the one that hit Vermont Thursday night, raced west to east from the Midwest to New Jersey and then off the coast Friday night and early Saturday. 

Snow Band

Most people got light snow. But a very narrow band - perhaps 10 to 15 miles wide at most extending from north of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania through central New Jersey. 

A narrow band of snow in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
dumped as much as a foot of snow in a few hours in while 
areas immediately to the north and south just 
got a couple inches. 

Up to 14 inches of snow fell in that narrow band, with as much as five inches in an hour. Areas to the immediate north and south of the snow band just got a couple inches. 

The band was so narrow that by some estimates, four inches of snow fell on north side of Allentown, Pennsylvania while the south side of that city was buried beneath a foot of fresh powder. 

It would have been interesting if the snow band cut right across New York City.

It came close, dumping half a foot or more on the southern edges of the city.  Tottenville, on the southern tip of Staten Island, reported 10 inches,  but Central Park in Manhattan reported just 2.0 inches.

The storm appeared to create a stalled, west to east weather front for a few hours. It was those converging winds again, like our expected snow squall front. In the case of this storm in Pennsylvania and New York, there was a lot more moisture to work with than Vermont has. And the front stayed put for a few hours, allowing the snow to pile up.

Denver Snow Oddity

Further west, there's an odd timing issue with this winter's snow in Denver, Colorado. So far this winter, they've had 26.4 inches of snow. Of that 23.2 inches, or 88 percent of it all, has fallen on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. 

The local joke is whatever controls the snow out there this winter is secretly a school administrator. 

Two Weird Disasters: 20 Inches Rain In Fort Lauderdale; Western Style Forest Fire In New Jersey

Almost two feet of rain in half a day around Fort Lauderdale,
Florida Wednesday caused serious flooding, as you'd imagine.

 I watched two unrelated, very different, localized but wildly extreme weather disasters unfold yesterday in the United States.  

One was just insane rains right around Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the other was a massive forest fire in New Jersey.  Let's do the flood first, then the fire. 

FORT LAUDERDALE

Rainfall was insane, to say the least. The Fort Lauderdale airport received a whopping 22.5 inches of rain in just seven hours. 

That's about a third of a normal year's rainfall in the city. Normal rainfall for the entire month of April there is about three inches.  It's possible Fort Lauderdale received more rain in half a day than the previous record for wettest entire month. 

That will have to be looked into to confirm. 

Not surprisingly, the Fort Lauderdale area was under a flash flood emergency.  Everything was flooded, including parts of the tarmac and the roads leading to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

The airport shut down and probably won't reopen until at least noon today.  Broward County schools are also closed today.  Most streets were flooded yesterday, and it will take time for the water to drain. 

While all of South Florida had rain and thunderstorms on Wednesday, intense storms stalled around Fort Lauderdale. You can see in this radar loop on a Twitter post from @weathertrackus how persistent the storms were in just one area. 

The storm was highly localized. Miami, just 30 miles away from Fort Lauderdale,  only received 2.15 inches of rain, though it was that city's third day in a row with more than two inches of rain, with a three-day total of 7.38 inches. 

As the Washington Post explained, a warm front stalled near Fort Lauderdale, causing moisture to sweep in from the Atlantic and converge over  the region. The air was as saturated as it can get. The converging winds and a general atmosphere that supported updrafts for thunderstorms resulted in the torrential rains.

Had the warm front been moving, the heavy rain would not have lasted that long in any particular spot. But since it stalled, the rain unleashed its fury on Fort Lauderdale.

Heavy rain is possible in South Florida today, but less likely than it was yesterday. 

NEW JERSEY FIRE

Extreme wildfire in New Jersey Monday and Tuesday. 

The entire Northeast has been dealing with brush fires lately due to a spell of dry, warm weather. New Jersey, especially around the Pine Barrens, is especially prone to the fires.

But a blaze near Manchester Center and Lakehurst, New Jersey this week has been off the charts. 

The fire tore through the crowns of trees in forests, something you almost never see in the East. It looked like one of those gigantic wildfires in California in recent years. 

According to CBS News:

"New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's John Cecil says this fire is among the most intense he's ever seen. 'This fire exhibited extreme fire behavior,' Cecil said. We saw a wall of fire, 200-foot flames, raining fire embers. I don't mean to be dramatic but this was a severe situation."

Hundreds of people were hastily evacuated as the fire spread. 

The great news is firefighters prevented the huge blaze from torching anybody's house and no serious injuries have so far been reported. 

At last report, the blaze consumed about 4,000 acres and was 75 percent contained. 

Near record warmth, dry air and stiff breezes continues the fire risk in New Jersey and surrounding states today. 

 

With Another Weird Tornado Outbreak Just Ended, 2023 Off To A Very Bad Twister Start

Tornado damage Monday in Norman, Oklahoma. Photo
by Ray Banner, OU Daily 

A two-day outbreak of tornadoes in the U.S. Sunday and Monday continues a fast - and destructive - preview of our annual national spring tornado season.  

Wintertime tornadoes happen virtually every year. But this winter has been much worse than usual. 

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has so far tallied 191 preliminary reports of U.S. tornadoes through this morning.  That number might go up, as local National Weather  Service offices investigating possible tornadoes Sunday and Monday in Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. 

For comparison, last year through February we only had 48 tornadoes. 

Unfortunately, we've seen eight confirmed tornado deaths so far in 2023 A ninth death will likely be confirmed soon from one of Sunday's tornadoes in Oklahoma. 

The location of some of the tornadoes has been unusual as well. Oklahoma is known for its tornadoes, but they tend to happen in the Sooner State later in the spring and early summer. On Sunday, nine tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma. The previous record high number of February tornadoes there was six. 

Some of Sunday's Oklahoma tornadoes were quite strong, too. The fatal tornado near Cheyenne, Oklahoma swept a house entirely off its foundation and shredded it into small debris. Another tornado in Norman, Oklahoma injured 12 people and caused extensive damage in parts of the city. 

In a still from a video, debris flies
in front of a motorist in McCordsville,
Indiana from a possible tornado on
Monday. Photo via Twitter from 
Todd Klaassen

Earlier this month, on February, 21, a tornado struck in New Jersey.  It was only the third February tornado on record in that state. It was also the strongest winter tornado to hit New Jersey. 

On Monday, tornadoes were reported as far north as places west of Chicago.  At least one tornado from Monday was confirmed by investigators in Ohio on Tuesday,   making it the second time that state has seen a tornado this February. 

It's interesting that Oklahoma has been so busy with tornadoes this winter. They still see a lot of tornadoes in the spring and early summer, but over the past decades, the trend has been for somewhat fewer tornadoes in the Sooner State and more further east, along and east of the Mississippi River. 

The trouble isn't finished yet.  A potentially significant tornado outbreak appears as if could easily develop in the Gulf Coast states Thursday and Friday. 

It's impossible to tell whether the real tornado season will turn out to be horrible. The number of tornadoes in the U.S. usually begins to ramp up in March, continue to increase in April, then peak in May and early June. 

 I haven't seen a strong trend regarding what happens after a lot of January and February tornadoes. Some tornadic springs follow busy tornado winters. Others do not. It's really not possible to tell for sure in advance what will happen during the business spring severe weather season.  

New Jersey Tornado Witness Is Best Interview Ever

New Jersey tornado witness 
Marilyn Anderson tells a 
reporter what happened in 
best possible way. 

 On Tuesday, a rare February tornado struck Mercer County, New Jersey of all places. And a television reporter got the best interview of her career. 

The tornado damage several apartments, homes and other structures in the area. 

This was an unusual event, being the first February tornado in New Jersey since 1999. The tornado was strong for New Jersey in any season, let alone winter, when tornadoes almost never hit that far north, 

The tornado was rated an EF-2 On the tornado strength scale, with top winds of 115 mph. The scale goes from 0 to 5. It traveled for 5.8 miles, which is on the long side for a Northeastern tornado.

 The tornado hit a populated area and caused quite a bit of damage to apartment buildings, businesses and homes in its 200-yard wide path. 

Given how busy the area hit is, and how strong the tornado was, I'm pleasantly surprised there were no injuries. 

As you would expect, local media swarmed into the tornado zone after the storm passed and began interviewing witnesses. A WABC reporter encountered a woman named Marilyn Anderson who was home with her sister when the tornado struck. 

She gave probably the best and most entertaining weather interview I've seen in ages. It's in the video at the bottom of this post. 

Please note I'm not laughing at Anderson. Not at all. I just think she's absolutely terrific. Her animated personality makes me wish I could go out for drinks with her.  A tornado had just scared the bejeezus out of her and damaged her home, yet she remained so positive and animated as she recounted her story.

I wish everybody had as much joie de vivre as Anderson.   

Here's the video. Click on this link if you don't see the image below. Otherwise, click on the image to view.  

Unprecedented Rains In Northeast From Ex-Ida, Eight Dead In Floods, Tornadoes Too

Irvington, NJ last night. 

This was nuts.

The amount of rain that poured down in parts of the Northeast from the remains of Hurricane Ida were truly off the charts. 

Central Park in New York City got 3.1 inches of rain in an hour and 4.65 in two hours. That two hour rainfall is more than normally falls in a month. 

Newark, New Jersey had 0.5 inches of rain in just SIX MINUTES. Newark also 3.24 inches in an hour and a storm total of 8.31 inches. At Brooklyn College,  1.23 inches fell in just 15 minutes. 

Inevitably, the flash flooding was intense. The National Weather Service office in New York declared its first flash flood emergencies ever.  The results of the flash flooding were tragic.  According to the Associated Press:

"Police in New York City reported seven deaths, including a 50 year old man, a 48 year old woman and two year old boy who were found unconscious and unresponsive inside a home. They were pronounced dead at the scene, police said. One death was reported in New Jersey."

That was at 8 a.m. this morning. By 11 am., the death toll had risen to 22. They're still finding bodies in this mega disaster. Eight people died in Queens, New York.  They drowned in their basement apartments.

This is beyond horrible. 

Anyway, the AP continues:

"New York's FDR Drive, a major artery on the east side of Manhattan, and the Bronx River Parkway were under water by late Wednesday evening. Subway stations and tracks became so flooded that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority suspended all service. Videos posted online showed subway riders standing on seats in cars filled with water. 

Other videos showed vehicles submerged up to their windows on major roadways in and around the city and garbage bobbing down the streets."

I also saw video on social media of waist deep water in Queens and in Park Slope, Brooklyn. There were some real "Day After Tomorrow" scenes in Manhattan last night, too. 

The scope of the flooding was immense, with countless towns and cities across New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania and the New York City area submerged.  It seems like there's videos of every city in New Jersey with deep water or white water rapids racing through their downtowns. 

Newark International Airport closed in part because water surged into Terminal B.  The Garden State Parkway was largely under water and closed last night. 

Johnstown, Pennsylvania, known for enormous floods in 1889 and 1977, had a familiar scare as a dam upstream threatened to fail, prompting evacuations.  This time, it wasn't nearly as bad as the 1889 disaster, thank goodness.

Some rivers in the Northeast are rising to major flood stage and could reach record crests.  For instance, the National Weather Service says the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia will reach a record high crest.  Already, homes and businesses along and near that river are deeply submerged.

Other rivers are still rising or just cresting this  morning, causing additional destruction.  MSNBC this morning was showing live footage of people being rescued from dozens of apartment buildings in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. Parts of Hoboken, New Jersey, Philadelphia and other cities were still badly inundated as of late this morning.  

 The torrential thunderstorms also spun off tornadoes and set off tornado warnings. At least two substantial tornadoes touched down. One was in Annapolis, Maryland, which damaged or destroyed several homes and businesses.  

Tornado damage in New Jersey 

Another larger tornado struck southern New Jersey.  It looked especially powerful on video.  Many houses were severely damaged in this twister and a few were pretty much leveled.

The storms continued on into southern New England overnight, with damaging flash floods in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. A possible tornado might have touched down on Cape Cod. 

We here in Vermont really dodged a bullet with this.  If five or six inches of rain had fallen in a couple of hours on our steep mountain slopes, there would have been incredible rushes of water and debris that would have wiped out anything in their path. It would have almost made Irene in 2011 look like a picnic.

Instead, far southern Vermont got a decent slug of rain, but nothing nearly enough to cause real flooding. Bennington and Springfield each report about 1.5 inches of rain. Northern Vermont had nothing other than high clouds and a spectacular Wednesday evening sunset.

It's really remarkable, though, that we're only half way through hurricane season and New England has already suffered damage from four tropical systems this year - Elsa, Fred, Henri and Ida. 

Yesterday's flooding and tornadoes cap a cataclysmic summer world wide, with big weather disasters and extreme temperatures and rainfall coming fast and furiously. This has all the fingerprints of climate change. 

They've been saying right along that rainfall events will become more torrential and that has come to fruition.  I noticed the governors and mayors from the Northeast who are dealing with the flooding keep bringing up climate change, so if nothing else these mega weather disasters are acting as a wakeup call. 

"Global warming is upon us and it's going to get worse and worse and worse," New York Senator Chuck Schumer just said as I listen to the news while writing this.

Maybe too little too late?

Vermont lucked out again this time, but how long will it last? True, we've had our extremes this year, with damaging flash floods earlier this summer in southern parts of the state, along with bouts of record heat all year. 

Vermont escaped the epic storm that unleashed the 
extreme floods and tornadoes further south. But clouds
from the storm led to a spectacular but slightly
scary sunset last night over St Albans, Vermont. 

These Vermont weather events and extremes this year have been more or less manageable, but when will we get our next big disaster? They seem to be hitting everywhere, and often.  

It's only a matter of when, not if, something awful will hit Vermont again, as it did 10 years ago this week with Irene's floods

In the short term, at least, the weather is going to be benign. Nothing major will happen with the weather for the next week at least in Vermont. The next hurricane, Larry, is going to be a huge one, but current forecasts indicate it will recurve harmlessly out in the open Atlantic and not hit the United States. 

But large wildfires continue to burn out west, and pockets of flash flooding will continue all week in the Southwest and a few sections of the Midwest.  

Weather has always been a challenge for humans. With climate change, the challenge is so much greater, and getting more vexing.  As if we needed more proof, last night in the Northeast added to the evidence. 

Videos.  The videos might not automatically open on mobile devices, so click on the hyperlinks that introduce each to see them. Otherwise, click on the video that click the YouTube logo for better viewing.

A newscast from New Jersey hints at the scope:

Stranded on a bus in New York City with water pouring into vehicle:

Water gushing into a subway, surging into Newark, New Jersey airport, and flooding road:

Large tornado in New Jersey. Looks like at least EF-3 damage to me:

New Jersey Wildfire Seemed Almost Like California Disaster

 A large wildfire in New Jersey of all places destroyed a couple
businesses, slightly damaged two dozen homes, critically
injured a firefighter and shut down part of the Garden
State Parkway on Sunday 

UPDATED 3/17/21:

Video added to the bottom of this post shows just how chaotic the wildfire was.

Smoke and the sound of sirens, helicopters and firefighting aircraft filled the air.  Traffic backed up as bewildered motorists encountered thick smoke, fire trucks, detours and flames.

The fire burned through a classic urban/forest interface.  One large commercial structure was entirely destroyed. 

Spot fires broke out everywhere around and in home and business landscapes.   Mulch, hay bales, fencing and other material burst into flames at Home Depot. 

Judging by the looks of things, this barely avoided becoming much worse.   There could have been hundreds of homes and businesses lost had the firefighting effort been not as robust as it was, or had winds been a little stronger, or.... Anyway, check out the video at the bottom of this post from Jersey Shore Fire Response.

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

This will sound like a headline out of California, but this is New Jersey yesterday: 

A wildfire raced through 170 acres, damaging about 30 homes and businesses amid dry conditions that threaten more fires today. The fire also closed part of the Garden State Parkway. 

All this happened Sunday around Lakewood and Brick, New Jersey.  Strong winds and very dry conditions rapidly spread the flames. 

When first reported early Sunday afternoon, it covered less than half the size of a football field. Within minutes it began roaring through dry pine forests mixed in with densely populated neighborhoods and commercial districts.

One firefighter suffered critical injuries during the battle against the blaze.

All told, though, the destruction could have been worse. As NJ.com reports:

"Brick police announced evacuations in the Brick Lake Park area and several stores and a hotel along Route 70 at about 4 p.m. At about 6:30 p.m., police alerted residents they could return to their homes. Brick Mayor John Ducey told local media that 29 homes were damaged in Brick Lake Park, three that were uninhabitable."

A commercial building was also destroyed, and another damaged. 

People near the fire who were not evacuated did something more familiar to Californians than residents of the normally soggy east: They put important papers and valuables in their cars to they could bail out quickly if the flames got too close. 

Winds gusted to 40 mph and the humidity was a very low 20 percent at the time of the fire. The fire burned through last night and was only partly contained, so it still represents a threat today. 

New Jersey is once again under a Red Flag Warning for fire danger today. Gusty winds continue, along with very dry conditions. 

Southern New Jersey had its 14th consecutive day without precipitation Monday, a new record for March.  This time of year is usually stormy and wet along the East Coast. 

The Northeast has had an especially dry and windy March so far, raising concerns about fire danger all the way through New England. Brush fires have so far this month been reported as far north as Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 

As I noted in a post yesterday, if this weather pattern continues, fire danger could definitely rise in Vermont later this month and April.

It might have already started. This afternoon, traffic was disrupted along Interstate 89 in Colchester, Vermont while crews battled a relatively small, but real brush fire along the highway. 

Video of New Jersey wildfire, from Jersey Shore Fire Response: