"Chaser Convergence" Is A Rising Tornado Death Risk

Tornado beginning to develop near Blue Rapids, Kansas on
May 18.  Hundreds of storm chasers converged on this twister.
Photo via Facebook, Live Storm Chasers

 On May 18, a huge supercell thunderstorm sent a tornado stabbing into the ground east of Blue Rapids, Kansas, population about 900. 

Beneath those roiling clouds, a convoy whose members might well have matched the population of the town gathered in roughly 500 vehicles on narrow rural roads, hoping for a glimpse, a photo or a video of the tornado. 

The tornado turned out to be relatively brief and harmless. 

It's called "chaser convergence," and it's dangerous. Converging air masses help produce tornadic storms. The chasers, in turn, converge on the tornadoes.

 Storm chasing has boomed louder than the thunder that supercells produce. Many of the storm chasers are experience and responsible. They know how tornadoes behave and what the safe distance is. They follow the rules of the road. 

Others...not so much.

"As I'm sitting on the highway, it was a continuous line of cars going east for 30 minutes. I mean it was crazy," said Blue Rapids Police Chief Ryan Woodyard. 

 That's a recipe for disaster. 

"There is a chance that there cold be, you know, a line of cars stuck in a traffic jam and that a tornado side swipes them can easily take out dozens of chasers and kill multiple, multiple people at one time," Darin Brunin, a local storm chaser told television station KSNT.   

Per Yahoo News:

"Storm chasers not only have to worry about tornadoes, but also other drivers. Storm chasers report driving is one of the greatest hazards of the job, while law enforcement said managing traffic  a become even harder for small towns with limited resources."

Storm chasers do die when chasing tornadoes, or heading home from or heading to or from the chasers. Four storm chasers died in two separate accidents during the 2022 tornado season. 

Some chasers near Blue Rapids were not obeying traffic laws. If emergency vehicles were needed, chances are they wouldn't be able to get through. The day the tornado touched down east of Blue Rapids, other storms threatened different parts of Kansas on May 18. By one estimation, there were 7,000 tornado hunters roaming the flat plains of the state. 

Commissioners in Marshall County, which includes Blue Rapids. are calling for some type of action  regarding uncoordinated storm chasers. The commissioners agree that chasers can provide life saving information for the public and initiate search and rescue since they are often on the scene before first responders get there. 

Chaser convergence isn't only a problem in Marshall County, Kansas, of course. Anytime there is a well-forecasted tornado outbreak, throngs of chasers are on the scene. 

There doesn't seem to be any calls to ban or seriously regulate storm chasers. But that day might come if there are more tragedies involving the chasers. 

 

Another Deadly Spate Of Tornadoes In Midwest

Large tornado in Kankakee, Illinois yesterday. The same
supercell that produced this twister created additional
ones in Indiana, leading to two deaths. Photo via
Facebook, Storm Chaser Adam Lucio

 Less than a week after deadly tornadoes struck Michigan, more dangerous twisters swept through Illinois and Indiana last night, killing at least two people. 

The worst of it was in Kankakee County in Illinois and adjacent areas of Indiana. Two people have been confirmed dead in Lake Village, Indiana, where several other people were seriously hurt. 

As ABC 7 in Chicago reported, Lake City Fire Department Chief Rob Churchill said:"Total devastation, there were houses that were collapsed. There werre people trapped in  houses. There is livestock loose. Pretty much anything that you have seen before on newscast and on videos

He said the tornado trampled through 3.5 miles of town. Four firefighters and their own homes badly damaged. 

In Kankakee County, Illinois, nobody was killed by the tornado but nine were injured. Drone video from Kankakee showed houses completely leveled and trees turned into poles, completely stripped of any branches. 

The supercell also created havoc outside the path of the tornado. People in Kankakee said the hail was as big as their hands. One photo taken in the area showed a five to six inch diameter hailstone, which might end up establishing a record for largest hailstone on record for the state of Illinois.

Elsewhere, torrents of rain and hail hit parts of Michigan. In Grand Rapids. the hail fell so heavily that it clogged storm drains, leading to flooding.  Video showed vehicles in water at least up to the windows, with clumps of hail floating on the water. 

Other video from Grand Rapids show large piles of hail left over after being washed down hills. 

Oklahoma City and surrounding towns were under a tornado warning last evening. It's unclear if any tornadoes touched down, but there was wind damage in the metro area. 

Overall, there were 23 reports of tornadoes across the Plains and Midwest on Tuesday. 

The Washington Post is reporting that one reason for the rough start of the 2026 tornado season ins a marine heat wave in the Gulf of Mexico.

Water there has become much warmer than normal. Because the water is so warm, humid southerly winds coming off the Gulf carry more heat and moisture than they usually do. Heat and humidity are key ingredients for a tornado outbreak.

If any of the ingredients are stronger than usual, the severe storms and tornadoes can also become stronger.  

The bad weather had moved east by today. This afternoon, tornado watches are in effect for parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, and in eastern Texas and western Louisiana. 

After that, severe weather looks like it will become more subdues. There is a threat of some strong storms and maybe a few tornadoes in the South Sunday, but that's about it for the next week or so. 

The warmer Gulf waters, brought on by climate change,  have probably in recent years increased the severity of some severe weather outbreaks. That water has also worsened some hurricanes. 

At Least Eight Dead In Tornado Outbreak, More Severe Weather Due

Enormous tornado seen shredding a 
neighborhood on Friday across still
partly frozen Union Lake in 
Michigan Friday. 

Tornado season in the United States is off to an early and tragic start. 

So far, at least eight deaths have been reported in tornadoes over the past two days that struck from Texas to Michigan.

As mentioned in an earlier post, a woman and her daughter died in tornado in Oklahoma on Thursday night. 

On Friday, powerful tornadoes unexpectedly struck southern Michigan, killing four people. It was the deadliest day for tornadoes in Michigan since 1980.

Social media has been full of images of a huge tornado chewing up houses in Union City, where three people died. Another tornado hit Three Rivers, where it shredded commercial buildings and houses.  .

Videos are at the bottom of this post.  

Although the forecast indicated there was a small possibility of a  brief, weak tornado in southern Michigan, nobody expected anything like this. This will likely be the earliest on record that twisters of that strength have been seen in Michigan.

Normally, Michigan gets about 13 tornadoes a year, and on average gets just one per year in March.  The only comparable March tornado I can think of off hand was an EF-3 in Dexter, Michigan on March 15, 2012, which destroyed about a dozen homes. 

The Washington Post explains it well:

"The afternoon tornado was particularly striking because it passed over several frozen lakes, including Union Lake. And it did so in an area that may not have been expecting it - the National Weather Service forecast Michigan to have a marginal (1 out of 5) severe weather risk. Only weak, low-end tornadoes were considered plausible, and the main focus of potentially damaging tornadoes on Friday was on the Plains and mid-Mississippi Valley."

Those area were indeed hit later on Friday.  More on that coming up. 

 One persistent supercell thunderstorm swept across southern Michigan, but it's unclear whether that storm produced one tornado with a long path or several tornadoes in succession. The storm formed near a warm front working its way northward. As WaPo noted, meteorologists advise that we should never trust warm fronts in the spring. They often bring unpleasant surprises. 

The first spot that suffered extensive damage was Three Rivers, Michigan, population 7,900.  Video shows the twister crashing into Menard's which issort of the Midwest version of Home Depot or Lowe's 

With shoppers and employees inside, the roof flew off, one end of the store collapsed and much of the front entrance was torn away, Cars were thrown around the parking lot, Amazingly, nobody at Menard's, or anywhere else in town for that matter were seriously injured. 

A still from a video showing a tornado tearing the roof
off of a Menard's in Three Rivers, Michigan, 

One lucky person was the guy unwisely videoing the tornado chaos outside the window of the retail store he was in Despite a giant flock of debris crashing into the store, the window the man was up against did not break. 

Judging from photos of the damage, this tornado might have been an EF-3

As the supercell continued on northeastward, the tornado either continued on northeastward or lifted temporarily before reaching Union City. The tornado that hit this town appeared to be much bigger and likely more powerful than whatever hit Three Rivers

Video showed the tornado roaring through a neighborhood on the north edge of mostly frozen Union Lake. This is where those three people died. A fourth person died elsewhere in southern Michigan, presumably from the tornado.   The broad, wedged shaped tornado could be seen flinging houses and trees into the air.

OKLAHOMA AGAIN

The action shifted back to Oklahoma and surrounding areas toward evening, the part of the nation that was forecast to be at risk for strong tornadoes  

It was the second day in a row tornadoes took the lives of Oklahomans. I mentioned the mother and daughter who died Thursday night in that twister northwest of Oklahoma City. 

Friday night's storms focused in eastern Oklahoma, especially near Tulsa. Two people died when a large tornado mowed through the tiny city of Beggs, south of Tulsa. That tornado wrecked homes and badly damaged a school .

Another tornado caused damage on the north side of Tulsa. 

It's not unheard of to have a tornado outbreak this early in the season, but it's on the rare side, especially considering now widespread the tornadoes and the threat of twisters is with this one. 

So far, we've seen 31 reports of tornadoes since Friday.

It's possible more tornadoes could touch down today somewhere in a band from northeast Texas to western New York. The most likely place for tornadoes are western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, where a tornado watch is in effect this afternoon. 

Another outbreak of severe weather and possible tornadoes seems like this coming Tuesday and Wednesday in the Plains and Midwest. 

VIDEOS

The Union City, Michigan tornado, as seen from across Union Lake. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on that:

A guy in Three Rivers video'd the tornado as it approached the business he was in. He's damn lucky the window didn't shatter when the wave of debris and high winds hits. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 

 

Hurricane Melissa Now Tied For Strongest Atlantic Hurricane On Record

Satellite view of Hurricane Melissa just before it hit
Jamaica in October. A National Hurricane Center 
review, issued today, indicates Melissa tied for 
the strongest hurricane on record in
the Atlantic basin. 

When we were reporting on Hurricane Melissa trashing Jamaica  back in October, we described it as one of the strongest Atlantic Ocean hurricanes on record. 

Since then, the National Hurricane Center has taken a deep dive into the mechanics and existence of that powerful hurricane. On Thursday, they announced their analysis shows Hurricane Melissa is actually tied with a 1980 hurricane as the strongest on record for the Atlantic.

Hurricane Melissa killed 95 people, including 45 Jamaicans and 43 Haitians.  

When the hurricane was raging, its highest winds were estimated at 185 mph, putting it in the top six list of strongest Atlantic hurricanes.

But a National Hurricane Center post-storm analysis, released Thursday, shows the hurricane actually had top sustained winds of 190 mph not long before landfall. Winds did "diminish" to 185 mph when it came ashore in Jamaica, but I'm sure nobody there noticed the difference the the screaming roar of the beastly storm. 

The only hurricane known to be as strong as Melissa in the Atlantic was Hurricane Allen in 1980. That storm reached its top strength in the the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Allen caused 220 deaths in Haiti due mostly to flooding.  The hurricane weakened rapidly as it made landfall near Brownsville, Texas. 

As it hit the coastline of Jamaica, Hurricane Melissa's sustained winds of 185 put it in a three way tie for strongest winds in a hurricane at landfall. The others were Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas in 2018 and a deadly hurricane in South Florida back in 1935.

Not surprisingly, the winds caused immense damage in the part of Jamaica hit by the strongest winds. According to the National Hurricane Center's report:

"Extreme winds destroyed virtually all wooden structures, stripped roofs from most building and even causes severe damage to concrete construction. Vegetation suffered extreme damage not only near the coast, but in mountainous areas across the entirety of western Jamaica as the eyewall passed over the island. Trees in that area were completely defoliated, and in several locations the force of the wind was sufficient to strip bark from trunks and scour paint from walls and buildings."

 Another measure of a hurricane's strength is how low the barometric pressure gets in the core of the storm. Melissa's air pressure in the eye got as low as 26.34 inches or 892 millibars. That ties with the 1935 hurricane as the lowest pressure in an Atlantic hurricane as it was making landfall. . 

The National Hurricane Center's final report also notes the incredible amount of lightning in Melissa's eyewall.  The eyes wall is the circle of intense winds and rain surrounding a hurricanes. The eye walls in most hurricanes usually have little or no lightning. Melissa had a ton of it, at one point showing 600 flashes per 30 minutes. 

Wind sensors in Jamaica were few and far between and most of those failed in Melissa's high winds. A school in Jamaica did record a gust to 131 mph. 

As is the case with most hurricanes, Melissa dumped incredible amounts of rain. Up to 35 inches fell in southern Haiti, 32 inches across the interior highlands of Jamaica and 27 inches in southwestern Dominican Republic. 

Melissa appears to be part of a disturbing trend in Atlanta Ocean hurricanes. The overall number of them doesn't seem to be increasing, but the number of Category 5 storms - the strongest of the bunch -seems to be increasing. 

In 2025, only five hurricanes formed in the Atlantic Ocean, but four of them were major, with sustained winds of at least 111 mph. Three of them were powerful Category 5 storms with sustained winds of at least 157 mph. 

Warm ocean water is jet fuel for hurricanes, and the water temperature where hurricanes usually develop has been getting hotter and hotter, thanks to climate change. If the conditions are right, these ultra-warm waters have an easier time developing extra strong hurricanes. 

One study found that climate change increased the strength of all 11 Atlantic hurricanes that formed in 2024.

It's really looking like a warming world will make hurricane season more terrifying that it has ever been before.  

Blizzard Update: More Snow, Power Outages Linger, Damage Assessments Begin

Satellite views of the Blizzard of '78 and the Blizzard of 
26 look eerily similar. The Blizzard of '78 was
more destructive because it brought storm surges
through four high tide cycles. This week's
blizzard caused coastal flooding through one
high tide. However, snowfall was greater this
time compared to 1978 

It was snowing again this morning in the areas hardest hit earlier this week in the Blizzard of 26. It's not much snow, but it's adding insult to injury as people continue to dig out. 

More than three feet of snow fell in some areas.

The death toll from the storm is still being assessed. Many winter storm deaths come in the days after the snow has stopped falling. 

That's when people have heart attacks shoveling snow, die from carbon monoxide as snow blocks vents and exhaust systems.  There's also car crashes on icy roads and accidents during storm clean ujp. 

So far, six deaths have been reported just on hard-hit Long Island, New York. Five people died on the island from heart attacks as they were shoving the deep snow

A sixth person was  found deceased beneath mounts of snow in Deer Park, Long Island. A worker hired to shovel snow at the complex for residents age 55 of over found the body. The cause of death has not been determined, but police said it's not suspicious. 

In Rhode Island,  a college student was found dead in a running car Monday evening. Snow blocked the tailpipe, which means carbon monoxide backed up into the car. Another person died when he was struck by a truck on the Mass Pike as he  were trying to remove snow from a vehicle.

AccuWeather is estimating $36 billion in damage and economic losses from the storm.That includes damage to homes and businesses, disruptions to commerce and supply chains, problems with shipping operations at majorhubs, financial losses from power outages, travel delays and damage to infrastructure. 

A neighborhood full of people try to dig their street
out of record deep snow in Providence, 
Rhode Island on Tuesday. 

AccuWeather did not tease out how much of the total was in damage and how much was economic losses due to power and transportation disruptions. 

As of noon today, more than 150,000 homes and businesses still had no power in Massachusetts, mostly on or near Cape Cod.  

Power was still out across most of Cape Cod on Tuesday. Six towns on the Cape had virtually no powFew gas stations were open, and those that did had long lines. Things had improved by this morning. Only Wellfleet was completely without power. Service was partly restored to the other towns. 

Utility officials said they hope to have electricity restored to almost everybody on Cape Cod by Friday night. 

Vermont  has sent help in the form of snow clearing equipment. Thirty-two VTrans employees left Vermont this morning to help clear snow in Massachusetts. Video showed a convoy of state dump trucks and bucket loaders an Interstate highway Tuesday morning bound for Massachusetts. 

 We can spare the equipment because only southern Vermont received snow from the blizzard and even that amounted to only a few inches. No large snowstorm are in the Vermont forecast. 

As the snow its cleared, damage to buildings is becoming apparent. 

A high school gym room in Kingston, Massachusetts collapsed under the weight of the snow.  A gas station canopy on Cape Cod was shredded by high winds and heavy snow.  Fallen trees are still blocking some roads in southeastern Massachusetts. 

In New Jersey, a church steeple was left leaning after the blizzard and will have to be torn down. 

Other cities are beginning to emerge as having set all time records for a single snowstorm. New Bedford, Massachusetts received 37 inches of snow, its biggest-ever snowstorm. We have a new front runner for city with the most snow. Fall River, Massachusetts reported a storm total of 41 inches. 

It's late in the winters, so you'd think a thaw would come along and just melt all this snow fairly quickly But nope! 

Temperatures in the blizzard zone will get above freezing this afternoon, tomorrow and Saturday, but not be overly wide margins. A late season Arctic blast will keep temperatures below freezing Sunday and early next week. 

Even worse, a little more snow is in the forecast. An inch or two of new snow fell from New York City to Cape Cod this morning. A little more snow might fall Thursday night and again Sunday. Luckily, these snowfall do not look very big. At least at this point. 

I'm sure a several million people that got hit by this blizzard are seriously pining for spring. 

Worldwide Robust Weather Warnings Would Save Lives

People in the U.S. have easy access to warnings for
dangerous storms, like this weather radio. Many 
places around the world don't have access to
weather warnings, causing needless deaths. 
The UN and other organizations are 
trying to change that. 

 The United States has a lot of the worst weather in the world. Every time you turn around, there's a life-threatening flash flood, tornado, giant hail, hurricane, winter storm, wildfire and storm surge. 

Or, seemingly, all of the above at once. 

Some recent deadly disasters notwithstanding, the United States has some of the lower per capita fatality rates in the world. A lot of the reason for that is our robust warning system.

It's why you see on the news that an entire town has been turned into grim confetti by a tornado, but maybe only one or two residents have died, and everybody else is basically uninjured. 

The reason is because everybody in town got a tornado warning 15 minutes or even a half hour before the storm hit. That warning bought everybody in town time to hunker down in a safer place.  

Many other places in the world don't have the luxury, or actually the necessity of have a robust warning system for severe weather.

Much of the time, the overseas death toll in storms and floods is victims didn't have the information needed to get out of the way of an  impending disaster.

  .As NPR notes:

"One reason for the high death tolls in such disasters is a lack of basic weather warning systems. 

'Early warnings are not an abstraction,' said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a speech last year. 'They give farmers the power to protect their crops and livestock, enable families to evacuate safely and protect entire communities from devastation."

Too many people lack access to weather warnings. 

As Al Jazeera reported in October:

"Nearly half of all countries lack early-warning systems for extreme weather events, leaving millions - especially those in developing nations - vulnerable".

The World Meteorological Organization has said that weather, water and climate-related hazards have killed more than 2 million people in the past 50 years. About 90 percent of those deaths occurred in developing countries. 

As climate change drives storms to new extremes adequate weather warnings are more important than ever. 

TRYING TO HELP

Back in 2022, the United Nations set a goal to extend severe weather warmings to even person on Earth by 2027. The effort would cost $3.1 billion. 

It doesn't look like the UN will reach that goal in time. It never does. But at least the effort is underway. 

One major reason the effort is behind schedule is,  of course, the United States.  Namely, Donald Trump. I swear it seems like the more needless deaths he causes, or at least fails to prevent, the happier he is.  The Trump administration said last month it will no longer participate in the effort. That erases some billions of dollars from the weather warning plan.

Other sources are stepping up to the plate, including thy Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, which have together spend $2.5 billion on weather warning projects, NPR reports. 

 The number of nations using some form of early warning systems for multiple types of severe weather has jumped from 52 to at least 108 over the past decade. However there are still dozens of nations that still don't have any kind of sophisticated warning system for people at risk for storms and floods. 

One success story appears to be Cambodia, notes NPR.

Cambodia is one of the most flood-prone countries in the world. Between 2023 and 2025, agencies affiliated with the UN upgraded the country's flood forecasts and warnings to the tune of $5.8 million. An additional $7.8 million will be spent on this Cambodian warning system over the next few years.

Last November, the water level in the Mekong River in Cambodia reached one its highest levels on record. In the past, this type of flood would kill many people. This time, the people, and their livestock were gone by the time the water started rising. They'd received flood warnings, and were on high ground when the Mekong went over its banks. 

Since they'd made preparations, people living along the Mekong pretty much resumed normal life shortly after the water receded. 

Much of Cambodia's new warning system is pretty basic. Warnings go out on cell phones. But since many people don't have phones, trucks drive back and forth through towns, blaring the warnings from speakers. The speaker also instruct residents to tell anyone else who might not have heard the broadcast about the problem .

The November, 2025 Mekong flood led only to a few casualties.

We in the United States take for granted weather warnings. Sometimes, we even have waves of complaints when tornadoes warnings pre-empt the season finale of "Real Housewives Of Enosburgh Falls" or whatever dumb show is on. 

But the U.S. warning system has saved countless lives. Lives in other countries are worth the same as ours, whether you like that fact or not. So I really don't want to hear that weather warnings as dangerous storms appear are just "too expensive" to deal with 

 

Like Snow? Head To Northern Japan. They're Absolutely Buried

A recent street view of Aomori, Japan which
has been buried beneath a series of 
snowstorms coming off the Sea of Japan,
Photo by Larry Lane via Facebook

If you think you've gotten too much snow this winter, be glad you're not in northern Japan.  

Snow depth reached more than nine feet in some areas on Japan's northernmost island, leading to crushed buildings, impossible travel and the risk of avalanches and deaths from being buried by snow sliding off roofs. 

At least 35 people have died and nearly 400 are injured by recent extreme snows. Japanese emergency agencies have not said how the deaths and injuries occurred, but local media said that at least some of the deaths and injuries have involved falls from roofs as people try to remove snow from overburdened homes and businesses. 

Per AccuWeather:

"The deepest snow has been concentrated in northeastern Japan, home to more than 1 million people. In the city of Aomori, snow was piled near seven feet high, disrupting travel and for ing some rescue teams to enter homes through second-story windows. The snow depth was the most in 40 years, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency."

The Guardian reports that the winter weather has brought chaos to 15 of the country's 47 prefectures.  In some areas, the last time snow as this deep was not 40 years ago, but 1945. So it's been awhile since Japan has seen anything like this. 

Areas of northern Japan often get feet upon feet of snow in the winter. Cold winds coming from Russia and China pick up moisture as they cross the Sea of Japan and dump it as snow when it hits northern Japan. It's like the lake effect snow you see in western New York, but the Japan snows tend to be much deeper.

Aomori is sometimes described as the world's snowiest city. But this year is ridiculous. 

Frequent Arctic air outbreaks have caused numerous huge dumps of snow on Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island. The storms have been bigger and more frequent than usual, with few if any thaws in between. 

The snow has been relentless for weeks, and people are constantly trying to clear the snow. "I'm at my physical limit," one resident of Aomori said, probably speaking for everyone in town. 

 There was a few days of thawing in the past week, but that has temporarily ended. The above freezing temperatures created a risk of avalanches and flooding in areas where water can't drain because snow is blocking ditches and storm drains. There's even been some rain. 

The thaw also also allowed feet-thick chunks of snow to  slide off roofs, and that has been causing damage to some buildings. At least 40 structure in Aomori suffered at least some damage in just one day. The snow sliding off roofs has also collapsed power lines in some parts of the region. 

The snow reasserted itself and spread into many of the huge cities of Japan on Sunday. 

Some areas of western Japan not far from Kyoto reported up to 14 inches of snow within six hours.  In Hokuriku, a couple feet of snow fell within a 24 hours. The snow spread into Tokyo, where a couple inches fell.  Tokyo on average usually gets a snowfall that size only once, maybe twice per winter. 

Bullet trains in Japan were operating at reduced speeds due to the widespread snow and about 50,000 people were affected by train delays and cancelations around Tokyo.

The new round of snow was poorly timed because it came while national elections are being held and universities are doing entrance exams. Some of the universities have delayed those exams. 

A break in the weather, with a little more thawing even in hard-hit Hokkaido is expected later this week.

 Videos:

 Incredibly snowy scenes from Aomori, Japan. In recent weeks, up to 15 feet of snow has fallen in the areas Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Another very snowy news clip. Once again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that

 

No Power, More Deaths Sea Tragedy, Cleanup Woes In Wake Of Two Winter Storms

The remains of four houses the collapsed into the sea in
Buxton, Outer Cape, North Carolina over the weekend and
today from the nor'easter that battered the state. 
Image from The Island Free Press/Facebook

 For once, there are no major winter storms hitting the United States today. 

But the two whoppers that slammed the nation over the past two weeks are still having their effects. Sometimes in deadly and dangerous ways. We have some examples as this is still an ongoing story. 

Sadly, the death toll continues to increase. In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves has confirmed 23 deaths in his state associated with the January 25-26 ice storm. In Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday morning said that state's death toll had risen to 16. 

As of this morning, nearly 50,000 Mississippi homes and businesses remained without power as of this morning. More than 25,000 customers still had no power in Tennessee.  As of this weekend, pretty much the entire town of Holly Springs, Mississippi was without power, and most roads were too icy to travel on safely. 

In North Carolina, four homes have now collapsed into the waves of the Outer Banks from the snowy, windy nor'easter that hit over the weekend. 

We mentioned here one of those houses collapsed early Sunday morning. But since then, another house went down Sunday night and two more fell in this morning, the Island Free Press reported. 

The storm has departed North Carolina, but the vulnerable homes were weakened by battering waves over the weekend and large swells are still being generated on the Outer Banks from the storm. 

A total of 20 homes in Buxton and Rodanthe, North Carolina have fallen into the ocean since September.

The rest of the Carolinas are cleaning up from the massive snowfall. It was wild that the whole state of North Carolina was blasted. There was a dry spot in the middle of the state that "only" got three to six inches. But the coastline, the southeast corner, the west and mountains all saw reports of at least a foot of snow.

Fresh snow cover meant clear skies and calm winds in North Carolina meant temperatures fell to incredibly low levels this morning. It got as cold as 5 above in the town of Kinston, not far from New Bern. Most places in eastern North Carolina were in the upper single numbers and teens this morning. 

Aside from a small amount of mixed precipitation expected Wednesday night, thawing is expected to set in across the Southeast, which would hopefully melt the snow and ice off the streets by the end of the week.

Elsewhere, amid rough seas off of New England, a 72-foot fishing boat called the Lily Jean sank offshore off Cape Ann, claiming seven lives. One of those who passed away had Vermont connections. Jada Samitt, a recent graduate of the University of Vermont was on board as a fisheries observer from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This tragedy sounds a lot like the famous account of a ship disaster in "The Perfect Storm.'

The Lily Jean was in a 2012 episode of the History Channel show "Nor'Easter Men."

In the Northeast, the cold has been relenting. Rivers, harbors and bays are frozen. Water mains and pipes have been bursting. And hypothermia is killing people. In Pittsburgh, numerous people have been seen on the city's frozen three main rivers, despite the fact that the ice is on top of flowing water. That makes venturing onto the ice especially dangerous.

In New York City alone, 16 people have died outside in the cold, Mayor Zoran Mamdani said. It appears 13 of the deaths were due to the cold and the other three were overdoses. 

New York got one slight bit of relief today as the temperature rose to slightly above freezing for the first time since January 23.  However, a new, intensely cold Arctic blast is set to invade the Northeast at the end of the week and this upcoming weekend.  

Hundreds Of Trucks And Cars Stuck On Ice-Locked Mississippi Interstate Amid Widespread Southern Ice Storm Power Outages

Missouri Department of Transportation traffic cam image
from this afternoon shows I-269 in the northern part of
the state still covered in ice and truck traffic
still backed up of miles. This nearly four days
after the freezing rain stopped falling. 

The Great Ice Storm  of 2026 in the southern United States continues to wreak havoc, days after the icy rains and snow ended. 

There's been dozens of deaths associated by the storm. By one count, 111 people have perished from either direct or indirect effects of the storm and cold wave. causes directly and directly connected to the storm and cold weather.  

The trouble now is it so far not warmed up after freezing rain stopped falling. Though some of the ice has melted from all those sagging trees, many road and highways contain thick, stubborn layers of ice. 

This includes major routes like Interstate 22 and Interstate 55, along with other main roads across northern Mississippi.

The freezing rain might have ended by this past Sunday night. But on Wednesday, the highways in northern Mississippi and parts of Tennessee and Louisiana were still thick sheets of ice. Sunshine that tried to thaw the ice and truck tires left ruts and holes in the highway ice.  

Then it froze again at night, making things even worse than before. For some reason, the Mississippi Department of Transportation did not close the highways until Wednesday afternoon. By then, it was too late. Tractor trailers and some cars were backed up for miles. People were stranded out there for as much as 24 hours. Sometimes more. All in temperatures far below freezing at night. 

 "I've been here since yesterday (Tuesday) about 4:30 p.m.  I haven't moved an inch," truck driver Lee Roy Thomas told ABC24 in Memphis Wednesday afternoon. 

A man from Wisconsin who was stranded on Interstate 22 in Mississippi told WREG: "I tried calling the Mississippi State Patrol all they would do is, there would be a bushy signal and they would hang up after four rings. I must have made half a dozen attempts at that. We were always waiting for someone to come by and check on us but nobody came by. Nobody checked on us."

One truck driver said that when trucks begin to inch forward, they slide sideways because it is so slippery. 

Drone video showed mile after mile of tractor trailer trucks just sitting there, not moving on Wednesday along Interstate 55.

I'm wondering why they didn't shut down these jammed up Interstate highways last weekend and kept them closed until the ice melted, or it could be bulldozed from the roads.  That would have caused huge disruptions, but probably not something as severe as those hundreds of people stuck out there in their vehicles. 

On Wednesday, Mississippi Department of Transportation finally did close down parts of Interstate 55 and Interstate 22 so ice could be cleared from the roads. Hopefully enough so that vehicles could get through reasonably enough.

MDOT also sent in plows Wednesday afternoon, but warned that any ice the sun melted during the day would freeze again at night. The National Guard and more MDOT trucks have been brought in to help clear the highways. However, as the sun set Wednesday, the two major interstates remained at a near-standstill. 

A special weather statement from the National Weather Service office in Memphis this morning urging no travel yet. The statement said main highways remain quite dangerous and most secondary roads across much of Mississippi and Tennessee are pretty much impassable still.

Some thawing was going on in northern Mississippi today as temperatures rise into the mid-40s, but that will not be enough to melt all the ice. An intense new cold snap will drop temperatures back below freezing tonight, and no real thawing is expected until at least Monday. 

Meanwhile, troubles kept popping up in hard-hit Tennessee as well.  

Ten people have died in Tennessee so far as a result of the storm. Residents are worried about more deaths as power remains out in many areas. Those fears are heightened by the prospect of a new cold snap coming in. Temperatures are forecast to drop into the single digits Saturday night after highs only near 20 degrees. 

As of this afternoon, more than 300,000 homes and businesses in the South remain without power. That includes nearly 100,000 customers each in Tennessee and Mississippi and more than 50,000 in Louisiana. 

In Nashville, elderly and disabled residents in a 12 story apartment building have had no heat or elevators for days and are running out of food. Fire crews evacuated some of the residents from the building on Wednesday. 

Videos:

News report on the highway situation in Mississippi from ABC2  in Memphis. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Drone video shows mile and mile after mile of tractor trailer trucks just sitting on the ice along Interstate 55 in northern Mississippi. Again, click on this link, or click on the link below if it is visible.

 

 

Death Toll Rising From Winter Storm; Stubborn Deep Cold Raising The Stakes

The city of Oxford, Mississippi continues to post
photos of the ice storm destruction. Another example.

The death toll from the massive winter storm has risen to at least 34 in 14 states as the severe lingering effects of the snow and ice barrage continues to threaten more lives. 

As of mid-morning today, more than a half million homes and businesses remained without power, mainly in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. This, as temperatures reached record cold levels in the region this morning. 

In devastated northern Mississippi, temperatures are forecast to rise into the still-colder than average low 40s. At least that will melt some of the us. But a new, intense cold snap is set to hit by the end of the week, sending overnight temperatures back down into the single digits. 

Ice storm damage in Mississippi was even worse than in a historic 1994 storm. In 1994, it took 23 days for power to be fully restored. Officials said modernization could somewhat shorten the repair timeline this time, but probably not by all that much. 

In Tennessee, Nashville residents were told some parts of the city could remain without power for a week. Outlying areas will probably wait even longer. 

While the electricity is off in and around Nashville, the frigid weather continues, which is bad news for the thousands of people shivering without heat. High temperatures in Nashville should only reach the 20s and 30s through next Monday. This is a city where afternoon temperatures are normally around 50 degrees this time of year. 

Later on, the question of where to put the debris from millions of shattered trees in hundreds of communities in the South.  Right now, mountains of tree debris lines roads and streets. In some of the hardest hit cities, it looked like nearly every tree sustained at least a little damage. A lot of those trees are entirely destroyed. 

Roads in northern Mississippi are still coated in
thick layers of ice and snow even
though the storm ended late Sunday. 
They're not equipped to remove snow and
the thaws that usually follow winter storms
in the region have failed to arrive.

North of the ice zone, people are still clearing snow from a massive area from New Mexico to Maine and Canada. 

On Monday. 56 percent of the Lower 48 of the United States was covered in snow. At least a foot of snow fell in 18 states, including here in Vermont. Toronto, Canada endured its largest single day snowfall with about 22 inches of new snow. 

Travel problems continue to reverberate even after the storm has passed. 

American Airlines said this was their most disruptive storm in the company's 100-year history. American canceled 9,000 flights in the storm.  More cancelations and delays are possible over the next couple of days. 

Flight Aware showed about 2,300 flight canceled today, even after the storm has passed. Lingering ice and snow on the ground, and the disarray caused by the tens of thousands of cancellations during the actual storm, are helping to cause the problem.

In much of the South, highways are today still covered by thick layers of snow and ice. They don't have the equipment down there to remove all that ice. Usually, southerners wait for it to melt. Normally the melt doesn't' take long. This time, it is. 

The weird, extended Arctic weather is affecting most places east of the Rockies. 

Usually - at least in recent years and decades -  a severe winter cold wave lasts only a few days, and then it's largely over.   

This time, the frigid air is staying put. 

In Minneapolis, all but one of the past 11 days have gotten below zero. The next above zero daily low temperature is not expected until this coming Sunday.   

The cold weather pattern is forecast to last well into February. New York City's longest streak of consecutive below freezing days is 16, set in 1961. Given the forecasts, that record could be broken. 

Even Florida is enduring the chill. They've already had a couple hard freezes this winter and another is due tonight. Another, strong cold wave is forecast later this week. Temperatures could get down into the low and mid 20s around Orland and mid-30s as far south as Miami. 

Even worse, a nor'easter is expected to form off the East Coast. It's still unclear whether the storm will come close enough to shore to cause a blizzard. But even if the storm misses, it's almost certain to reinforce the cold air over the eastern United States.  

 

Deadly U.S. Winter Storm Winding Down; Cleanup To Take Weeks In Some Areas

Road blocked by fallen trees in Nashville.
From Meteorologist Tyler Barker, via Facebook

The enormous, deadly winter storm that has been thrashing the United States since Friday is finally on its way out,  swiping New England today with lingering snows before heading out to sea. 

At least 16 people have died so far, and that doesn't include seven deaths in Bangor, Maine from a plane crash. The incident happened in snowy weather, but investigators haven't yet announced whether this was due to the weather. 

I'm afraid that toll will go up as ice storm victims who will be without power for days or weeks endure frigid temperatures.

People will come down with hypothermia in frigid homes or apartments, succumb to fires or fumes due to improperly installed generators or space heaters, or they will be injured or even killed in accidents while clearing fallen trees and branches. 

This will surely be an incredibly expensive storm, too. I expect total damage will make this the first weather disaster of 2026 to cause more than $1 billion in losses.

As of noon today, at least 776,000 homes and businesses were still without power in the Southeast. Most of the outages were in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, which were hardest hit by the ice storm. 

My social media feed this morning was full of images and videos of iced-over trees and branches snapping with a sound of a gunshot, the crashing to the ground in cacophony of shattering ice and wood crunching into the ground. 

Those expected temperatures in the ice storm zone are incredibly low. Extreme cold warnings extend from southern Texas to Pennsylvania. 

Some of the hardest hit towns are dealing with this incredible chill. One of the hardest hit cities, Oxford, Mississippi, is expecting a high today in the low 20s with a low tonight in the upper single numbers. Normal highs and lows this time of year in Oxford are in the low 50s and low 30s. 

Nashville was also hard hit. It's been in the teens there since 5 p.m. yesterday and won't get above that level until tomorrow. The expected low tonight in Nashville is 0 degrees. The city won't get any warmer than the low 30s through the week. 

The cold not only endangers people with the threat of hypothermia and frostbite, it also means a lot of the ice won't melt anytime soon. That means the risk of more collapsing trees and power lines, and even building damage. 

Oxford, Mississippi after the ice storm. 

Some houses and businesses have been hit by falling trees A few have succumbed to the weight of the ice.  

Several buildings and other structures have collapsed under the weight of ice along the Texas-Oklahoma border.  

A large horse barn in Hernando, Mississippi collapsed, but all the horses inside somehow managed to survive. At least one building fell down in Arkansas. 

One news crew almost got hit by a falling tree while talking about the storm with a family in Tennessee.

As in most disasters, the change in everyone's surroundings can feel surreal and shocking

In Mississippi, a WREG reporter in Oxford, Mississippi  said the air smells like pine from all the broken trees, and he has to keep his head on a swivel because of all the trees still falling, or at least threatening to. 

"It's complete devastation. It looks like a tornado went down every street. There is no safe means of travel on the roads right now," Oxford Mississippi Mayor Robyn Tannehill said. 

Speaking of tornadoes, a likely twister touched down in Geneva, in southeast Alabama, causing damage. There were also other reports of wind damage from strong thunderstorms in that part of Alabama and northwest Florida. 

Well to the north, the news was heavy snow. At least 16 states, including here in Vermont saw snow accumulations reach a foot or more. Reports of up to 22 inches of new snow came from central and eastern Massachusetts, the lower Hudson Valley and Catskills in New York, and at a couple spots in Pennsylvania

Boston ended a 1,430 day period in which they never saw a snowstorm of greater than six inches. That's their second longest snow drought in history, noted Jonathan Petralma in a YouTube video

The snowy weather extended into Canada. Toronto set a single-day record for snowfall with 23 inches.  The city has seen 34.7 inches of snow so far in January,  making this Toronto's snowiest month on record. 

Travel is still messed up today, as you might guess. More than 5,400 flights were canceled today, according to Flight Aware. This brings the total number of canceled flights to nearly 24,000 since the storm began Friday. That's the most since the Covid pandemic. 

A new nor'easter next Sunday or Monday might affect parts of the East Coast around next Sunday or Monday but it's too soon to tell if it will hit and where. Colder than normal weather is likely to continue in much of the northern and eastern United States at least into mid-February.  

Widespread, Serious U.S. Damage From Winter Storm; Nice Big Vermont Thump Of Snow Just Starting

Oxford, Mississippi today. Photo by
Meteorologist Eric Graves via Facebook

Editors note: Vermont-specific storm info is further down in this post. National news summary is first.

Tales of how dreadful our giant winter storm has been in so much of the United States have been emerging all afternoon. And for many, it'll keep going overnight.  

As of mid-afternoon, five people had so far died in the storm and frigid weather, and that toll is almost surely going to rise. Two people died of hypothermia in Louisiana and three apparently homeless people were found dead in New York. 

Over one million homes and businesses across the South had no electricity as of mid-afternoon. 

I'm terribly worried about people in the South who won't have power for days. In general, houses aren't really insulated against frigid weather. 

Temperatures are likely to fall to 10 degrees or lower in western Mississippi, which has been hard hit by the ice storm. Readings won't get above freezing there until Tuesday afternoon, and even then, just barely. 

Hard-hit Nashville expects temperatures in the single digits tonight and possible as low as 0 tomorrow night. As of mid-afternoon, 203,302 homes and businesses in Davidson County, Tennessee, which includes Nashville, had no power. That represents 92 percent of the customers there. 

Some people in the county, and throughout the South, won't have electricity back for days, perhaps weeks in a few instances. 

A similarly bad ice storm struck the Nashville in February, 1994, but it didn't get nearly cold after the storm as it will this time. 

It's not just trees and power lines collapsing. At least two buildings collapsed in Gainesville, Texas, near the Oklahoma border due the heavy weight of sleet on roofs. A large race car and classic car shop in northern Mississippi also collapsed due to the ice. 

In Dallas at around 1 a.m today, traffic snarled as 19,000 people left American Airlines Center after a Mavericks game and tried to get home on freeways covered in snow and sleet. A hill on the Woodall Rogers Freeway was too much for many cars. 

Nashville today. Via Mark Fairless/Facebook

In St. Louis, for the second time this winter, traffic came to a standstill because of many crashes on the freeways around the city.

Reed Timmer's video of Oxford, Mississippi showed massive destruction to the city's trees. It reminded me very much of the tree carnage here in northwest Vermont during the Great Ice Storm of 1998. 

Similar scenes are playing out in northern Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. It was beginning to get that bad in the Carolinas this afternoon. 

 Snowfall totals are starting to get impressive. Examples include 16.6 inches in Davis, West Virginia, and more than 13 inches at sites in Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio.

Even greater snow totals are likely by the time the storm ends, especially in parts of Pennsylvania, much of New York and New England. Up to 30 inches of snow could fall in New York's Catskills. 

Areas south of the ice and snow zone have their own troubles. At one point this afternoon, the National Weather Service had the southeast corner of Alabama under a tornado warning, severe thunderstorm warning, tornado watch, freeze warning, cold weather advisory, extreme cold watch, and a wind advisory. 

Air travel is still hopelessly snarled. By midafternoon, 11,727 flights had been canceled today, according to Flight Aware. Already, more than 2,600 flights tomorrow are scrubbed

As darkness fell, most, but not all of the precipitation was confined to the Appalachians, East Coast and eastern Great Lakes. 

VERMONT EFFECTS

Anyone who looks out the window can tell our storm is here. As expected, snowfall this afternoon has been quite a bit heavier in southern Vermont than in the north. 

National Weather Service storm prediction map hasn't
changed much since this morning. They might have
added an inch or two to Northeast Kingdom totals. 

Unlike in the rest of the nation, the storm here in Vermont is arguably doing more good than harm. It's definitely boosting the winter sports industry. 

The exceptionally cold air is keeping the snowflakes tiny, especially in the north, and that has also cut back on total accumulation. For now at least. 

I don't think I've seen a snowstorm this cold since February, 2015. At 4 p.m., Montpelier reported moderate snow and a temperature of 1 below. It doesn't appear any place in Vermont was warmer than 6 above late this afternoon. 

Temperatures should hold steady or grudgingly rise overnight, but not by much. It might be 10 degree or so by dawn, and make it into the mid and upper teens in the afternoon. Not great, but an improvement over the past couple of days, I guess. 

It was really snowing in southern Vermont as of 5 p.m. and snowfall rates were picking up in the north, and that trend will continue into the evening. 

The snow will keep cranking overnight, but tend to taper off in the early morning hours. In some areas, it might not be snowing at all at dawn. This might annoy some people, because a ton of school closings have already been announced for tomorrow. 

But maybe the school closings are a good idea, since the snow will pick up again during the day. 

The main storm will be heading out to sea early tomorrow, which is why we're going to temporarily lose the snow. But the huge system's upper atmospheric support will come through during the day, which will create lift in the atmosphere. Lift means snow at these temperatures. 

The snow is quite dry and is blowing off the roads fairly easily. At least at first. Road crews might have a little trouble keeping up with it is snowing hardest. Plus, salt does not work well at all when it snows at such low temperatures. 

Traffic cam grab shortly after 4 p.m. today caught
Vermont State highway crews clearing snow 
from Route 9 in Searsburg. 

Even during the lull in the snow tomorrow morning, I can't imagine road conditions will be all that great. Since it'll pretty much snow all day, the roads will stay snowy and slick all day, too. 

The National Weather Service in South Burlington hasn't change the expected accumulations much since this morning. 

They've added an inch or two maybe to the Northeast Kingdom, and now they're more or less calling for a foot of snow up there. 

The southern Green Mountains are still looking like the big winners, with an expected 18 to 24 inches. This type of storm sometimes over-performs in the southern Greens, so it's possible they could get more. No promises, though. 

After this storm goes by, I still don't see any signs any new big storms for at least ten days. But we are locked in a cold weather pattern.  If we're lucky, the weather might modify to something just seasonal chilly in about a week. 

But that just gets us up into the 20s during the afternoons. Not exactly warm. But at least the sunsets are getting later.  This coming Saturday will bring us the first 5 p.m. sunset of the year.  

California Endures Storms Again Today, But It's Finally Ending

A home buried in mud and rocks after a
debris flow in Wrightwood, California
Widespread storms and atmospheric
rivers have plagued California
for more than a week now 

The giant storm in California is starting to ease today, after causing days of havoc from the Oregon border all the way down to Mexico. 

The storms targeting southern California over the Christmas holiday have so far claimed at least three lives. 

Another person died in San Diego when a large tree branch fell on him, reported television station KGTV.  At least 90 trees fell across the city of San Diego. 

Videos are at the bottom of this post. 

A number of people were plucked from flooded cars on streets and highway throughout southern California. 

One of the hardest hit areas is the community of Wrightwood in the San Gabriel Mountains, where several homes were buried under several feet of mud, notes KTLA.

Video showed some houses with four feet of rocks and mud inside them. Cars were buried halfway up their windows Two people died and six others were injured on a wet freeway..

Downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday received 2.53 inches of rain, which is a bit more than what normally falls in the entire month of December. Other totals from just December 24 include 3.96 in Woodland Hills and 3.39 in Burbank. 

Before the storms hit the L.A area, the atmospheric rivers targeted northern California. Redding, California was probably the hardest hit. The city had 5.3 inches of rain from December 16 to 22, with much more in the higher elevations nearby. 

A 74-year old man died when he drove around barricades and got swept up in the flooding. 

High winds also tore through the Golden State. 

 Santa Cruz Harbor reported a gust to 91 mph. Several boats were not surprisingly damaged. Likely not a tornado, say NWS. Pablo Point, about 20 miles northwest of San Francisco reported a gust to 108 mph. 

About 125,000 people lost power in central and northern California over the Christmas holiday.  

Heavy snow has been falling in the Sierra Nevada range, with some places clocking in with several feet of snow.

Interstate 80 through Donner Summit was impassable at times over the holiday as vehicles got stuck, crashed or spun out. 

 Rain continues in southern California today, though it's not coming down as heavily as it did Wednesday and Thursday. But now that the ground is sodden from the storms, so the somewhat lighter rain could really set off more debris flows and mudslides. Los Angeles itself could get another one to two inches of rain today. The mountains could get another three inches. 

After that, practically no rain is expected in California until later Wednesday or Thursday. 

Videos:

A scary tour of flooded Redding, California on December 21. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Next video shows a motorist stupidly driving into fast flowing water and getting swept away. So what does the next car do when they see this? Drive into the fast flowing water and get swept away. People are dumb. They were both eventually rescued, by the way. This was in Palmdale, California. Click on this link to view, as always, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Aftermath of the huge debris flow in Wrightwood, California. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.