Grand Canyon Flash Flood Kills At Least Two, 15 Missing As More Flash Floods Loom

Countless logs and debris floats in a
tributary of the Colorado River in
the Grand Canyon after a severe
flash flood. At least two people died,
and 15 are missing. More flash
floods are underway today. 

A massive flash flood blasted through a canyon in Grand Canyon National Park canyon flood.

So far, two people have been confirmed dead in the flash flood. 

The National Park Service said it recovered the body of a 46-year old man from the Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River. About 15 people are still unaccounted for. The flooding was concentrated along Bright Angel Creek, a tributary of the Colorado River. 

As of early Sunday 62 people had been evacuated from Phantom Ranch and the lower North Kaibab Trail. Additional evacuations are expected. 

In one area, park rangers ordered people to run as fast as they could across a foot bridge to safety. Moments later, the bridge collapsed. 

Phantom Ranch is a lodge at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, on the east side of Bright Angel Creek, a little over a half mile north of the Creek's confluence with the Colorado River. 

Footbridges along Bright Angel Creek were destroyed. The flash flood also destroyed part of the Transcanyon Waterline, which supplies water for the park's use. 

Phantom Ranch, Bright Angel Campground, Phantom Ranch Canteen, North Kaibab Trail, the Black and Silver bridges and traffic to the Colorado River are closed until further notice. 

Overnight accommodations at the park have been suspended for now, and water restrictions go into effect today. 

Video showed muddy, debris-filled water rushing through the canyon. Pieces of buildings and/or RVs floated in the water. 

WHY THE FLOOD HAPPENED

Flash floods often occur this time of year in and around the Grand Canyon, but this was far worse than the usual episodes of high water. 

Near where the worst of the flooding occurred,  1.24 inches of rain fell, including 0.84 inches within an hour.

That might sound like much to those of us in the humid East, but the steep landscape of rocks and sand does not readily absorb water. Downpours tend to run off into flash floods. 

The Southwest is in the middle of its annual monsoon season, when moisture from the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico are drawn into the deserts by the circulation created by an atmospheric heat dome of high pressure near the region.  

This year's monsoon is wetter for several reasons.Underlying it all is climate change. A warmer atmosphere can hold more water, especially  under the right conditions. So monsoon rains have been in general getting heavier over the years. 

In Arizona, monsoon rainfall is becoming more intense even as daily average rainfall in the state has decreased. In other words Arizona is having fewer rainy days, but when it does rain it more often comes in torrents leading to flash floods. 

It's worse this year because a record breaking El Nino is heating up the eastern Pacific Ocean waters to record heights. A separate "marine heat wave" is making Pacific waters hot further north. The combination is adding a lot of humidity to the Desert Southwest air, creating more an overload of atmospheric moisture.

Moisture from the remnants of Tropical Storm Iselle were also drawn into the volatile atmospheric mix over Arizona. 

Deluges have been the result. 

MORE FLOODS?

It'll be just as bad today, if not worse in some areas. 

Today, we have a risk of flash floods across all of Arizona, almost all of Utah, the western half of Colorado and western New Mexico. 

The risk of dangerous flash floods is especially high in northern Arizona, including Grand Canyon National Park and in southern and central Utah.  

By late morning local time, flash warnings were up in parts of Utah. The storms will intensify during this afternoon, so the flooding will surely become more widespread. 

The flood risk will diminish tomorrow and the day after - for now. 

Computer models suggest a dying tropical storm early next will send extreme amounts of moisture into southern California, Arizona and Nevada. Big time severe flood could result if this scenario proves accurate. 

Winter In April Vermont Sunday Evening Update: Snow Mostly Done, But The Cold Will Intensify

A patch of miniature daffodils endures Sunday's snow
in St. Albans, Vermont. Unfortunately, intense cold
tomorrow night will probably kill them off 

 It was a wintry day here in Vermont as we start the third week of April. It snowed much of the day across most of the state. 

The snow came during the middle of the day after a warm spell. The ground was warm and some sunlight was trying to get through the clouds. 

Those two factors prevented a lot of accumulation. Had this been a month or two ago, we would have had several inches of snow in the valleys .

The fact that snow accumulated at all testifies to the intensity of it for awhile today. 

In the valleys, the roads stayed mostly wet, maybe with a few slush patches during heavier bursts of snow. Higher elevation roads got slick and slushy, which is incredibly uncharacteristic for an April afternoon 

Route 15 near Rowell Road in Walden had to be closed due to slide-offs. Interstate 91 in Sheffield Heights in the Northeast Kingdom also had some crashes. 

The cold, elevated surface of my truck accumulated 1.6 inches here in St. Albans. Of course, there was less snow on the ground, but it did accumulate on grassy surfaces and trees. Burlington reported just 0.2 inches of snow. .

The snow pretty much ended here shortly around 3 p.m.m but as of 5 p.m. there is surprisingly sone snow still in the ground. It's not melting all that fast. 

The last and of heavier snow was in central Vermont late this afternoon and heading east. 

A few breaks in the clouds were appearing over western Vermont, so that might melt the rest of rte snow before sunset.  New snow showers have developed in New York, so we'll probably see some of that in Vermont this evening. Some of the snow showers could be very briefly heavy early this evening, but they won't lead to any new accumulation. 

TONIGHT, TOMORROW, TOMORROW NIGHT

A reinforcing cold front late tonight and early tomorrow morning could reinvigorate the snow showers briefly, but again they won't amount to much. 

But early morning commuters will start the day amid subfreezing temperatures. Left over water might freeze, and any snow showers might briefly stick to the pavement better than it did today.  Monday continues to continue blustery and cold. 

Unfortunately, we've gotten no good news for Monday night cold temperatures in the afternoon forecast updates  The forecast lows for Tuesday morning still look to be in the 15 to 25 degree range. Lots or spring garden freeze destruction looms.

I'll have more updates on this cold weather tomorrow morning, of course!  

Florida Freezes To Mess Up Your Grocery Bill

Farmers at Southern Hill Farm in Clermont,
Florida tried encasing crops in ice which
counterintuitively protects crops from harsh
freezes. Many farmers do this. But the 
cold was so intense in Florida the icing
did not work in many cases. Photo
from Southern Hill Farm via Facebook

This winter's cold is turning out to be expensive. And I'm not just talking about your heating bill. 

If you like fruits and vegetables, the price is probably going to spike soon, if it hasn't started to do so already thanks to those big Florida freezes. If you're tired of rising grocery prices, this isn't the news you want to hear. 

Some towns and cities hit all-time record lows for the month of February last weekend to kill off whatever didn't die in previous freezes this winter. 

The state was hit by a freeze back on December 30, with more freezes in mid-January before a series of frigid nights began around in the final week of January and intensified in February. 

It takes awhile for freeze damage to crops to become fully apparent. Farmers and agricultural organizations in Florida are just starting to assess the damage. So far, it's not looking good. 

CENTRAL FLORIDA

In central Florida, WFTV reports total losses at central Florida blueberry farms: 

"At H&A Farms, owner Michael Hill says his blueberry crop was wiped out because of the cold snap over the weekend. 'This whole farm is a complete loss,' They have a thousand acres of blueberry plants around the state. He cut into a blueberry to us the inside. "That's all brown. It's supposed to be green. 

Hill says they pack 40 percent of Florida's blueberries, which go to stores like Publix, Aldi and Costco. And because these berries died, Michael says he will no longer need the 2,000 workers to pick them in the fields or the hundreds needed to pack them."

The crop losses will have a ripple effect. Forklift operators, quality control specialists, shipping coordinators, boxers, stackers, packers, all those occupations in Florida blueberry industry vanished in a single night of cold weather. 

At one citrus farm in Plant City, in central Florida east of Tampa, temperatures remained below 28 degrees for more than six hours on both last Friday and Saturday nights. Even with covering trees with ice to protect the crops, damage starts when temperatures fall to 28 degrees or lower for four consecutive hours. 

At least eight to 10 percent of the current citrus crop was destroyed, making this the worst citrus freeze since at least 2010. Future citrus crops might be affected, too. 

"There will be heavy leaf loss from the frost damage and some of the young trees we've planted over the past ew months probably won't make it,' Trevor Murphy, the citrus grower in Plant City told AccuWeather. "The bloom and new flush on the trees will not make it either - we should have our main bloom toward the end of February into the first part of March. It'll be a few days until we start seeing leave and fruit drop. Coldest and longest duration of cold I've had since I've been growing oranges."

Also in Plant City, a farmer named Jonathan Allen, said his 120-acre field of sweet corn was wiped out. When farmers get desperate, they get creative. He tried building a berm and flooding the field to create a warmer microclimate, but the wind was so strong the subzero cold blasted right through the fields.  

"This freeze is the worst that I can remember, probably worse than 1989....Across the board it's devastation, complete devastation."

SOUTH FLORIDA

The more recent cold wave, on the weekend of January 31-February 1 blew all the way through South Florida and beyond. A town in Cuba reached 32 degrees, the first time on record that anyplace in Cuba reached the freezing point. 

Unlike previous cold waves, then, South Florida agriculture was trashed.  

As Axios Miami reports: 

Markon Cooperative, a North American produce supplier, wrote in market update on Wednesday that "recent freezing temperatures across Florida will  have a major impact on current crop production."

So yeah, that's really bad, since so much of our stuff comes from Florida. And I"m unsure how Trump's tariffs affect the price of food coming in from different nations, like Mexico. 

 Axios Miami says Markon Cooperatives affiliated squash growers report more than 50 percent of that crop has been lost. Bell pepper loses are at nearly 50 percent. Tomato growers say their fields have definitely suffered damage, but how much was still being assessed at the end of this week.

 One tomato grower told CBS Miami that a good 20 percent of his crop was probably lost. 

LANDSCAPES AND FIRES

Across most of Florida, plants, palms and some trees are now brown, wilted and battered. Some people, assuming climate change made them safe, planted tropical trees and plants in central Florida that don't tolerate freezes. 

These plants had managed to grow for years in warmer winters, only to be wrecked by this month's freeze. Proving the climate change is uneven. The general warming trend is punctuated by extremes, like the Arctic cold Florida has experienced lately.  

Floridians are being advised to leave their trashed landscaping alone for now. Then, when spring buds and shoots begin to appear, property owner will know what is destroyed and has to be removed or trimmed and which plants will survive.

Lastly, Florida now faces an increased fire risk. The state is often prone to wildfires in late winter and early spring, as the usual warm season thunderstorms are usually absent. And right now, almost all of Florida is experiencing a drought. 

This year, because of the freeze, the landscape isn't as green as it usually is. There's now a lot of dead vegetation that can easily make fires spread quickly.  Several fires were already burning before last weekend's freeze, and this will just make things worse.

No rain is forecast in central and southern Florida for at least the next seven days. Northern Florida is expecting only light rain at best.

At least it's starting to warm up in Florida. Another frost is expected tonight in far northern parts of the Sunshine State. But after that, for the foreseeable future, anyway, further frosts are unlikely for at least a week or two, if not more. 

Italy Slammed By Ferocious Storm; Damage $Billions, Other Destructive Storms In France, Britain

A massive landslide left this Sicilian town hanging
on a big precpice. Heavy rains from what was likely
the severest storm the region's history contribute to
the landslide. 

While we in the United States have been distracted with its own mega storm, another intense storm has caused havoc and severe damage in Italy this month. 

The storm, named Harry by meteorologists swept Italy from January 18 to 21. 

The storm was likely the worst in the region's history. At the very least, it was the worst in recent memory. 

It hit hardest in Sicily and Calabria.  Huge waves towering to over 30 feet smacked into shorelines, blasting through beachside restaurants and other businesses.   

Waves off the coast of eastern Sicily reached to nearly 40 feet, which is said to be unprecedented for the Mediterranean Sea. Waves (10 meters) in height battered coastal buildings. 

"The force of the waters swept away protective barriers, debris, and large quantities of sand onto the public roads of Catania. The receding tide on the Sicilian coast only began to be observed around 3 a.m. Wednesday," Italianismo.com reported. 

 Surprisingly but happily, there's been no reported deaths so far. Officials said evacuation warnings ahead of the storm and rescue crews helped a great deal. 

There were some close calls. According to Italianismo.com, waves struck the mayors of two cities as they were jointly doing a live broadcast on social media to report on the bad weather.

 Locals and officials were stunned by the storm. 

"The Calabria regional director of the civil protection department, Domenico Costarella, described the cyclone as a 'once in a century event,'" according to WantedinRome.com, an English language Italian news site. 

Damage in Sicily alone was over 500 Euros, or about $590 million U.S. dollars. Total damage in Italy is estimated at $1.7 billion.  

On land, torrential rains caused extreme flooding and landslides. San Sostene in Calabria had more than 22 inches of rain in three days. 

A couple days after the storm tapered off, a huge landslide struck the town of Niscemi, Sicily. The slide is about two and half miles long and is carving out a drop of about 150 feet. The slide at last report was still active and additional houses have fallen in the past 24 hours and more will probably go. About 1,500 people have been evacuated.

Separately, Storm Ingrid hit hard in parts of the UK and France on Saturday. Huge waves damaged a sea wall on a main railway around Devon and Cornwall. A historic pier was washed away and coastal homes were heavily damaged when waves smashed into them. . 

Storm Ingrid hit less than a month after Storm Goretti left widespread wind damage in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. A new system, called Storm Chandra is now moving into the United Kingdom with strong winds, heavy rain and higher elevation snow. 

Storm Ingrid also caused damaging floods in parts of France. 

Videos:

Huge ways crash into the Italian Coast in last week's Storm Harry. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on tbgat

 Waves crash through the window of a seaside restaurant in Italy. As always, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

You have to be careful these days about AI slop, but I believe the images of the storm are the real deal in this summary video. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.

One more: Destruction on the coast in Messina. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Video shows houses and buildings teetering on the edge of a huge landslide in Sicily. Aerial view shows how huge slab of land sloughed away, leaving a huge cliff that is eating away at the hilltop town. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on the arrow within the image. 

 

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.  

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. 

Milwaukee Latest Target In Summer Of Flash Floods

Car roofs barely visible in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin late Saturday night/early
Sunday morning as that region became
the latest victim of an epic summer'
of flash floods in the U.S. 

 Milwaukee, Wisconsin was the latest city over the weekend to drown in extreme rains in a summer that has brought a series of record-busting floods.    

More than a foot of rain was reported in some areas near Milwaukee Saturday night and early Sunday.   

One section of Milwaukee reported an incredible 14.49 inches of rain.  If confirmed by the National Weather Service, that would set a new 24 hour rainfall record for the entire state of Wisconsin. (The current record is 11.92 inches in Mellon, Wisconsin back in 1946.) 

The National Weather Service office at the airport roughly six miles south of downtown Milwaukee reported 6.69 inches.  Two inches of that fell within an hour. 

As in many flash floods of this type, the rainfall was highly localized. Mount Pleasant, just 30 miles south of Milwaukee, reported just over an inch of rain, with no trouble there. 

Since the heaviest rain targeted a large urban area, the trouble escalated almost immediately late Saturday night. Hundreds of basements suddenly flooded, dozens of streets and roads became instant rivers.  The Milwaukee River at Estabrook Park reached a record crest of 10.52 feet.

Residents described their cars suddenly submerged, and water cascading through trim, doorframes and vents, filling houses knee deep or worse. As you might imagine, the damage is severe, especially since so many homes and businesses took on water. 

 The storms forced the early closure of the Wisconsin State Fair Saturday night. Its final day on Sunday did not open because of the flooding, notes Wisconsin Public Radio.

The USA Triathlon canceled its Sprint National Championships and Paratriathlon National Championships Sunday due to flooding and damage to the courses.

The Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport temporarily shut down due to flooded runways, taxiways and an underpass tunnel.

Milwaukee and several surrounding communities were under states of emergency Sunday. The city's dispatch center received over 500 calls regarding flooded basements, inundated roads and stuck cars. 

Across Milwaukee, and in nearby suburbs like Wauwatosa,  people were rescued from homes by boat.

So far, no deaths or serious injuries have been reported from Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee flood was part of the same system that also caused 80 mph winds in Nebraska that led to at least one death. 

Separately, wild downpours this weekend dumped 11 inches of rain around Sanibel Island and St. James City, Florida over the weekend, causing serious flash flooding there. 

The Milwaukee storm was one of a serious of extreme flash floods that have hit various parts of the nation this summer. 

The most notable, of course, was the extreme floods that hit the Hill Country of Texas on the Fourth of July weekend, killing 136 people.

Other exceptional floods hit places like Ruidoso, New Mexico, parts of New Jersey, Illinois, Oklahoma and other states this summer. 

Flash flooding is a risk every summer, but some of these floods have gotten more extreme and more frequent. 

Climate change allows the atmosphere to hold more moisture than the cooler global air we had decades ago.  If the right storm comes along, that added atmospheric water unleashes itself in torrential downpours, causing floods much bigger than what would have been expected, say, a century ago.  

Videos: Nebraska, Iowa Hail, Tornadoes Wreck Towns

Gigantic hail propelled by high winds smashed out
the windows of this Fremont, Nebraska hotel and
pockmarked the exterior walls 

Last Thursday, a cluster of intense thunderstorms unleashed tornadoes, intense winds and gigantic hail on areas of eastern Nebraska and western and central Iowa.

There were at least 23 reports of tornadoes near Omaha, Nebraska.  One tornado in Iowa was 1.8 miles wide, which would hold the record for the widest tornado in Iowa history. 

Communities that avoided the tornadoes were instead bombarded by gigantic hail propelled by winds that gusted to hurricane force. 

The National  Weather Service said the storm in Fremont features hail up to the size of baseball accompanied with wind gusts to 82 mph. 

Some of the videos are wild, so we'll give you some samples in this post. 

Here's a Facebook reel of the chaos inside a home as hail stones crashed through windows, spreading ice and debris through the home's interior. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below click on that. 

Next video shows heavy amounts of hail pummeling Raymond, Nebraska. Click on this link to view or if you see image below, click on that:

Taken just after the storm, video shows the metal exterior of Mel's Diner battered, and a Rodeway Inn in Fremont, Nebraska with all the windows on one side busted out and its stucco walls pockmarked with hail damage as if shelled in a war. Parking lot is full of hail-smashed cars, too. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 We're always wowed by the drama of storm videos, but we can't forget there are real victims. To bring you back down to Earth, here's a news video where a woman whose southwest Iowa house was damaged in one of the tornadoes notes it hit on the anniversary of her husband's death, and the same week her beloved dog died. 

I do hope things get much better for this lady. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Ice Storm Videos Really Make Us Glad We Didn't Have To Deal With That Much

The effects of last weekend's ice storm in Michigan

 Last weekend, a massive ice storm stretched from Wisconsin, through the northern Great Lakes, into southern Ontario and Quebec and into New England.  

We had our own issues with that ice, as we know, with tree damage and power outages in central and southern Vermont. 

But we didn't have it nearly as bad as places like northern Michigan and parts of Ontario. The following videos in this post are at once horrifying, beautiful and sad.

The videos brought back memories of the Great Ice Storm of 1998 here in Vermont, (And Quebec, Maine, New York and a few other places).

The trees were the saddest loss. But eventually they do come back and after several years, everything looks normal again. We hope for a fast recovery for all those who lost their beloved trees in the hardest hit areas.

The videos: 

Here's a compelling video of the ice storm in northern Michigan. It's a drive through the region, and it's a combination of sadness, beauty, awe and destruction.  Click on this link to view. or if you see the image below, click on that:

A walk through a forested neighborhood in Gaylord, Michigan reveals the damage and the almost gunshot like sounds of tree collapsing under the weight of the ice. Again, click on this link or if you see the image below click on that. 

A aerial look around Gaylord, Michigan after the skies cleared reveal the awful beauty of an ice storm's destruction. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

In southern Michigan, watch what increasing thunderstorms winds, finally reaching 95 mph, does to the mobile home in the surveillance video. Once again, click on this link to view or if you see the image below click on that: 

 

South Korean Wildfires Even Worst Than U.S. Blazes

Extreme wildfires in South Korea have killed 24 people
destroyed hundreds of homes and mowed down
historic sites. 

 I wrote about the swarm of United States wildfires we've seen recently, but things are as bad or worse in some other nations.   

Especially South Korea. 

Per the Associated Press: 

"Wind-driven wildfires that were among South Korea's worst ever have ravaged the country's southern regions, killing 24 people, destroying more than 200 structures and forcing 27,000 residents to evacuate, officials said Wednesday."

The fires started in earnest Friday and were still raging Wednesday. A little rain forecast Thursday might temporarily dampen the blazes, but it likely won't be enough to entirely stop the conflagration. 

The fires have gone so far as to destroy some of South Korea's history and heritage.

Large parts of an ancient Buddhist temple complex were swept by the wildfire, destroying 20 of 30 buildings and structures at the ancient Gousa temple. Two of the destroyed buildings that had been designated national treasures. 

The Gaunru, a pavilion-shaped structure built in 1668 overlooking a stream, and Yeonsujeon, built in 1904 to celebrate the longevity of a king, were demolished in the fires.  Monks and other Buddhist moved a stone Buddha statue reportedly build in the 8th century out of way of the flames, so that treasure was saved, the AP said.

Other sites important to South Koreas were also threatened. 

Says the Associated Press:

"Strong winds and smoke-filled skies forced authorities in the southeastern city of Andong to order evacuations in two villages, including Puncheon, home to the Hahoe folk village - a UNESCO World Heritage Site founded around the 14th-15th century. Hikers were advised to leave scenic Jiri Mountain, one of the country's largest national parks, as another fire spread closer."

Back in the United States, wildfires on Wednesday continued to burn in the southeastern part of the nation, especially in the western Carolinas.  

Additional evacuations were reported today as the fires continued to spread, many with zero or near zero containment. 

Residents of both North and South Carolina were under mandatory burn bans. Large areas from Georgia to Maryland were under red flag warnings this afternoon, which signify a very high fire danger.

Meteorologists have slightly increased rainfall projections for this coming Sunday and Monday in the western parts of the Carolinas, but it still might not be enough to squelch the fires in a meaningful way.

 

Massive Storm Has Caused Huge Wildfire, Wind And Tornado Damage Already; Could Get Even Worse Today

A home burns in Stillwater, Oklahoma Friday amid 
wildfires that roared through the region. Photo by
Nick Oxford via Facebook. 

After much of the nation endured a day and night of weather chaos Friday, we have more of the same on tap today.  

All thanks to one of the most massive March U.S. storms in memory. 

It started with intense winds, dust storms and wildfires. CBS reports three deaths in Texas involving motorist blinded by dust storms on highways. 

Many highways, including parts of Interstate 35 and 40 were closed in Oklahoma due to crashes, high winds and dust storms.  

At least 50 weather stations in Oklahoma reported winds gusting to  more than 58 mph.  Some gusted past 70 mph.  Amarillo had a peak gust of 83 mph. 

These weren't thunderstorm winds, they were just the power of the parent, intense storm. 

WILDFIRES

The wildfires, sadly, were California style. In other words, tragically destructive. 

No fewer than 150 wildfires were reported in Oklahoma.  One large complex of fires near Stillwater, Oklahoma forced evacuations of numerous homes, some hotels and a Walmart.  At least some homes burned around Stillwater, but we're still waiting on assessment of how bad this one is. "Multiple structures have been impacted," reports News9.com. 

The Stillwater News Press reported multiple homes destroyed in one southwest Stillwater neighborhood.

The fires  were burning houses and other structures elsewhere in Oklahoma, too. About 50 structures burned down around Guthrie, Oklahoma. 

Parts of the Oklahoma City suburb of Norman were briefly evacuated due to another fire on Friday. A wildfire within Oklahoma City limits destroyed two homes. 

In Texas, another wildfire grew to encompass 12.5 square miles.

TORNADOES

 Severe thunderstorms developed near the Mississippi River late Friday afternoon and the sped east, spinning off tornadoes and severe wind gusts that left a trail of damage. 

Tornado damage in Rolla, Missouri last night. Photo
by Joshua Rogers via Facebook.

We've already had 25 reports of tornadoes and 315 instances of thunderstorm-related wind damage as of early this morning.  

That wind damage doesn't include destruction from the intense winds and dust storms in the Plains yesterday that were nowhere near any thunderstorms. 

Reports are still sketchy and spotty as to how bad the damage was and whether there were any casualties from the overnight tornadoes.

They hit in darkness, so we'll be better able to tell how bad things got after dawn. 

We know there was a lot of tornado damage in towns like Rolla, and Villa Ridge Missouri and Cave City, Arkansas and Elliott, Mississippi. Photos on social media showed a large tornado lit up by lightning late last night near Belzoni, Mississippi. A traffic camera near Campbell Station, Arkansas spotted two simultaneous tornadoes nearby. 

TODAY

The tornado situation is actually going to worsen today.

As the day started, tornado watches were already in effect from southwest Ohio down to Mississippi and Alabama.

In the South, this early round of severe weather is just a foretaste of what's to come. 

Alabama and Mississippi are in a  rare high risk zone for tornadoes this afternoon and evening. That's the first time in four years this tornado-prone region has been designated a high risk for twisters.

Forecasters fear the region will be hit be a series of violent, long-lasting tornadoes. This looks like it could get off to an oddly early start today and last all day.  Already, NOAA's Storm Prediction Center is contemplating issuing a new tornado watch for much of Louisiana and northwest Mississippi as this new, dangerous round of intense storms begins to develop

The risk of this happening is almost as high as well in parts of Georgia, Tennessee and eastern Louisiana. 

On top of everything else a large area in Tennessee and surrounding states are under the gun today for widespread, life-threatening flash floods.  Some areas could see six inches or more of rain, with rainfall rates of up to two inches per hour. 

VERMONT EFFECTS

Here in Vermont, the main risk from this storm continues to be flooding. At least minor flooding looks inevitable. The most likely time frame for this would be from late Sunday afternoon through most of Monday.

We'll prime the pump as it were today with warm temperatures in the 60s in many areas of Vermont. That will get rivers starting to rise, but the main show won't happen until later Sunday. 

By Sunday evening, the remaining snow will have been melting fast amid oddly warm, humid air. A band of showers and possible thunderstorms should come through Sunday night, adding another half inch to an inch of rain to all that snowmelt runoff.

We're starting to get the first flood forecast outlooks for specific rivers in Vermont. Though subject to change, these forecasts call for minor to at times moderate flooding. For instance, the forecasts have the Mad River at Moretown at the cusp of moderate flood stage Sunday night. Forecasts also have the Missisquoi River at North Troy approaching moderate flood state Sunday night. 

Even though the thawing today and Saturday could weaken ice in spots, the risk of more ice jam flooding is definitely there on some rivers. I'm especially watching the WInooski, Lamoille and especially the Missisquoi for that possibility. 

STORM IN PERSPECTIVE

Given the breadth of this almost nationwide storm, the destruction that's already occurred and the inevitable severe damage we'll see today, this will be yet another mega storm that costs more than $1 billion in damage.

Large, multifaceted storms are pretty common this time of year, but this storm is an especially extreme case. It's hitting an even wider area than most early spring storms, and its effects are even more intense than the usual March storms that bluster through the Midwest and East. 

I can't specifically blame climate change for this storm's intensity because I don't yet have enough information about the dynamics of this system. However, it's consistent with climate change in that storms tend to be more intense, windier and in many cases wetter than they would otherwise be had the world not been warming. 

This storm has already taken lives, and I'm afraid it will take quite a few more before it's over. Meanwhile, with foolish cutbacks in staffing and services from NOAA, the National Weather Service and FEMA, there might well be some unnecessary deaths with this storm, and almost certainly some unnecessary suffering. 

As Lower 48 Prepares To Sink Into Arctic Icebox, Alaska Experiences Record Warmth And Storminess.

Destructive winds amid record high temperatures
blew this pedestrian walkway onto a highway
Sunday in Seward, Alaska. 

As cold weather in  much of the United States gets ready to turn truly Arctic and icy, Alaska is having a strangely warm, stormy time of it.  

The most extreme weather hit Anchorage and environs Sunday, with a windstorm so fierce that some houses lost their roofs, caused a pedestrian bridge to partly collapse, and toppled scores of trees and power lines. 

A landslide also blocked a road in Seward, but that was cleaned up within a day without causing injuries. 

Winds gusted to 132 mph at a mountain location south of Anchorage, the Associated Press reports. Just north of Anchorage, a 107 mph gust was reported in Arctic Valley. Within Anchorage itself, winds reached 75 mph. 

Some power outages around Anchorage were expected to last four days, at least through today, Wednesday. 

The extreme northern tip of Alaska experienced their own weird, warm storm. Utqiagvic, formerly Barrow is usually dark, dry and incredibly frigid this time of year. Normal highs are around minus 5 with the low around 16 below.

Instead, it's been incredibly warm for them. Also windy. Plus, on Tuesday, the had a rarity. Utqiagvic had a touch of freezing drizzle, which is practically unheard of there, especially in January. The high temperature reached 25 degrees, which doesn't seem impressive, but it fell just short of a record high. 

On Monday, it snowed in Utquigvic, and if you melted it down, it amounted to 0.29 inches of rain. Again, that doesn't sound like much, but for them, it was a record wet or snowy day. The high temperature was 24, again just short of a  record high. Oh, and the wind gusted to 60 mph. 

So quite a day for them. 

RECORD HIGHS

Fairbanks, Alaska is usually a bitter icebox this time of year, with a normal high of near 0 and a low around 18 below. 

But on Sunday, the temperature soared to a record high of 47 degrees, beating the old record high by eight degrees. On Monday, Fairbanks set another record high of 42,  It's now turning a little colder in Fairbanks, but not nearly as cold as it usually is this time of year. 

After getting a little below zero Thursday, daytime highs are forecast to be in the teens and 20s for at least a week, with overnight lows above zero. That'll be warmer than it will be around here in Vermont. 

Other record highs on Sunday up in Alaska included 44 degrees in McGrath, which exceeded the old record by a big eight degrees. Normally frigid Kotzebue got a little above freezing for a record high of 33, beating the old record of just 30. 

WHY ALASKA BAKES, LOWER 48 FREEZES

A huge northward bulge in the jet stream is allowing warm Pacific air to flood into Alaska, so they're not having the January they're used to having. 

This is one big, big northward bulge, so you're going to have a big, big corresponding dip in the jet stream to the east. That big dip is taking frigid air from the North Pole and is slamming it southward through central Canada.

That Arctic air will cross the border into the northern Plains later Friday and then quickly engulf virtually all of the Lower 48 from the Rockies to the East Coast by Saturday night. 

Low temperatures are expected to reach the 20s to near 30 below zero across a big swath of the northern United States from Idaho to Michigan, Parts or all of 40 states will probably get below zero.

The frigid temperatures are forecast to moderate, but not entirely go away, within about a week from when they start 

 .

  

Videos:

News report on the wind in Anchorage. Click on this link to view or if you see image below, click on that

More wind damage around Anchorage: Click on this link to view, or if again, if you see image below, click on that. 

Security footage of a pedestrian bridge collapsing due to high wind in Seward, Alaska. Once again click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

California Wildfire Nightmare Brings Latest Deadly Climate Calamity; Breadth of Disaster Extreme

Another likely climate-driven mega-disaster.
Enormous wildfires raging now in the Los
Angeles area causing massive destruction.

The Los Angeles area was in flames overnight and this morning. 

Three major wildfires were racing through neighborhoods, destroying an as-yet unknown number of homes and businesses, likely killing and injuring a number of people and causing chaos in the region.

It's the latest climate-related disaster. Strong Santa Ana winds, gusting in the worst instances to 100 mph, are fanning the flames, turning them into blowtorches. Santa Ana winds are usually at the worst in October, November and early December, not in January. 

Although it's too soon to concretely attribute climate change to this calamity, the circumstantial evidence is there. 

Climate change has seemed to turn California's winter's into something much more unpredictable. Either the winter rains are extreme, it seems, or they are nonexistent. 

So far in southern California, the rains are missing. By now, in January,  the hillsides around Los Angeles should have been wet and damp and drippy and green. These horrendous winds should be knocking down some trees and power lines. But the fires should be nonexistent.

Those fires are anything but. 

The reports on the fire early this  morning were hard to keep up with, there was so much new, tragic information coming in.  Worse, since yesterday, the firefighters couldn't keep up with the flames, either completely overwhelmed by the size of the fires, the panicked evacuations, the lack of water, the extreme winds. 

Given the speed of the fires, and the dense neighborhoods they invaded, I'm sadly pretty sure there have been deaths, but as of this writing, there's nothing confirmed. 

The news reports are horrifying. Fox 11 in Los Angeles reported that badly burned people were found staggering along the Pacific Coast Highway overnight.

Early this morning, a Good Morning America reporter stood in a parking lot of the largest supermarket in downtown Pacific Palisades surrounded by flames. The supermarket was reduced to a wall of flame, and all the businesses surrounding the normally busy neighborhood were in flames. 

The first of the fires broke out in Pacific Palisades around 10:30 a.m. local time Tuesday. I watched live news reports in horror as the disaster escalated in the blink of an eye.  Panicked residents fleeing that fire clogged a road, then abandoned their cars and fled on foot. 

The abandoned cars blocked emergency vehicles, so bulldozers were called in to push the Bentleys, Mercedes, Teslas and BMWs from the roads in the wealthy enclave so firetrucks could get to the scene.

Once firefighters got there, they could only watch helplessly as the flames hopscotched from home to home. Hydrants weren't working - for some reason water wasn't coming out of many of them. There wasn't nearly enough personnel to handle the calamity, and the erratic winds send embers flying for miles, starting new fires. 

Buildings all along Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades - one of the most famous streets in the world - were in flames.

Overnight a new fire erupted around Altadena and Pasadena, and that one quickly invaded neighborhoods too. A little while later, a third fire appeared in Sylmar, and the same thing happened.

The L.A. Fire Department called in all off-duty firefighters to come in and help. More than 1,400 firefighters were trying, and so far failing to stop the flames. That's not a knock against these heroes. It's just that no human could stop the exceptionally erratic winds and flames in and near Los Angeles.

The bad stories keep coming:  Residents of an assisted living facility, some on gurneys or in wheelchairs, were huddled in a Pasadena 7-Eleven parking lot in strong gusty winds, having fled an assisted living facility and awaiting transport to....somewhere. Nobody was quite sure. 

The Pacific Palisades fire burned all the way down to the beaches. Video showed life guard stations on the beaches of Malibu up in flames. Numerous beachfront homes along the Pacific Coast Highway  in and near Malibu were also reportedly in flames. 

The Getty Villa Art Museum was also threatened. 

Distressing moments keep popping up on news broadcasts. Like the quick interview of the panicked, tearful man saying he'd been trying for five hours to get to his house to rescue his dogs. (Thankfully, he was eventually reunited with his now-safe pups.) 

The most extreme winds with this Santa Ana event were ongoing early this morning. The winds were forecast to only slowly subside between now and Thursday, so this catastrophe will continue to get worse today. 

This is obviously a developing story and there will be more sad updates to come. It's going to be a long, tragic day in California as yet another likely climate fueled disaster puts us all on edge. 

 Videos: Scary report via Good Morning America had my nerves soaring and my heart breaking. Click on this link to view or if you see the image below, click on that.  

The Today show also showed some heartrending, scary reports. Again, click on this link or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Hurricane Season 2024 Finally Comes To An End, Good Riddance!

Hurricane Helene approaching Florida in September. This
hurricane proved to be the United States' deadliest hurricane
since Katrina in 2005. The 2024 hurricane season, which
ended Saturday, was among the most destructive on record.

 Back on Saturday, we said our goodbyes to the Atlantic hurricane season of 2024.

And we also told it to don't let the door hit you on your ass on the way out.  It turned out to be a troublesome one, that's for sure. 

As NPR reports, it was the deadliest hurricane season in two decades and easily one of the costliest. Five hurricanes hit the continental United States in 2024, a near-record for the most hits in a single season. 

Hurricane Helene alone snuffed out 150 lives, the biggest death toll from a single hurricane in the United States since 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

Damage from this year's hurricanes amount to at least $190 billion, the second most costly hurricane year after 2017. That was the year that brought us Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

As we head into the Christmas season, thousands of people are still experiencing heartache, loss, fear, homelessness and financial ruin because of this year's hurricanes 

For the record 2024 brought us 18 named storms with winds of at least 39 mph. Eleven of those storms became hurricanes (74 mph or greater) and five were major hurricanes (111 mph or greater)

The second half of the season was when most of the action happened. Twelve named storms formed after what is normally the season's peak in early September. Seven hurricanes formed after September 25, which is the most for that late in the season. 

We were warned back in the spring this would be a hyper hurricane season, as near record warm ocean temperatures and a favorable atmospheric setup would turbocharge the season, leading to a possibly record number of hurricanes.  Some estimates indicated we'd have more tropical storms and hurricanes than names in the 2024 queue for these storms.

But the last tropical storm of the season was Sara, leaving three unused names this year, Tony, Valerie and William.

Normally there would have been additional storms in August and the first week of September, which is near the peak of the season. All the ingredients seemed to be there for storms, but they just didn't materialize during that period. It was an odd mid-season lull

Meteorologists will probably spend years studying why the hurricanes mercifully shut down during those weeks in August. 

Some leading theories include the idea that disturbances moving off the west coast ofAfrica - which often eventually develop into hurricanes - were too far north this year, missing out on the very warm waters further south that would fuel these storms.

Also, to get a hurricane going, the upper atmosphere should be cooler than the air near the surface. That would create instability to few the thunderstorms that are the seeds of hurricanes.

This year, the atmosphere was warm through tens of thousands of feet in elevation. That prevented the needed instability to create nascent tropical storms. 

Those meteorologists will study if these really were the factors preventing hurricanes in August and whether climate change had anything to do with these atmospheric conditions. That research will help with predictions of future hurricane season, and individual hurricanes. 

Two of the season's hurricanes managed to cause damage here in Vermont. 

In July, the remnants of Hurricane Beryl (which was the earliest Category 5 Atlantic storm on record in the Caribbean) teamed up with a stalled weather front to unleash intense downpours, especially across much of central and northern Vermont. The result was the state's third catastrophic flood within a year.   

In early August, the remnants of Hurricane Debby blasted much of Vermont with high winds, especially the Champlain Valley. 

Both storms proved you don't have to be anywhere close to where a hurricane made landfall to have those storms cause real trouble.  

North Carolina Coastal Town Braces For Nor'easter Season: How Many More Homes Will Fall Into The Ocean?

House on the left in process of collapsing into the
ocean on September 24 in Rodanthe, North Carolina
It bumped into the house on the right, damaging it
and that house is doomed to collapse, too.

Seemingly centuries ago, really just weeks ago,  back in mid-September before we had to deal with Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the coastal town of Rodanthe, on North Carolina's Outer Banks, had been facing the kind of damage you sometimes see in hurricanes.   

Just a slower motion version of it. Without the actual hurricane. 

Neither hurricanes Helene and Milton really affected Rodanthe. But before those two storms, all it took was a routine easterly fetch of wind and waves off the Atlantic Ocean to cause more problems there. 

Houses are falling into the water, as you can see in the video in this link, for instance.  Also, theres's a couple good news videos of this situation that adds more good context to this post.

According to a September 24 Washington Post piece:

"The latest came early Tuesday afternoon when the ocean claimed an unoccupied house at 23039 G.A. Kohler Ct. It marked the third such home collapse since Friday on this erosion-plagued stretch of the Outer Bans - and the 10th home to fall since 2020.

Rodanthe, home to some the most rapid rates of erosion on the East Coast, has become a poster child in recent years for the perils of living along a vulnerable coastline, particularly in an age of more intense storms and rising seas. 

Multiple homeowners in this small community have raced to relocate their homes farther from the shoreline, often at a cost of thousands of dollars. Others have tried to move their homes further from th encroaching tides, only to run out of time."

Three homes fell into the ocean in less than a week. Days before the house described above fell in, yet another one did. That failure caused added damage to a precariously situated house next door to fall into the waves. 

The one the Washington Post described in that September 24 article appears to have damaged the one next to it, so that one should go soon if it hasn't already. A nearby red colored house also looks doomed. 

Earlier this month, the Board of Commissioners in Dare County, where Rodanthe is located, voted to apply for a FEMA Flood Mitigation Assistance grant. A state project director is reaching out to eligible homeowners to see if they're interested in the voluntary program.

The program targets 20 potential properties in Rodanthe that are in or close to the ocean and within 300 feet of stable vegetation. The whole process takes three or four years, so we're probably going to see more homes fall into the ocean.  

Aerial view in Rondanthe, North Carolina taken a couple
months ago. Four houses in the foreground
have since collapsed into the ocean, 

Which of course is a problem since each collapse causes a huge mess. Debris spreads miles up and down the beach with each collapse, and it all has to be picked up. I'm sure sharp objects like glass shards and nails are left behind, too. 

Inches matter with sea level rise. According to a Washington Post article from March, sea levels have risen seven inches in recent decades at Oregon Inlet, near Rodanthe. A stretch along Seagull Street in Rodanthe loses about a dozen feet or more per year to erosion. 

I'm also sure there was more erosion on the Outer Banks and elsewhere along the Atlantic Seaboard last week.  We just had a full super moon - named because the moon is a little closer to Earth than usual and looks bigger than it normally does,

This super moon contributed to King Tides that caused "sunny weather flooding" along coastlines from New England to  Florida. This never used to be a real problem decades ago, but sea level rise has made even just a full moon in calm weather cause coastal flooding. 

A nor'easter far off shore probably also contributed to swells that probably added to the erosion late this past week. Video of Buxton, North Carolina, a little south of Rodanthe, showed King Tide waves smashing ashore, causing plenty of flooding and erosion under crystal clear blue skies. 

Speaking of nor'easters, even though hurricane season is about to wane, nor'easter season is just ramping up.  This will no doubt increase the pressure on homes on North Carolina's Outer Banks, and up and down the East Coast for that matter. 

It'll be interesting to see how many more houses and buildings fall into the ocean this winter, especially if it's really stormy out there. 

VIDEOS

CBS News video, first aired Wednesday, on the challenges that face North Carolina's Outer Banks, focusing on Rodanthe. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that: 

Television station WRAL has more on this. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that.