1991: After a major winter storm on October 30-November 2 unusually bitter cold air streamed into Iowa for much of the first half of November. On the morning of the 4th nearly every reporting station in the state fell into the single digits and remarkably some western stations reported their earliest subzero temperatures on record, including Sioux City where the low was -3 F. Des Moines and Waterloo both established daily records with a low of 4 F. The lowest temperatures reported on the morning of the 4th included -7 F at Sioux Rapids, -9 F at Hawarden, -10 F at Sheldon, and -11 F at Cherokee. Amazingly, even colder weather would settle across Iowa a few days later with nearly the entire state falling below zero on the mornings of November 7th and 8th.

4 November 1927 → A decaying tropical cyclone dumped more than 15 inches of rainon the Green Mountains of Vermont. The flooding killed 200 people, including the Lieutenant Governor. 4 November 1959 → A small F0 tornado caused minor damage near Cape St. Elias Light Station on Kayak Island, AK. There were no injuries. 4 November 1973 → An F3 tornado struck Brisbane, Australia, destroying nearly two thousand homes. 4 November 2001 → Hurricane Michelle became the strongest hurricane to strike Cuba since 1952 when it made landfall with top winds of 140 mph.

Posted under Weather History

Let’s take a look back at how good or bad the forecast track was from the National Hurricane Center for Hurricane Sandy. The map below was the forecast for Sandy issued at 11 AM Thursday, October 25.  The forecast shows the storm off the New Jersey coast Tuesday morning.

The map below shows the actual position of the storm off the New Jersey coast Monday evening. The timing was slightly off but the forecast track was right on 4-5 days out.

The image below courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, shows the red shaded areas where a mandatory evacuation was in effect for New York. The red dots show where the fatalities were (in the red shaded area). The shelters these people could have gone to were outside of the evacuation area. When warnings are issued and evacuation orders are issued it is for a reason…to protect lives.

Posted under Tropics, Verification

2003: A large storm system produced moderate to heavy rain across Iowa on November 2-4 with the heaviest rain falling from southwestern through northeastern Iowa. Garwin reported 5.04 inches on November 3-4 which was the largest 24 hour rainfall amount in Iowa in November since 1952. At several locations in northeastern Iowa this month would end as the wettest November on record, including at the Dubuque Lock and Dam where 7.94 inches fell during the month and at Independence and Manchester where totals of 6.39 inches and 6.52 inches, respectively, broke their all-time November records which were both previously set in 1879.

3 November 1991 → Pueblo, CO dropped to 17 below zero breaking the old record by an amazing 28 degrees. Alamosa, CO recorded 26 degrees below zero, breaking the old record by 18 degrees. Snow flurries fell in Brownsville, TX. 3 November 2000 → Three tornadoes struck the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Golf ball sized hail was reported as well. 3 November 2002 → A chain-reaction car accident occurred on the Long Beach Freeway in Los Angeles. It was caused by dense fog, slick roads, and speeding. 198 cars were involved.

Posted under Weather History