As another year comes to a close, once again we begin to reflect back on the past year's weather events. If the year 2014 taught us anything about the weather it was to expect the unexpected. We observed uncharacteristic weather events occurring all over the United States. In the Deep South it snowed in the middle of fall, we saw wildfires in the winter, back-to-back hurricanes, and twin tornadoes. And of course we witnessed the more common weather phenomenons, such as floods, droughts and blizzards, but to new record extremes. Overall the Atlantic hurricane season was quiet despite Hurricanes Arthur, Fay and Gonzalo; however the Pacific Basin had a busy season. During 2014, the Polar Vortex became a household term and the global trend of warming continued. Let's take a look at the top 10 weather events for 2014:
#10 Strange Snow
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| Source: People.com |
This year snow showed up when and where we least expected
it. We saw snow in mid-September slamming Calgary, and dusting Rapid City, South
Dakota, Boulder, Colorado, and North Platte, Nebraska. A little over a month later
we observed snow on Halloween. Snow on Halloween, pretty spooky, right? Not if
you live in the northern regions of the U.S., but what about South Carolina? By
November 1st, snow was falling and accumulating four inches with
surface temperatures in the low 30’s. This set the new record for the earliest
accumulations ever recorded in and around Columbia, South Carolina. We saw
atypical snow fall in another part of the Deep South in late January. It only
took about 2 inches of snow from Winter Storm Leon to cripple the cities of Birmingham,
Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia. Two inches may not seem like enough snow to shut
down two cities as large as Birmingham and Atlanta, but with inadequate
planning, snow removal and service equipment it was enough to wreak havoc. In
Atlanta, there were over 1,500 traffic accidents and the icy road conditions
led people to abandon their vehicles on major highways.
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| Source: PortBermudaWebcam.com |
#9 Bermuda’s Bizarre
Back-to-Back Hurricanes
The old saying is lightning never strikes in the same place
twice, I wish I could say the same about hurricanes. Bermuda took back-to-back
hits in mid-October. Hurricane Fay struck first flooding Bermuda’s only airport
and knocking out power to the majority of the Island. Following Fay, Hurricane
Gonzalo battered the Island for the second time in a week. As Gonzalo blew over
it left $400 million in damages behind. Hurricanes Fay and Gonzalo made history
by becoming the closest timed back-to-back hurricanes in Bermuda history.
#8 Abnormal Winter
Wildfires
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| Source:Oregonlive.com |
You normally hear about wildfires in the summer months, but
for the state of Oregon raging wildfires in January made headlines. Fueled by
70 mph winds, wildfires spread throughout the coastal ranges of northwest
Oregon. The fire scoarched up to 2,000 acres and burnt 15 structures. Oregon was not alone; California had its share of wildfires as well. A
resilient blocking high-pressure system over the west coast was a huge
influencer on 2014 weather systems. Take a look at our #4 event to just see
what I mean. The blocking high-pressure weather system inhibited moisture from
entering the California region, therefore the dry ground provided the perfect
fuel for wildfires.
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| Source: Tornado Hunters |
#7 Terrifying
Tornadoes and Twin Twisters
Tornado Alley is accustomed to multiple tornado outbreaks.
One of the deadliest outbreaks the U.S. has experienced struck in late April
2011. So you can imagine everyone’s fear when in late April 2014 meteorologists
began tracking a large supercell system mimicking 2011’s. We didn’t know it
yet, but this cell was the largest and deadliest tornado outbreak for the year
2014. Arkansas’ counties of Faulker, Pulaski, and Whiten lay in the path of an
EF4 tornado. It carved out a 40-mile trail before crashing into Vilonia, Arkansas.
The aftermath was heartbreaking; 382 homes destroyed and 216 homes damaged. Sixteen
lives were lost. Within 24 hours another strong EF4 tornado engraved a 34-mile
track through Winston County, Mississippi. The damage almost mimicked EF5
tornado damage because homes were thrown off their foundations and swept clean.
This storm claimed ten lives. To the north of Winston, an EF3 tornado tore
through Tupelo, Mississippi, wreaking havoc throughout Lee County. Months later in June, the small town of Pilger, Nebraska experienced a weather event that left veteran storm chasers shocked. A large pair, or set of twins tornadoes formed from the same strong supercell. These tornadoes reach EF4 force and one of them tore through Pilger. The damages included approximately 75 percent of the town’s structures.
#6 Powerful Pacific
Hurricanes
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| Source: NASA |
In August, Hurricanes Iselle and Julio were making weather
headlines when the two hurricanes were forecasted to make landfall over the
Hawaiian Islands just two to three days apart. This rare occurrence hadn’t
occurred since the year 1982. Hurricane Julio took a more northerly track than
what was originally forecasted and ultimately missed making landfall. Unlike
Julio, Iselle did make landfall and made history by herself. Hurricane Iselle
was the strongest tropical cyclone recorded to make landfall on the Big Island
of Hawaii. Flash floods, power outages, sea surge and strong winds caused
millions of dollars in damages. Months later, we watched another strong
hurricane take form in the Pacific Ocean basin. Hurricane Odile, a Category 3
storm with winds up to 125mph, broke records in Baja California. It was the
strongest hurricane to make landfall on the Baja peninsula. Odile caused $1
billion in damages when its path altered and impacted an area that included the
major resort city of Cabo San Lucas.
#5 Flash Floods
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| Source: Andrew Theodorakis/Getty Images |
Throughout the summer months, significant amounts of
rainfall and flash floods are common. This year, the rainy season extended from
April through September. In April, excessive amounts of rain soaked locations
such as Pensacola, Florida measuring 20 inches of rain in just a little over
two days. Flash floods flooded a prison
and knocked out a portion of Interstate-10. Fast forward to August, Detroit
reported $1.8 billion dollars in damages from the August 11th foods.
Also in August, you may remember seeing photos of portions of Long Island, New
York under water. The new record of 13.57 inches of rain in a 24-rain period blew
away the old record set by Hurricane Irene in 2011. Similarly, Phoenix and the Southwest
U.S. also experienced multiple episodes of flooding. Phoenix was hit with
back-to-back flash floods. The northern side of Phoenix was inundated on August
19th when major freeways were flooded. Not even a month later,
Hurricane Norbert was a contributing factor in Phoenix’s next flood event. This
event set a new record for the wettest calendar-day rainfall amount.
#4 California Drought
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| Source: kpbs.com |
California is no stranger to frequent droughts. This is
because the state of California is prone to a ridge of high-pressure that
becomes stationary while it blocks incoming precipitation from the tropical
Pacific Ocean. The year 2014 extended the current drought from the previous
year. California’s wet season parallels its winter season. Therefore, when the
blocking high-pressure system parked itself over the state in January it cut
out the majority of its wet season. This
led to inhibiting precipitation during the 2014 wet season. The effects of the
blocking high-pressure system soon became apparent as the land started to dry
out, livestock became stressed, and water supplies and towns ran dry. The
Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins ran so low that NASA predicted it would
take 11 trillion gallons of water to replenish the basins. The Sierra Nevada
Range’s snow levels were the lowest since 1977. It has been said this drought may be the worst
that California has faced in the last 1,200 years.
#3 South Buffalo Snow
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| Source: (Photo/ Twitter User @NYGovCuomo) |
How much snow does it take to shut down a city that averages
92.5 inches of snow a year? Residents of Southern Buffalo, NY discovered this
answer when they were buried under 7 feet of snow in November. South Buffalo
may be used to lake-effect snow, but in November they got to experience record
breaking lake-effect snowfall. Buffalo
was hit with two rounds of moist and heavy snow and even observed thundersnow.
Moisture from the warm Great Lakes supplied fuel for this monstrous storm that
dumped 6 inches of snow an hour upon the city of Buffalo. After four days of
solid snowfall, measurements of over 7 feet were recorded in southern locations,
while spots in northern Buffalo only received a mere 8 inches of snow. This was
attributed to a steady and strong wind focusing much of the snow bands towards
the southern part of the city. A massive stretch of the Interstate-90 was shut
down, which made people abandon their vehicles. People were also stranded in
their homes for many days, leaving at least ten people dead. The Governor of
New York declared several counties in a state of emergency and the National
Guard troops were brought in to assist with snow removal and rescuing stranded
motorists and homeowners who couldn’t dig out. The estimated cost of the
damages, response and clean up was in the ballpark of 46.6 million. Pictures of
the snow immediately went viral. ForecastGMU included some of these amazing
photos in our article about the lake-effect snow event, which can be found
here.
#2 THE Polar Vortex
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| Source: ABC News |
In 2014, it’s safe to say you saw the term “Polar Vortex”
plastered on every newspaper headline, news station, news article, and social
media. ForecastGMU posted an article to explain this scientific term, which is
now popular jargon, and you can review following this link here. The Polar Vortex
brought blasts of cold, polar air into the U.S. If you were in the Midwest,
East Coast and Southern regions last January, it is more than likely you
remember what I am talking about. Thanks to the Polar Vortex several locations
in the Midwest froze in one of the coldest winters on record. The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported 47 people died due to the severe
cold snap. The polar temperatures didn’t leave us after January. The dreaded
Polar Vortex made its return in March. This cold snap brought the coldest March
temperatures to 18 states east of the Rockies. To many people’s surprise, the
Polar Vortex even made an appearance in July when it brought cooler average
temperatures throughout the deep South and the East Coast. Pittsburgh experienced
their first summer in 10 years without a 90-degree day. Finally “The Return of
the Polar Vortex” and #PolarVortex landed back on our radars in November. This
cold spell effected parts of the west by sending temperatures plummeting below
zero. For now all we can say is: “Until we meet again Polar Vortex!”.
#1 2014 Was One HOT
YEAR
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| Source: NASA/GISS |
And while the Polar Vortex claimed headlines throughout
2014, this year we still experienced one of the hottest years the globe has
ever experienced. As we wait for the data for the month of December to be
gathered, we can already state with confidence that the previous 11 months were
among the fourth warmest for each month on record. This is enough to secure a
global record of warmth based on a 12-month review. Another notable event were
the Siberian heat waves. Oymyakon, Russia is known as the world’s coldest
inhabited town with a whopping -51 degrees Fahrenheit as an average high for
the month of February. Oymyakon’s
February 2014 high was a shocking 9.5 degrees Fahrenheit. In comparing these
two temperature differences you can infer the extremity of this record warm
year. Need more convincing? Following in 2013’s footsteps, Australia again
experienced a record warm spring for the second year in a row. Speaking of
record warm springs, Norway faced a seasonably warm spring and record high temperatures
in the month of July. Austria also experienced some relatively unusual warmth.
For the first time since records begun in 1767, some regions went the entire fall
season without a single frost. This contributed to their warmest fall season,
second warmest winter, and tied for their warmest March. The year 2014 has continued the trend of global
warming; so far, 13 of the 14 warmest years for the globe have occurred in the
21st century, especially the past couple of decades. So in summation, in spite of record cold in
some parts of the world, the global trend is for temperatures to remain on the
rise.
