The extremely wet and windy Nor'easter that plowed across the northern tier of states has left moderate to major flooding in its wake over both the Midwest and Northeast. In the Northeast, the storm dropped more than five inches of rain in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and moderate to major flooding is occurring in these states. Flooding was particularly severe in Rhode Island on the Pawtuxet River in Cranston, where the river crested a record six feet over flood stage, forcing evacuations. Major flooding was also occurring in New Jersey, where the Passaic River at Little Falls is cresting at five feet over flood stage.
In the Midwest, snow melt and heavy rains have swollen the Red River in North Dakota and Minnesota to near flood stage, and the river is expected to crest two feet above major flood stage by Sunday morning, and one foot above one of the permanent dikes on the river. In Fargo, ND, the Red River is expected to crest Saturday at 38 feet, three feet below the record of 41 feet set last year. Many rivers in Iowa are in flood and expected to crest above major flood stage on Thursday or Friday this week, including the Des Moines River in northern Iowa. In Des Moines, flooding on the Des Moines River is expected to be moderate, but a levee that failed in the floods of 1993 and 2008 is leaking, and residents of the area are evacuating, according to media reports.
Figure 1. Estimated precipitation for the seven day period ending at 8am EDT Monday March 15, 2010. Image credit: NOAA.
Tropical Cyclone Tomas roars through Fiji Islands
Tropical Cyclone Tomas roared through the eastern portion of the Fiji Islands as a major Category 3 storm with 130 mph winds yesterday. Tomas sideswiped the two largest islands in the chain, destroying 50 buildings, causing extensive power outages, and claiming one life. The cyclone made a direct hit on several of the smaller islands to the east of the main islands, and the extent of damage on these islands is unknown, but undoubtedly very heavy.
Tropical Cyclone Ului weakens, may threaten Australia
The first Category 5 tropical cyclone of the year, Tropical Cyclone Uliu, has weakened from its impressive peak as a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds to a low-end Category 4 storm with 132 mph winds. Ului is over the open waters of the South Pacific, east of Australia, and is projected to significantly decay as the week progresses, due to high wind shear. Ului may be a threat to the Queensland coast of Australia by the end of the week, but should be at tropical storm strength by then.
Figure 2. Tropical Cyclone Ului (left) and Tropical Cyclone Tomas (right). Over the Solomon Islands, Tropical Cyclone Ului had maximum sustained winds of 130 knots (240 kilometers per hour, 150 miles per hour) and gusts up to 160 knots (300 km/hr, 180 mph). Over Fiji, Tropical Cyclone Tomas had maximum sustained winds of 115 knots (215 km/hr, 132 mph) and gusts up to 140 knots (260 km/hr, 160 mph). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites captured both storms in multiple passes over the South Pacific on March 15, 2010, local time. The majority of the image is from the morning of March 15 (late March 14, UTC time) as seen by MODIS on the Terra satellite, with the right portion of the image having been acquired earliest. The wedge-shaped area right of center is from Aqua MODIS, and it was taken in the early afternoon of March 15 (local time). Image credit: NASA.
Portlight looks to build permanent shelters in Haiti
On February 26th, torrential rains brought more than five feet (1.5 m) of flood water into the streets in the coastal city of Les Cayes, Haiti, an area unscathed by the massive January 2010 earthquake. Eleven people were killed during this storm, with the rainy season still two months away. This deadly flood serves as a reminder that the people of Haiti are highly vulnerable to disastrous flooding during this year's rainy season. A vast number of the survivors are living in "tent" cities where most of the "tents" are really nothing more than bed sheets draped over ropes and sticks; the potential for a second humanitarian disaster is significant. With this in mind, Portlight.org has been exploring fast, inexpensive methods of providing solid, permanent, safe shelter for survivors of the earthquake. They have found a number of groups looking at using shipping containers for this purpose. Shipping containers are steel-reinforced boxes used for shipping goods overseas. Portlight's on-site coordinator in Haiti, Richard Lumarque, has identified an engineer that has come up with a number of designs for converting these containers into dormitories, offices, medical facilities and individual homes; his plan for a dormitory container is below. Portlight is looking to help with this effort; please visit the Portlight.org web site to learn more and to donate to this worthy cause.
Figure 3. A proposed design for a simple dormitory that can accommodate twelve people, built from a shipping container.
I'll have a new post on Wednesday or Thursday.
Jeff Masters
2010 NorEaster Flood in Manville, NJ
Small bridge in Haddonfield flooded at Cooper River along Kings Highway on 3/13/10
Lower Berkshire Valley Rd.
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 — Blog Index
Happy St Patricks Day
thak a look at this
16 march 2010
img
src="http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dataphod1/work/HHP/NEW/2010075atsha.png" alt="" />
16 march 2009
reading back
.ransitzone 5:27 AM GMT on March 17, 2010
Quoting hydrus:
Earlier I Said, Is there an earthquake season, I,m beginning to wonder.
Yep! Starts each year at Jan 1 00:00:00 UTC, ends Dec 31 23:59:59 UTC (except when we have a leap second when it ends at 23:59:60 UTC).
beautiful answer!
BTW - Happy St. Paddy's Day!
As discussed last night, Ului has lost most of her deep convection since yesterday morning, despite improving structurally. My suspected cause for this was upwelling of colder water beneath Ului due to her painstakingly slow motion to the south, when she became nearly stationary for a time yesterday. This theory looks to be correct, as yesterday's SST map is in, shown below, and does indeed show upwelling along the path of Ului yesterday. Ului has shown little change overnight, although overall deep convection may be even less. Microwave imagery, shown below, continues to show heavy banding wrapping around the eye, but no solid and organized eyewall yet, and recent IR satellite imagery suggests that the eye structure may be breaking down even further. The JTWC has lowered Ului's intensity down to 100 knots, a minimal Cat 3, and this may be generous.
Ului's forward motion has increased a little bit this morning, up to 4 knots towards the SSE, and this slow motion is expected to continue for another 24-36 hours as Ului moves towards a weakness in the subtropical ridge due to an upper trough passing north of New Zealand. Upwelling will likely continue to be a problem during this time. After about 36 hours the trough will be moving off to the east, and the subtropical ridge will be able to build back in to the south of Ului, forcing the storm towards the southwest. This will take Ului towards the Queensland coast of Australia, as well as increasing forward motion as stronger steering currents take over.
I expect landfall in 60-72 hours, sometime on Saturday local time, near Mackay, Queensland. Last night's GFS run nudged farther north and is now nicely in line with my landfall ideas. I expect Ului will be able to rejuvenate over warm waters once she increases her forward speed in 24-36 hours, and although lower total ocean heat content south of 18S will limit her intensity, I still expect she will be able to maintain herself fairly well up until landfall. Therefore, my forecasted landfall intensity remains at 90 knots (167kmh), a Cat 2 cyclone on the U.S. scale, and a Cat 4 on the Australian scale. Ului is likely to make a significant impact on the Australian coastline, and hopefully residents are getting prepared.
We shall see what happens!
Current SSTs:
Latest Microwave Satellite Pass:
Current IR Satellite Imagery:
^^Click Image for Loop^^
What height was the peak crest height of the rivers?
Central QLD surf forecast
Thursday
E and NE groundswell building from 3 – 4ft towards 4 – 5ft exposed coasts. WIND: SE 15 – 25 knots increasing to 25 – 35 knots.
Friday
Dangerous conditions rapidly developing as E and NE groundswell builds from 4 - 6ft to 6 - 10ft exposed coasts. WIND: SE 20 – 30 knots.
Saturday
Dangerous conditions as ENE groundswell peaks at 8 - 12ft exposed beaches across south-eastern Queensland and a larger 10 – 15ft from Frazer Island north. WIND: E/SE 20 – 30 knots.
Sunday
Dangerous conditions as ENE groundswell gradually subsides from 6 – 10ft early towards 4 – 6ft during the afternoon. WIND: ESE 20 – 30 knots easing to 15 – 25 knots.
Queensland towns batten down as Cyclone Ului looms
EVACUATIONS were under way last night as Queensland's central coast went on the alert for a monster cyclone packing winds of more than 200km/h.
Residents of the already-drenched region were urged to make preparations for a cyclone, and authorities met to finalise disaster management plans.
Almost 300 people, including holidaymakers and reef researchers, returned to the mainland from Heron and Lady Elliot islands yesterday morning as the slow-moving system hovered more than 1000km off the coast.
Category-four cyclone Ului, unleashing destructive winds of up to 225km/h, has blasted past the Solomon Islands and Fiji.
If it stays on its current track, the storm will slam into the Queensland central coast on the weekend between Gladstone and Mackay.
Residents south of the Sunshine Coast to the NSW border were also advised to prepare their properties and stock up on non-perishable supplies, water and medication.
Weather forecaster Terry Erb said the system would increase its speed towards the coast tomorrow.
"We expect it to remain the same intensity (as it moves).
"On about Friday we expect to see it take on a west to southwest direction and accelerate towards the Queensland coast," he said.
Swells of up to 10m are expected and yesterday there were waves of almost 5m off Mackay.
Mackay councillor George Christiansen said the city's counter-disaster committee was on standby after flash floods shocked residents in 2008.
The weather bureau issued a high-seas warning for the Coral Sea area.Premier Anna Bligh said councils were ready to activate their disaster management plans if Ului swept in.
"All local councils have a disaster management plan which they can activate in a very, very short timeframe once they know this cyclone may be heading in their direction," Ms Bligh said.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Heron and Lady Elliot islands evacuated as Cyclone Ului to cross coast this weekend
Although police have not ordered evacuations, a spokesman said officers in the region were monitoring the situation and helping people "self-evacuate".
"Quite a large number are leaving by choice. We'd estimate between 100 and 200 from both islands," he said.
Visitors to the Heron Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef off Rockhampton are being sent back to the mainland.
The entire island, including the Heron Island Resort, is being evacuated amid warnings Ului, currently a category four cyclone, will cross the central Queensland coast this weekend.
About 65 people are on Heron Island, said a spokesman for the University of Queensland, which runs the internationally renowned reef and marine sciences research station.
They include about 18 girls from Mary MacKillop College in the Brisbane suburb of Nundah who are on a biology excursion, and some American university students.
Centre for Marine Studies manager David Harris says winds are gusting to 40km/h on the island, but that is not unusual.
``We're calmly proceeding with our normal cyclone procedures, moving towards evacuating clients from the research station this afternoon,'' Mr Harris says.
Eight staff will leave the island on Thursday.
``They're doing the normal tying down of objects and making sure the site's secure,'' he said. ``It's all very calm, cool and collected.''
The request to evacuate came from the Gladstone Disaster Management Group, Mr Harris said.
Mary MacKillop College spokesman Wayne Chapman said the students were calm and happy.
``The staff with the students have done the trip many times and are very experienced and we're fully confident they are making the right decisions in looking after the girls,'' he said.
The weather bureau says Ului could cross this weekend, and islands on the Great Barrier Reef are braced for dangerous swells.
At 4pm today Cyclone Ului was 1210km northeast of Mackay and 1360km east of Cooktown.
The severe tropical cyclone is expected to keep moving in a southerly direction remaining well offshore for the next two days before turning west-southwest on Friday.
On current tracking, the most likely scenario is for the cyclone to impact the central Queensland coast sometime over the weekend.
The Heron Island Resort will close as a precaution, a statement on www.heronisland.com said.
``The Queensland coast is currently experiencing high seas and adverse weather conditions due to tropical Cyclone Ului,'' the statement said.
``Due to the strong winds, Heron Island Resort is taking precautionary measures and will be closed from Wednesday 17th March through to Saturday 20th March inclusive.''
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Tony Wedd said beach conditions will become dangerous as the cyclone approaches the coast.
The category-four cyclone has wind gusts of 300km/h and has created 9m waves.
``Probably about Friday things will take a bit of a turn for the worse and the cyclone will start moving west-southwest towards the coast and it does look like it will cross the Queensland coast somewhere - most likely the central Queensland coast,'' Mr Wedd said.
He said the cyclone and a high pressure system moving into the Tasman Sea will combine to create fresh winds and big swells.
``Beach conditions in the southeast for example will get pretty dangerous on the weekend,'' Mr Wedd said.
Weather Bureau forecasters say it is still too early to say what parts of the coast may be effected, although large swells are expected.
Good early morning, And goodnight, Sleep time.
Sounds like they're taking it seriously. That's good, thanks Aussie.
Couldn't go to the conference at LSU, either. Way, way too busy at work.
Busy is much better than bored...and/or not having a job, though.
I'm out, see ya's in the mornin'
Thanks...lol. You too.
Good words.
That's exactly how half of my iggy list came to be on there...I don't think many of us visit to hear the latest news about each other or discuss each other.
I suggest making a gossip entry in your own blog if that is your reason for being here.
"There is no greater tragedy than wasted potential, there is no greater sin than a life lived in vain"
You all are talking about me, right?
..Im clueless
LOL
call me, I can do it for you...it'll be easier to use it as webmail...
Anyone need some heating?
The worst rivers crested between 12 and 15 feet. doesnt sound like alot but when the river normally runs at 1 to 2 feet some at 3 feet its a significant amount of water!
Hey NE!! Doing good, very busy with the floods now,we have had our rigs running nonstop since thursday night. Our shifts are now noexistant after 3 to 5 calls we send the crews home and "fresh" crews come in. Add ontop of that tonights "festivities" and I am ready for a vacation. I heard you guys and RI got slammed. Freinds in Glouster said damage was extensive.
No way Pottery,..your a Righteous Dude in my view..Just Like Ferris..!!
LOL...I hadn't really had you in mind...do you need to talk about it? LMAO
I'll do that in a while for sure.
Amazing,.one can decipher orbital mechanics on a napkin,but cant set up a E-mail.
Im Old,again.
(they are both lying of course. They had no idea I was listening)
March 29-April 2 * Hilton Orlando, Orlando, Florida
Purpose of the Conference
The primary goal of the National Hurricane Conference is to improve hurricane preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation in order to save lives and property in the United States and the tropical islands of the Caribbean and Pacific. In addition, the conference serves as a national forum for federal, state and local officials to exchange ideas and recommend new policies to improve Emergency Management.
To accomplish these goals, the annual conference emphasizes:
* Lessons Learned from Hurricane Strikes.
* State of the art programs worthy of emulation.
* New ideas being tested or considered.
* Information about new or ongoing assistance programs.
* The ABC's of hurricane preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation -- in recognition of the fact that there is a continual turnover of emergency management leadership and staff.
Only 63F here. I never knew it could get so cool out for a long period of time in florida lol.
Work calls. Loudly.
I sent him the whole directory as well.
Aussie's included
I hear that...call me anytime, bone; I can always make time to talk to you
So most of the major flooding is along the northern part of the Mississippi River, where the snowpack is melting rapidly. Since more snow is yet to melt, and rains are on the way, this spring could see a major flooding event across the US. I'm thinking something like the Great Flood of 1993: Link
Nonsense...I agree with Pat: you're a "Righteous Dude"
I agree...as for this particular individual, it amazes me that this person continues to return under yet another tedious "nom-de-plume"; he is five of the last 7 entries in my Ignore List...ooops, sorry, that would be 6 of 8 now
Looks like you guys at portlight have just as much going on as we do. Glad to see a grass roots org doing more good then "federally funded" orgs. Keep up the good work. Pat, Press, everyone else I didnt mention. Same goes for you guys and gals too!!! Keep up the great work.
A good tactical advantage here,..is to iggy and walk on.
Good advice for sure.
As we near the Season,..a lot of traffic will surely come...as always.
The focus should always be the free flow of info,warnings and related entry topics.
Drama will be addressed swiftly as it clogs the flow.
If one refrains from quoting the Dramites,and use the reporting system,we can self regulate 90% of it.
ADMIN will take care of the Hard case's.
I agree. A question that I think needs to be asked is whether the "flood control devices" currently in place (usually large levees) are actually helping, or if they are contributing to the problem itself.
Last time I checked flooding hydrodynamics, it seems that trying to "contain" flood waters actually raises their height, and increases their speed through the channel, which increases scouring and erosion. And since many of the levees are in place to protect farmland that owes its very existence to flood waters... I think you see my point. It becomes a self-destructive cycle.
True as a Saints Super Bowl WIn Jeff.
Thus the Need for Large relief Systems Like the Bonnet Carre Spillway 25 Miles upriver from NOLA.
It will Likely have to be opened to allow the River to Flow into Lake Pontchartrain to relive the Pressure on the River Levee's.
Viewing: 551 - 601
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 — Blog Index