It would seem as though every species of inhabitant in Washington, DC is enjoying the newly fallen snow. This is Bo's winter. I bet he is cute today. I hope the Obama children are having fund with him in the snow.
It is a serious weather pattern, there have been deaths and property damage of all kinds.
December 19, 2009
USA Temperature Map
December 19, 2009
20:30:14z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop)
The GOES East Satellite images are 12 hours apart. The 'vortex' delivering all the 'moisture' to North American is a full 25% of the Northern Hemisphere in size. There is nearly not enough room in the frame size of satellite image to capture this vortex. It is huge.
The center of circulation is also very odd. It is very, very south of Greenland and Iceland. It is directly east of Massachusetts in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. If one draws a straight line between the eastern seaboard of Massachusetts and the two small islands noted to be outlined in red on the right of the frame, the center lies along that line. That is very south of where this North Atlantic Vortex is usually found.
The vortex is moving huge amounts of frigid air from the north polar region to the mid-latitudes. The moisture is coming off the tropics at the equator and it is why the storms over the country are dropping high percipitation rates. One might note it is only the 19th of December.
I noted on CNN the folks along Route 77 are having trouble. Route 77 is a very dangerous road, especially for tractor trailers. They crash along that road all the time. Route 77 is primarily on the sides of mountains and it has a lot twists and turns and a lot of changes in sun exposure and wind exposure and it is dangerous. Very. I traveled Route 77 in July and within 75 miles of each were two very serious tractor trailer accidents. It is a rough road. The speed limit should be lowered for 'semis' along that road.
It is my guess the snow dropped today won't be around for more than a day or so. The temperature map shows warm temperatures. As the vortex moves off, the warmer temperatures will come north from where they are now.
continued...
December 19, 2009
08:30:15z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Satellite
There are some whoppers in the Southern Hemisphere, but, I'll get to that. The frigid air mass is gone over Antarctica as well. I am going to explain what I see here.
December 19, 2009
20:30:14 z
UNISYS Infrared Satellite of the North and West Hemisphere (click title for 12 hour loop - thank you)
