Tag Archives: Crater Lake

Contrast highlights Holiday weather across the nation

December 28, 2015

Not just a warm Holiday for some in the East, but a record warm Christmas Holiday. This is just a sample of the hundreds of record high temperatures that have been set across the eastern half of the nation in recent weeks. Some locations like New York’s Central Park set a high temperature record on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Albany New York was 15 degrees warmer than any other Christmas Eve on record and Burlington Vermont was 17 degrees warmer than the previous record. In places like  Vermont, where a White Christmas is expected, temperatures nearly 40 degrees above normal are not only noticeable but crippling to the ski and winter industries. Ice and snow just don’t hold up to temps in the 60s and lower 70s.

December 24, 2015 Record Highs Christmas Eve

Central Park NYC          72R  1131 AM  63    1996
Albany ALB                      72R    220 PM  57    1941
Boston BOS                     69R    359 PM  61    1996
Hartford BDL                  69R    259 PM  59    1996
Providence PVD            69R    404 PM  64    2014
Burlington BTV              68R    154 PM  51    1957

December 25, 2015 Record Highs Christmas Day

Central Park NYC                   66R  1231 AM  64    1982
John F. Kennedy JFK           64R    256 PM  58    1982
Providence PVD                     64R    228 PM  63    2014
Worchester ORH                    60Rt  153 PM  60    1964

Philadelphia PHL                  68Rt   225 PM  68    1964
Washington Dulles IAD          70    215 PM  71    1982

Atlanta ATL                            75R      452 PM  72    1987
Athens AHN                           77Rt     254 PM  77    1982

The unusually warm weather not only set records, but also set the stage for several rounds of deadly severe weather.  Several fatalities occurred across Mississippi and Tennessee from a long track EF-3 tornado on Wednesday the 23rd. An EF-2 tornado struck a Birmingham suburb on Christmas Day. Damage was significant but no fatalities occurred.  A new storm system on the 26th was still able to take advantage of the unusually warm weather.  An EF-4 steamrolled the Dallas suburb of Garland killing eight in the early evening hours.

Brief review of Holiday severe weather:

December 23, 2015, …10 fatalities were reported in Mississippi, six were killed in Tennessee. One tornado producing thunderstorm tracked 145 miles from the Mississippi River across the state and into Tennessee killing 7. Other fatalities occurred due to tornadoes, straight-lines winds and flooding.

December 25, 2015, … EF-2 tornado swirled across portions of McCalla and Bessemer Alabama, immediate suburbs of Birmingham, collapsing houses but not killing anyone.

December 26, 2015, …11 died in Texas after several tornadoes were reported in the Dallas area.  In Garland, a suburb of Dallas, eight people died Saturday from an EF-4 tornado, three others died in Collin County just to the north.

In contrast,  the Cascades of Oregon looked quite wintry on the Holiday. Below are images from last Christmas, this Christmas and June 1st.

The Steel Visitors Center Crater at Lake National Park on Christmas Day 2014.steelvisitorcenter 14-12-25-1

The Steel Visitors Center Crater at Lake National Park on Christmas Day 2015.

At 7050 feet the snow depth listed for Christmas Day 2015 was 111 inches, or a little over 9 feet. That is a full size van parked back left and the snow banks are well above.steelvisitorcenter15-12-25-03

The Steel Visitors Center Crater at Lake National Park on June 01, 2014.                                 Even in a drought year the snow cover lingers until June.steelvisitorcenter 14-06-01-1

Just to show anyway you look at it,  Crater Lake was buried for this Holiday.  A series of West Coast storms have left there mark on the mountains of the West.

Learn more in my latest e-book El Niño:  The WILD side of the weather cycle…
What we know, what we don’t, and WHY you should care!

I show how this years Pacific water temperatures compare to the 1982 and 1997 events and highlight the kind of weather episodes that these stronger El Niño’s tend to bring.

Central Park NYC                   66R  1231 AM  64    1982

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