Here's the 2PM advisory on Tropical Storm Arthur. The National Hurricane Center expects the system to turn into category 1 hurricane with 80 MPH winds when it hits North Carolina's Outer Banks on Friday. High winds, high surf, 3-5 inches of rain, and a minor storm surge are the main hazards.
The Weather Channel took 20 seconds out of every other commercial break yesterday to brag that they'd preempted programming to talk about the weather, because we live in a world where The Weather Channel has to use advertising time to tell its viewers that it's going to talk about the weather.
After days of the storm flirting with death or development, the National Hurricane Center pulled the trigger and started issuing advisories on newly-formed Tropical Depression One off the Florida coast. The year's first tropical cyclone in the Atlantic will approach the coastal Carolinas later this week with winds approaching hurricane force.
"This is a particularly dangerous situation," says the Storm Prediction Center as a derecho is hauling eastward towards the Chicago metro area after producing 80 MPH winds across Iowa. The line should reach the Chicago metro area during rush hour, sometime between 530 and 630 Central Time this evening.
It's a simple message, and it comes from the heart: if you live in the southeastern United States, prepare a potential hit by Tropical Storm or even Hurricane Arthur later this week. Given the amount of tourists on Carolina beaches for the holiday weekend, it's probably the worst time of the year for a storm to threaten.
A gas station in Colfax, Wisconsin took a direct hit from an EF-1 tornado last Friday, and the dramatic event was caught on video by a surveillance camera directly in the path of the twister.
The Weather Channel has cancelled all scheduled programming through at least 11 o'clock this evening due to the severe weather threat today. The news here isn't the severe weather, but rather the news is that it's news that The Weather Channel is cancelling programming to talk about the weather.
Parts of the Midwestern United States could see some powerful thunderstorms today, some of which could be extremely strong, producing winds in excess of 75 MPH. Due to the heightened threat, parts of Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas are under a moderate (4 out of 5) risk for severe weather.
Right on schedule, the Atlantic hurricane season looks like it may produce the year's first tropical system off the southeastern coast of the United States this week. The National Hurricane Center gives the system a high 60% chance of developing over the next five days.
Almost everyone killed by lightning in the United States is a man. Since 2006, 80% of lightning victims were men. All seven people killed by lightning so far this year were men. This brings us to the only possible conclusion: men are stupid.
Temperatures in the northern United States will get relatively cool next week, with models suggesting temperatures ranging 10 to 20 degrees below normal. The cause is something we'll call the SummerPolarVortexmageddon, because it sounds cool and (still) nobody knows what a polar vortex is, anyway.
Rob Lowe and his family were trying to have a normal, everyday vacation at their home in the French Riviera when the weather threw a wrench in their plans. The town of Grasse received "three months' worth of rainfall in four hours" on Wednesday according to The Weather Channel, and the resulting floods nearly washed away Lowe's home.
Even though 2014 is another relatively quiet year for tornado activity, it's pretty interesting to see which areas of the country were most heavily affected by the couple of tornado outbreaks we've seen over the past six months.
Around this time every year in the higher latitudes, looking up to the sky after sunset might get you one of the most beautiful sights nature can provide. If you're lucky, you can catch these electric blue clouds looming dozens of miles up in the atmosphere, and they are downright incredible.
In the past year, two high-profile television meteorologists have told people to evacuate from the relative safety of their homes to get out of the way of an oncoming tornado. That is the worst thing you could do, and this dangerous advice will get people killed one day.
Weather doesn't stop at the borders, but you would never know it by looking at an American weather forecast. Our friends north of the border are inundated with our forecasts, but rarely do they actually benefit from the information. Why do our weather maps stop at the border?
