Hurricane Patricia—the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded—made landfall on Mexico’s west coast last Friday as a powerful category five, the first scale-topper to strike North America in eight years. The storm managed to pack winds of 200 MPH before making landfall, which is about as strong as a tropical cyclone can get—as far as we know, anyway.
Astonishing meets record-breaking. Category five Hurricane Patricia exceeded all odds early Friday morning, with a Hurricane Hunter aircraft recording maximum sustained winds of 185 MPH and a minimum central pressure of 892 millibars. By air pressure, this is now the strongest storm ever recorded in the eastern Pacific, and it ties with 1997’s Hurricane Linda as the basin’s strongest storm by one-minute sustained wind speed.
Hurricane Fred formed just off the western coast of Africa early on Monday morning, coming in as the second-farthest east a hurricane has ever formed in the Atlantic Ocean since records began. It’s extremely unusual to see such a strong storm so close to Africa, but here we are!
Yesterday’s high temperature in Seattle was 94°F, breaking the record as the city’s tenth day so far this year with a high temperature at or above 90°F. This brutal July smashed extremes across the Pacific Northwest, shattering record high temperatures and giving many cities their warmest Julys on record.
On Friday, a raging wildfire burned cars stranded on I-15 near Los Angeles while crews battled drones to put out the flames. On Saturday, part of I-10 collapsed as Los Angeles and San Diego recorded the most rain they’ve ever seen during the month of July. Oh, you know, just another weekend.
Today is the two-year anniversary of the largest tornado ever recorded. The tornado, a multiple-vortex EF-3 (by damage, EF-5 by radar measurements) grew to an astonishing width of 2.6 miles at its widest. The storm killed eight people, including three highly experienced storm chasers caught by the tornado’s explosive growth and erratic movement of the smaller vortices within the larger circulation.
Even though the temperature is slowly ticking up across the country, we still can't get over the traumas we suffered this winter. The first half of the winter wasn't all that bad, but that last month or two was brutal. Here's a look at how the season's snow totals stacked up in cities around the country.
Even though Friday was the official start to spring, severe weather season across the U.S. typically ramps up much earlier. This year, however, has been quiet. Extremely quiet. In fact, we're on track to see the quietest start to the year we've ever recorded. That's probably going to change pretty soon.
It was downright gorgeous across the United States and Canada earlier this week. Dozens of towns from Texas to Saskatchewan set record highs during the brief warm-up. Unfortunately, March's gotta act like March, and we've slumped back into that weird winter pattern of a warm west and cool east.
A burst of heavy snow this afternoon nudged Boston over the threshold the city needed to break its all-time snowfall record. The airport reported 2.9 inches of snow at 7:00 PM EDT, bringing the seasonal total to 108.6 inches, or one inch above the previous all-time record set in 1995-1996. Snowfall records in Boston date back to 1936.
The coldest air many places have seen in years (and even decades) will descend upon the eastern U.S. this evening, producing dangerous and record-breaking low temperatures on Thursday and Friday stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast. Lows close to zero will reach as far south as South Carolina.
While the big weather story of late has been the Hoth-like cold and snow under which New England is buried, there's a much different scenario unfolding in the west: it's nice! Really nice. Almost too nice. Given that it seems the country's weather is split between Moscow and Boca, has it really been that bad of a winter? Not really.
Boston, the newly-minted capital of Canada and inspiration for Disney's Frozen, is in the path of an approaching storm system this afternoon that threatens to drop up to two feet of snow on the city and surrounding areas by sunrise on Tuesday. To the south, New York City could see an icy mess as a result of freezing rain.
As we make our way into the sixth weekend of the year, the weather is getting pretty active on either end of the United States. The west is basking in some much-needed rain, while the northeast is getting ready for yet another snowstorm this weekend, all while residents of Denver are wearing shorts.
The frozen, icy hellscape that rang in 2014 across the eastern United States returned for an encore in the west during the year's waning hours. Temperatures fell as low as -48°F in Wyoming this morning as a brutal cold snap brings strong winds, heavy snow, and even record high air pressure to areas west of the Plains.
Before it formed, forecasters were concerned that today's lake effect snow could form over the areas that saw five feet of snow earlier this week, dropping a total of 100 inches of snow by Friday. That's just from two storms! How many snowstorms would it take elsewhere in the country to reach 100 inches of snow?
People keep calling these early-season snows "unprecedented" when they're really not. What is the earliest it's ever snowed, and when does it usually start snowing? Let's take a look at some data from major cities around the country to settle the question.
