Major flooding continues across New Hampshire, southwest Maine, and northeast Massachussetts today, where an additional 1-3 inches of rain has fallen in the past day and another inch is expected today. The culprit "cut off low"--a large low pressure system that got separated from the jet stream--is drifting slowly northeastward, and is expected to leave the area tonight, bringing an end to the heavy rains and the worst of the flooding. However, an active jet stream pattern over the next seven days will continue to bring occasional rain to the area, and area rivers--which are generally five to eight feet above flood stage--will be slow to fall. By next Tuesday, the GFS model is indicating that a more summer-like weather pattern may emerge, with the jet stream retreating northwards and warmer, dryer air moving in.
Figure 1. Rainfall amounts for New England estimated by radar, ending at 10am EDT Monday May 16.
Typhoon Chanchu
The season's first typhoon has continued to weaken, and was a Category 3 storm with 125 mph sustained winds at 8am EDT this morning. Chanchu (which means "pearl" in Chinese), is expected to continue to weaken over the next day due to dry air, cooler ocean temperatures in its path, and interaction with land. The typhoon is expected to spare Hong Kong a direct hit, and come ashore over the Guangdong province on China's eastern coast on Wednesday as a Category 2 storm. This is a far cry from last Friday's intensity forecast, which projected that Chanchu would strike as a Category 5 supertyphoon! Chanchu is yet another example of our poor ability to make accurate long-range hurricane intensity forecasts.
Chanchu delivered a serious blow to the Philippines over the weekend, killing at least 37 and leaving thousands homeless.
Figure 2. Typhoon Chanchu at 5:30 am EDT Tuesday, with 125 mph sustained winds.
My next blog will be Wednesday, when I'll talk more about air pollution, plus the Northeast flooding and Typhoon Chanchu.
Jeff Masters
Normally this river is about 10 feet below the bridge. The pavement across the bridge is about half eroded, the bridge will probably need replacing.
This was taken along Hanson Rd in Chester near the Raymond line. Who knows how deep it is here, but I'm assuming no one will be driving through here for awhile.
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Off topic disclaimer: Following is off topic, but I can't just let anyone get away with saying Florida is the prettiest state when it's a fact California has it beat by a wide margin!
Severe thunderstorms are defined in the United States as having either tornadoes, gusts at least 58 mph, or hail at least 3/4 inch in diameter.
Sometimes, they don't even issue warnings when penny sized hail is possible (they issue a Special Weather Statement, but no warnings); possibly this is because it is only a marginal threat.
That is a possibility. It is also possible that, since hail size is generally estimated by doppler radar, that the combination of rain, and hail smaller than penny size, could cause uncertainty, which might make them issue only an advisory, stating that hail up to penny size is possible.
By the way, does anyone know of a plant that looks like a big (roughly hemispheric, 5 ft radius) cactus bush that suddenly grows a 10-12 foot asparagus-looking stalk out of it? 'Cause my neighbor has one. Weird.
Titan Arum
Here's a link,
Link
Taco:0)
Taco:0)
everyone likes to yell at stormtop.. but i cant help but wonder why anyone takes him seriously in the first place. he's the new cyclome buster, or maybe they are the same person.
We had some tiny cumulus buildups over the mountains today.. one of them tried to bolt and do something but it got nailed by dry air or something and fell apart before the top could freeze. Looks like nevada had some good storms though, I wish i could have seen them.
There was a Century Plant in a cactus garden on a side street where I grew up.. About once every 7 years it grew the tall stock and bloomed... I was always watching for it :)
Chanchu is still there...but...
Makani turning to visit Hawaii...
Link
Humorous, but gross. :)
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