News•September 12, 2014
Picture This: Summer Snow and Gnarly Lightning
It was a weird week for weather, that's for sure. Snows fell from Calgary to Rapid City—in the middle of September. That's early even for Canada! Meanwhile monsoon rains, helped along my moisture from the remnants of tropical storms, soaked parts of the Southwest, not used to such deluges. We've got photos of those two events, as well as look back on the weather on a historic day.
Summer Snow
While the return of school may have signaled the end of summer and the beginning of fall, Mother Nature seems to have skipped straight to winter in some places. As a deep area low pressure descended over Alberta and parts of the northern U.S., it brought with it unseasonably chilly temperatures and decidedly early snow. The snows started first in Calgary, which saw just over 11 inches of snow from Monday through Wednesday. That's just one inch below the total they usually get from September through November combined according to the Weather Channel. One resident aptly summed up their feelings on the abrupt end to summer by taking a page from the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip:
Summer Break in Calgary ends just how you'd expect – snowmen. MT @jpmwd: grumpy snowman army in my front yard. pic.twitter.com/NOnpTHIwv9
— Sean Breslin (@Sean_Breslin) September 10, 2014
Loads of Lightning
When the cold front traveling in advance of that low pressure center made its way across Kansas, it created some thunderstorms that spawned some impressive lightning. One of the photographers behind Basehunters Chasing caught some spectacular shots, stacking several together to give this intense image.
Four photos were stacked together to make this incredible image of lightning over Marysville, Kan., on Sept. 9, 2014.
Credit: Basehunters
Wet and Dry
The Southwest isn't exactly known as a rainy place, and it has been suffering from a drought in recent months. Monsoon rains this summer have brought some moisture, but most impressive so far fell earlier this week, drenching Phoenix in record-setting rainfall. On Monday, 3.29 inches fell on the area, the most for any calendar day on record going back to 1895, according to the local National Weather Service Office. Even more rain fell in other places in the region, with Chandler, Ariz., reporting more than 6 inches of rain.
The dry desert soils are unable to absorb such vast quantities of rain falling over such a short time, and so the water pools in lower areas, causing serious flash flooding. Many motorists were caught offguard by flash floods on area roads while other roadways, including sections of interstate highways, were shut down.
Today is already the wettest calendar day ever in Phoenix, and it’s still raining. http://t.co/loS6pY3bmMpic.twitter.com/ibIHayyLEu
— Andrew Freedman (@afreedma) September 8, 2014
What a season's worth of rain in less than 12 hours looks like. http://t.co/QaffZT9swg#Phoenix (via @photochowder) pic.twitter.com/cKr72A0Ih4
— Capital Weather Gang (@capitalweather) September 8, 2014
The Weather 13 Years Ago
The Atlantic hurricane season is at its historical peak from Sept. 9-11. But there has been little activity in the basin this year, thanks to an El Nino that has stifled storm development. The hurricane season of 2001 had also been fairly quiet by the same point in the season. On Sept. 1 of that year, a tropical depression formed in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean. As it moved westward, it became a tropical storm, before weakening and the restrengthening as it made a beeline toward Bermuda and the United States. It reached hurricane strength on Sept. 9, becoming the first hurricane of the 2001 season and the latest first hurricane since 1984. The storm brushed Bermuda, but brought only rip tides and strong currents to the U.S. East Coast before an upper level trough sent it on a reverse course to the Northeast.
On Sept. 11, a satellite snapped an image of the storm off the Northeast coast. The same image also captured the plume of smoke billowing from the World Trade Center buildings.
Satellite image captured Erin off northeast US coast, and WTC smoke plume. #September11http://t.co/9MBmxiAdUrpic.twitter.com/5rpHHIKxO6
— Brian McNoldy (@BMcNoldy) September 11, 2014