Wet and windy in the Northwest: Stormy
weather has been relentless across the northern part of California,
Oregon and Washington for the past several weeks, and this one was
expected to be no exception. Flight delays were inevitable from San
Francisco and Sacramento, into Portland and Seattle. Rain was
expected on a few occasions across Southern California, affecting
flights into or through Los Angeles. In the Northeast, showers and
thunderstorms were expected to arrive during the middle part of the
week and then linger in some areas through Friday night. Chicago and
St. Louis were also expected to see midweek storms causing delays.
The southern part of the country was expected to feature generally
good weather. The forecast for Dallas and Fort Worth eastward into
Atlanta and Charlotte was generally fair and void of thunderstorms.
Eastern U.S.
Twisters strike Tennessee again: For the second time in less
than one week, violent thunderstorms and tornadoes ripped through
Tennessee leaving a trail of death and destruction. Twisters touched
down in 10 counties in the state on April 7, killing at least 12
people. Five days earlier, an outbreak of tornadoes in the western
part of the state killed 24 people, along with four others in
Missouri and Illinois. The worst of the damage from the latest round
of storms occurred in Warren County, located about 65 miles to the
southeast of Nashville.
In comparison with the past few years, the number of tornadoes
nationwide has jumped dramatically through the first part of 2006.
Through the end of March, 286 tornadoes touched down, compared with
an average of 70 during the same three-month period over the past
three years.
Western U.S.
Skiers perish in fissure: Three members of a ski patrol team
died April 6 when they fell into a volcanic fissure at the Mammoth
Mountain resort in California. The victims were part of a team
inspecting the mountain after a heavy snowfall. High levels of
carbon monoxide in the mountain cavity may have played a role in the
skiers' deaths. The mountain is located north of Los Angeles and is
popular with skiers from Southern California.
U.S. Gulf and East Coast
Gone but not forgotten: The names of five devastating
hurricanes from last season have been officially retired from use.
Katrina, Dennis, Rita, Stan and Wilma will be removed from the lists
used to name storms in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico
region. The World Meteorological Organization routinely retires the
names of unusually destructive or deadly storms. Sixty-seven names
have been retired since storms were first named in 1953. The five
names dropped this year were the most retired in a single year.
