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Travel weather West
Coast weather woes: If your business travel plans have you
flying in or out of San Francisco, Portland or Seattle, bring along
a book or the extra laptop battery. Delays are almost assured, as
stormy weather will mean plenty of rain and wind just about every
day this week. Farther down the coast, Los Angeles will see rain
early in the week, with delays likely to occur. Denver is shaping up
nicely this week, with no rain or snow expected. The Chicago hub
looks pretty good as well, with only a few midweek showers in the
forecast. New York City, Philadelphia and Boston will start out
cold, and a storm during the second part of the week will produce
snow and rain. Quiet weather in the Southeast with no
weather-related delays expected in Atlanta or Charlotte.
Alaska
Frozen tsunamis crash onshore: An occurrence not seen in
three decades took place in Barrow, Alaska, in recent weeks, as huge
ridges of Arctic Ocean sea ice crashed violently onshore. The ridges
of ice, known as "ivus," act like frozen tsunamis and are among the
Arctic's most feared natural phenomena. The larger of the two was 20
feet tall and over 100 feet long. The moving ice mountain crashed
ashore and stopped about 30 feet short of a pump station that
provides access to Barrow's underground water and sewer system.
Strong winds coming eastward from out of Russia, along with eastward
water currents, are being blamed for pushing the pack ice toward
Barrow.
International
Britain faces water shortage: The worst drought that the
country has seen in over a century has prompted warnings to Brits
that if they don't start using less water voluntarily, rationing may
occur in the near future. In the southeastern part of Britain,
reservoirs are at less than half their capacity at a time of the
year when they should be at or near full. Rainfall this winter has
been the lowest since the disastrous drought of 1920-21. Even if
rainfall returned to normal in the next few months, there would
still be a serious problem in some parts of the country.
Roof collapse kills 52: A buildup of snow on a corroded and
poorly maintained building is being blamed for the collapse of the
roof over a busy market in Moscow. At least 52 people were killed
and more are feared dead in the disaster, which occurred during the
early morning hours last Thursday. Three inches of snow had fallen
just prior to the collapse, on top of about 20 inches of snow that
had fallen since the start of winter. The market was built in 1974
and designed by the same architect who drafted the plans for
Moscow's Transvaal Water Park, where the roof collapsed in February
2004, killing 28 people.
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 Compu-Weather case of the week:
Out-of-this-world weather analysis
The company that operates a huge parking facility at the
Croton-Harmon commuter train station north of New York City was
being sued in small claims court. The plaintiff was the owner of a
car that was damaged while parked in the lot on the day the flooding
took place. While the amount in damage reimbursement being sought by
the vehicle owner was relatively small at $550, there was concern by
the parking lot company owners that if judgment was found in favor
of the plaintiff, the floodgates could be opened for many other
lawsuits, as over 1,000 vehicles had been damaged by water in the
parking lot on that same day. Because of this concern, the owners of
the parking lot brought in their attorney, even though the case was
being heard in small claims court. Their attorney brought in Compu-Weather.
The big questions were these: Why did such terrible flooding
occur in the parking lot, and was it something that the owners
should have reasonably expected to occur and prepare for?
The forensic meteorologist assigned to the case prepared an
in-depth analysis of the weather on the day of the occurrence, as
well as the preceding day. What it showed is that a ferocious storm
with very strong winds and heavy rain moved through the area.
Rainfall for the two-day event amounted to more than 3 inches. A bad
rainstorm? Yes, it was. But not bad enough to explain the extensive
flooding that occurred.
Digging deeper, the meteorologist discovered that a rare
astronomical occurrence had taken place on the very day of the
storm. The occurrence was called the great syzygy, and it is an
event that happens only once every few centuries. Six planets in our
solar system were in alignment on that day, along with the moon. The
result of this alignment was that the tidal flow in the Hudson
River, which runs right next to the Croton-Harmon parking lot, was
running extraordinarily high that day. This much-higher-than-usual
tide, combined with strong west winds on the backside of the storm,
pushed water toward the east bank, causing water from the Hudson
River to come up and over the embankment between the river and the
parking lot. That, on top of more than 3 inches of rain, produced
the flooding.
The report prepared by Compu-Weather was presented as evidence at
the hearing. Based on the fact that what had caused the flooding to
occur was so rare an event, it was deemed by the judge that the
owners of the lot could not have reasonably planned for such an
occurrence to take place. Thus, they were not held liable for the
damage that occurred to plaintiff's car. In following months,
several other suits against the owners of the lot were heard, and
each time the verdict was for the defense.
Brought to you by Brought to
you by Compu-Weather, nationwide leader in forensic weather
consulting, analysis and reporting:
[Compu-Weather] |
