Warmth building this week with 50s—even a possible 60-degree high by Thursday
WGN WEATHER HEADLINES
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5 IS NATIONAL WEATHERPERSON’S DAY!
HUGE AND HEARTFELT CONGRATULATIONS TO MY FRIEND AND COLLEAGUE DEMETRIUS IVORY
Demetrius Ivory has been named my successor as Chief Meteorologist at WGN-TV! A nicer person doesn’t exist! I’m SO happy for Demetrius! What an awesome choice by my bosses at WGN!
HERE ARE THE TOP 6 NAMES AS VOTED ON IN CHICAGO STREETS AND SANITATION DEPARTMENT’S 2ND ANNUAL “NAME THE SNOWPLOW CONTEST”
OH MY—Check this out! Just in from our hard working friends at Chicago’s Streets and Sanitation Department regarding their 2nd ANNUAL CHICAGO SNOWPLOW NAMING contest. News of this was just relayed to me by my WGN colleague Sean Lewis.
The six snowplow names that received the most votes include:
- Skilling It
- CTRL-SALT-DELETE
- Casimir Plowaski
- Ernie Snowbanks
- Mies van der Snow
- Bad, Bad Leroy Plow
Now, THIS is really something! We’re told 10,000 votes were cast for this. I have to send along a big THANK YOU to all who voted.
HERE’S THE WORD from the folks at Streets and San and my WGN News colleagues report on this:
JANUARY 2024 FINISHED 1.1 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL—THE 10TH CONSECUTIVE MONTH TO DO SO HERE IN CHICAGO
CLIMATE CHANGE AT WORK: Check out this interesting analysis of Chicago January temps by the folks at Climate Central which shows that since 1970, the month’s January temps have warmed an eye-catching 6.4 degrees.
STILL MORE WOODSTOCK GROUNDHOG DAY SHOTS FROM THIS PAST FRIDAY
What a fun time! Thanks to everyone there for such an awesome and warm welcome!
AN EL NIÑO-ENHANCED “PINEAPPLE EXPRESS” AND “ATMOSPHERIC RIVER”
- Nearly one-million without power across California in the wake of an El Niño-enhanced “Pineapple Express”/”atmospheric river” storm’s hurricane force winds and record rainfalls over the weekend
- Check out the peak Sunday central California wind gusts—one report at Marin County’s Pablo Point topping 100 mph (the minimal hurricane force sustained wind speed is 74 mph). Little wonder power’s out in portions of the region.
- It may not be surprising to know THE U.S. AIR FORCE RESERVE’S “HURRICANE HUNTERS” were performing recon flights through the mammoth, non-tropical Pacific winter storm responsible for the damaging winds. The Hurricane Hunters were part of a joint and continuing effort by the USAF, NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography aimed at observing these storms with the goal of further improving computer model predictions of these storms.
- Drenching rains have produced serious flooding. The weekend rainfall at Beverly Hills reached 7.11″, more than twice the normal FULL JANUARY RAINFALL OF 3.20″—this is an area with an annual average rainfall of 14.77″. So the weekend rainfall was approximately HALF THE FULL YEAR RAINFALL—and that drenching occurred on a handful of days.
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Hurricane force wind gusts lambaste central California Sunday. Velocities approach/top 100 mph. -
From the USAF Reserve Hurricane Hunter website -
This post was put up Sunday by the National Weather Service Oxnard, CA Forecast Office -
GOES EAST Monday weather satellite view of storm system which drenched California over the weekend
THE ONGOING STRONG EL NIÑO AND A BROAD AREA OF WARMER THAN NORMAL PACIFIC OCEAN TEMPS
- The ongoing strong El Nino and a broad area of warmer than normal Pacific Ocean temps stretching from Hawaii to California have contributed to the meteorological onslaught this past weekend over California. El Niños are known for the parade of storms they often send into California.
- Of Sunday’s record rainfall in Los Angeles, The NWS Forecast Office posted the following early Monday:
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES/OXNARD
140 AM PST MON FEB 5 2024
…RECORD DAILY MAXIMUM RAINFALL SET YESTERDAY (FEBRUARY 4TH) ACROSS SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA…
A RECORD RAINFALL OF 4.10 INCHES WAS SET AT DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (USC) CA YESTERDAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 2.55 INCHES SET IN
- THIS ALSO WAS THE THIRD WETTEST FEBRUARY DAY AND TIED FOR 10TH WETTEST OF ANY DAY SINCE RECORDS BEGAN IN 1877. THE WETTEST DAY EVER
RECORDED AT DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES WAS 5.88 INCHES SET ON 3/2/1938.
A RECORD RAINFALL OF 1.76 INCHES WAS SET AT LOS ANGELES INTL AIRPORT
CA YESTERDAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 0.56 INCH SET IN 1958.
A RECORD RAINFALL OF 1.50 INCHES WAS SET AT LONG BEACH AIRPORT CA YESTERDAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 0.69 INCH SET IN 1975.
A RECORD RAINFALL OF 2.39 INCHES WAS SET AT SANTA BARBARA AIRPORT CA TODAY. THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 0.50 INCH SET IN 1990.
- And additional rains loom—especially for southern California as you see from the National Weather Service “blended model” estimated precipitation plot posted here. Also, the powerhouse trans-Pacific jet stream plot
Just look at the area of the Pacific boasting ABOVE NORMAL surface water temps. These helped fuel the weekend storm in California and on the West Coast. They’ve no doubt also played a role in the phenomenal snows which have hit southern Alaska this season to date.
OCEAN TEMP ANOMALIES—Areas shaded in yellow and orange have ABOVE NORMAL OCEAN SURFACE WATER TEMPS.
Powerful trans-Pacific jet stream winds continue—winds which storms ride in their trek across the Pacific.
