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Huge Earthquake

Bill Steffen — Fri, 24 May 2013 07:34:39 +0000

A huge earthquake occurred at approximately 2:44 AM EDT in the Sea of Okhotsk just west of the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. It’s about 1475 miles north of Tokyo. This was a deep quake, 378.4 miles below sea level. The quake has been given a preliminary magnitude of 8.3. It looks like we have had only a dozen earthquakes of that magnitude since 1966. The Pacific Tsunami Center has issued this statement: “BASED ON ALL AVAILABLE DATA A DESTRUCTIVE PACIFIC-WIDE TSUNAMI IS NOT EXPECTED AND THERE IS NO TSUNAMI THREAT TO HAWAII.” Slight tremors spreadwestwards as far as Moscow, 5,000 miles to the west. Tremors were felt in central Moscow, prompting some people to evacuate from buildings. Russian news agencies also cited eyewitnesses reporting strong tremors across Siberia. The earthquake was said to be more than 10 times more powerful than the earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010.

Great Lakes Water Levels

Bill Steffen — Fri, 24 May 2013 05:59:09 +0000

Click the picture to enlarge. This is the 6th grade from Saugatuck Middle School. Every year they round up charter boats to take the kids out fishing. They had 19 charter boats out last Tuesday morning. All volunteered their time. As you can see, the kids made quite a haul…some good fish dinners there! The water level of Lake Michigan (and Huron) is up another 1-2″ in the last week. The lake is up 5″ in the last month. We’re still 4″ below the level of one year ago and 20″ below the century average. However, the lake is now 9″ above the lowest May level back in 1964. Lake Superior continues a rather spectacular climb, up another 3″ in the last week. Superior is now up 10″ in the last month! That’s an increase of 5.52 TRILLION gallons in just a month! Superior is now 6″ above the level of one year ago (which is good news for Lakes Michigan/Huron, which take in Superior’s water through the St. Marys River), and only 6″ below the century average. Superior is 21″ below the highest May level of 1986 and 18″ above the lowest May level of 1926. Lake Erie is unchanged in the last month and 9″ below the century average. Lake Ontario is up 3″ in the last month. It’s still 1″ below the level of one year ago and 5″ below the century average.

Here’s another article that talks about the effect of outflow from the St. Clair River causing a drop in the water level of Lake Michigan/Huron (no mention of lower than average snowfall the past couple of winters…which is not a factor because our total precipitation (rain and melted snow) was not below average – it’s been above average over the past 2 years). The article says:

“The Joint International Commission called for a study to explore the impact of placing inflatable gates or other devices in the St. Clair River at the southern end of Lake Huron as a way to stop outflow from the lake.Officials say dredging, mining and other human activities eroded the river bottom in the last century, accelerating the outflow from Lake Huron toward Lake Erie.”

And…Lighthouse offered free! And…did you know that there’s a WWI German Submarine sitting on the bottom of Lake Michigan??

Interstate Bridge Collapse!

Bill Steffen — Fri, 24 May 2013 03:24:02 +0000

Click on the pictures to enlarge. The north end of the Interstate 5 Bridge over the Skagit River collapsed shortly before 10 PM EDT (7 pm local time). A number of cars and people fell into the river. Rescuers and divers are on the scene. At least 3 people have been rescued from the river and taken to the hospital. Officials report no fatalities. The bridge is about 45 miles south of Canada and about 55 miles north of Seattle. More pictures here. A Dept. of Transportation spokesman said he didn’t know the last time the bridge was inspected. Washington state was given a C by the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2013 infrastructure report card and a C- when it came to the state’s bridges. The group said more than a quarter of Washington’s 7,840 bridges are considered structurally deficient of functionally obsolete. Here’s a map of the area. The bridge was built in 1955 and is 1,112 feet long. It has a traffic load of 71,000 cars per day. That compares to 62,200 vehicles that go over the drawbridge in Grand Haven per day. The span that collapsed was approximately 160 feet long. The water at the bridge is 18 feet deep and the water temperature is 46 degrees. The Skagit River has slightly above average flow right now. It’s at 22,200 cubic feet per second compared to a median of 20,700 cfs. The Grand River in Grand Rapids is currently at 4,900 cfs compared to an average of 3,600 cfs. The Skagit drains a rainy area and there is also a lot of snowmelt coming down the river now. The river flows fairly fast at this point. The Skagit is 150 miles long and drains 1.7 million acres. The Grand River is 260 miles long and drains 3.57 million acres. LIVE COVERAGE. Lights have been set up as darkness falls. Eyewitnesses said an oversized truck struck part of the bridge before the collapse. Police have stopped a vehicle of interest. A white semi-truck with a large flatbed trailer was stopped south of the bridge. A square blue container on the flatbed was over the back of the trailer by roughly 8 feet. Its width was estimated to be a foot or two wider than a typical semi-truck.

Moore Oklahoma Tornado Rated EF5

Bill Steffen — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:13:46 +0000

The Moore Oklahoma tornado has been upgraded to a low end EF5 with peak winds of 200-210 mph. Here’s the summary statement from the NWS in Norman. The statement says: “This information remains preliminary and the information here could change.” The tornado was on the ground for 50 minutes and traveled 17 miles. The maximum width was 1.3 miles. KFOR picture gallery. Picture of enormous hail that accompanied the storm from KFOR and radar image at the point it was at or near EF5. Here’s more excellent pictures and video. Here’s the 10 deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history. Aerial pictures of the tornado damage. More tornado and damage pictures. More incredible damage pictures. Check out our special on the Hudsonville-Standale Tornado, the only F5/EF5 tornado ever to hit West Michigan.

New Meso Discussion for NE Illinois – Watch Possible

Bill Steffen — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:45:50 +0000

New Meso-Discussion for NE Illinois. SPC says: “THE ENVIRONMENT APPEARS SUPPORTIVE OF ORGANIZED STORM MODES…INCLUDING SUPERCELLS AND BOWING STRUCTURES WITH A RISK FOR DAMAGING WINDS…LARGE HAIL…AND PERHAPS A TORNADO.” Strong storms near Peoria are moving toward Chicago. Those storms will likely move into W Michigan after 1 AM. The Severe Thunderstorm Watch has expired for all of Lower MI. There’s a new Tornado Watch for W. Illinois. Hail up to golfball-size fell in NE G.R. near the Beltline and Leonard and also in Mecosta Co. near Rodney. Hail to 1 1/4″ fell at Oxbow in Newaygo Co. Winds over 70 mph downed large trees just east of Alma. Winds of 50 mph downed limbs in Hudsonville and Grand Rapids. Wind damage in Belding and Waucosta. We had 3/4″ of rain in about 10 minutes downtown. A manhole cover popped on Fulton St. and several cars were stranded in the standing water there. Leave a comment below if you get hail or strong winds. Tornado Emergency in Oklahoma…massive tornado hit Moore. Multiple fatalities there. Hospital and two elementary school destroyed in Moore. I’ve got a separate thread above for that.

Sunday Tornadoes/Severe Weather

Bill Steffen — Mon, 20 May 2013 01:47:20 +0000

As of 9:45 AM Monday, we are up to 28 tornadoes, 280 reports of wind damage (measured to 74 mph) and 193 reports of large hail up to 3″ in diameter. Oklahoma was hard hit, with one fatality at Dale OK and at least 21 injuries in OK. Sixteen counties in OK have been declared disaster areas. Tornadoes crossed both I-35 and I-40, where a truck was left dangling over an overpass. Tornado Watches stretched from Lake Superior in NW Wisconsin to the Texas border. Here’s video of the destroyed mobile home park near Shawnee. Damage in Carney OK. Reports of injuries there. Pictures from KFOR in Oklahoma City

Plains/Midwest Severe Weather

Bill Steffen — Sun, 19 May 2013 04:45:08 +0000

Tornado in Kansas Sat. PM – pic. from KSN. The early Sunday AM severe weather count from Saturday: 11 tornadoes, 46 reports of wind damage and 102 reports of large hail (up to tennis-ball size. Nine states had at least one severe weather report with the largest concentration in the High Plains from the Dakotas to North Texas. Here’s updated SPC severe reports. Here’s video of the Rozel KS tornado. Here’s some pics. A policeman was injured by debris at Garfield OK. 4″ of rain fell near /Dupree SD. 85 mph winds were reported at Okreek SD.

Model update…the NAM caribou gives G.R. highs of 83 the next couple days. The GFS caribou goes to low 80s Sun. and 85-86 on Monday. It also takes low temperatures down to the mid-upper 30s next Sat. and Sun. AM – both days are partly-mostly sunny and dry, but too cool for most people for getting wet at the lake or pool.

Also, it looks like it’ll be the latest ice break-up on record at Nenana, Alaska. The only other year when the ice lasted this long was 1964. The contest goes back to 1917! The tripod at the link is bigger than it looks in the picture and it’s 300 feet offshore. The ice there was actually 2″ thicker on April 25 than it was on April 1…that’s incredible. What’s also incredible is the money! The jackpot last year was $350,000. Speaking of jackpots, I heard that 80% of the possible combination of numbers were picked in the Powerball drawing.

Mt. St. Helens 5/18/80

Bill Steffen — Sat, 18 May 2013 05:49:49 +0000

Today (May 18) is the 33rd anniversary of the biggest (and there were a handful) explosion of Mt. St. Helens, the last big volcano in the Lower 48 states. The picture on the left is the mountain before the explosion (center). The image on the right is damage to trees. The explosion that occurred on May 18th, 1980 at 8:32 AM local time destroyed 4 BILLION board feet of timber, enough to build 300,000 homes. The initial blast-thrust was 300 mph. According to the USGS, the landslide caused by the collapse of the northern slope of Mount Saint Helens was the largest debris avalanche on Earth in recorded history. Within 15 minutes ash was blown into the stratosphere to a height of 80,000 feet. The ash cloud passed over Grand Rapids two days later (I have a slide I took of the ash cloud, which looked like a thick, uniform cirrus cloud layer) and circled the globe in 15 days. Ash accumulation was 10″ deep ten miles from the volcano and 1″ deep sixty miles from the volcano.The height of the mountain was reduced by 1,314 feet. The blast began with a 5.1 magnitude earthquake. Fifty-seven people were killed that day, 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railway and 185 miles of roads were destroyed. Here’s more facts – more pictures, a link to the National Monument website, and the Wikipedia article.

Volcanoes have become quite active in the last few weeks. A number of volcanoes are erupting right now, including the Pavlof volcano in Alaska. The plume from Pavlof rose to approximately 20,000 above sea level and have created a diffuse plume trailing 100 miles downwind. Popocatepetl in Mexico has erupted. Ash fell in three villages. Government officials have raised the threat level from one to three (third highest rank). Four people were killed as Mt. Mayon in the Philippines erupted without warning on May 7th. Shiveluch in far east Russia produced an ash cloud that rose 15,000 fee. The Stromboli volcano remains active in Italy. Observers spotted a small flow of lava from the volcano’s northeast crater. We still have the more prominent erupting volcanoes like Mt. Etna in Italy and Kilauea in Hawaii.

Great Lakes Water Levels

Bill Steffen — Fri, 17 May 2013 05:52:15 +0000

Lake Michigan sunset at Duck Lake – from Matt Miller at ReportIt. Check it out full screen. The water level of Lake Michigan/Huron was unchanged in the last week. We’ve had only 0.58″ of rain so far this month in G.R. and the river levels have come down. The Grand River in Grand Rapids is still a little above average (5600 cfs vs mean of 5280 cfs). The Muskegon River looks to be near average and the Kalamazoo River at New Richmond is a little below average flow now. Lake Michigan is 7″ higher than one month ago and 5″ below the level of one year ago. It’s still 22″ below the May average level, but 7″ higher than it was in May 1964. Lake Superior gained an inch in the last week (mainly from snowmelt). It’s also 7″ higher than one month ago, but is now 2″ higher than it was one year ago. It’s still 10″ below the century average for May. Lake Erie is only up 1″ in the last month. It’s 7″ lower than one year ago and 8″ below the century average. Lake Ontario is up 5″ in the last month, down 2″ in the last year and is now 5″ below the century average. Also: Check out the MODIS Lake Superior picture from yesterday (Thurs.). You can STILL see several places in the Porcupine Mts. and the Keweenaw Peninsula where there is snow on the ground! Lake Nipigon still has an ice cover. Here’s the Lake Michigan picture, the land has really greened up in the last couple weeks. Here’s a picture of the large forest fire burning in far NW Wisconsin.

Great Lakes News: Grand River tested for Asian carp. Illinois votes to put wind turbines in Lake Michigan. Gobies (invasive species) have affected Lake Michigan fishing.

Model update: The European keeps us dry until next Monday PM. Then we get showers/t-showers (not all day rains) from Monday PM thru Thursday with a total of 2.72″ for G.R. from Monday PM thru Thurs. Evening. The GFS (caribou) has 1.97″.

Oh, one more thing. I got a call from near Stanton about a large dust devil that knocked shingles off their house, barn and garage. Thurs. was a perfect day for dust devils…nearly calm winds…high sunshine…low relative humidity. I bet there were quite a few dust devils in Lower Michigan yesterday.

Skeeter Meter

Bill Steffen — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:03:29 +0000

The main type of mosquito plaguing us right now is the Aedes mosquito. They are a floodplain mosquito and their population has exploded after the April flood. Their eggs can lay dormant for 7 years, waiting for the next flood. Another bad trait of the Aedes mosquito is that they like to bite in the daytime. Some mosquitoes are more active in the evening and at night. The Aedes mosquito will bother you morning, noon and night. This crop may be around for another 2-3 weeks. Watch us tonight for a story on the pesky critters. One piece of good news…the Aedes mosquito does not carry the West Nile Virus. Leave a comment and let us know how bad or not so bad are the mosquitoes where you are. We had a lot of rain in April and there’s still a decent amount of standing water around for them to breed.