Sandy is expected to come ashore in southern New Jersey, but its impacts will be felt in many areas.

Storm surge is forecast to be an important piece of the story as Hurricane Sandy gears up for a collision course with the U.S. 

As of Sunday evening, the storm is considered a category one hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.  Despite its low ranking on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, the National Weather Service and government authorities are taking no chances as the storm moves toward land.

Storm surge is a dangerous component to hurricanes, moving tremendous amounts of water toward land.  Despite its devastating impacts storm surge intensity is not taken into consideration with the Saffir-Simpson ranking.  The scale only accounts for wind speed.

The center of the storm’s circulation is forecast to move toward southern New Jersey, but the brunt of the storm surge activity will be north.  That is putting areas like New York City, Long Island and lower New England on alert.

In addition to the storm coming ashore, residents of the mid-Atlantic, New England and eastern Great Lakes will feel the impacts of the storm meeting a stationary front and support from the jet stream. 

With colder air surging southward with the jet stream, locations in parts of West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina could see considerable snowfall amounts. 

Storm Track 9 meteorologist Rob Duns has more in this explanatory video. 

http://www.waow.com/story/19938287/storm-surge-concerns-raised-as-hurricane-sandy-approaches

Posted under Hurricanes, Natural Disasters, Nature, Records, Science, Seasonal Items, Severe Weather, Weather History, Weather NEws

It has been the talk of the Midwest! I wrote about it yesterday and Justin blogged about it this morning.  This storm could possibly be the storm of the season.  Articles around the Midwest and talking about how this storm is comparable to the worst storm that we have seen in the past century.  Justin mentioned that we saw a storm in 1998 that the center passed just to our Northwest over Duluth, Minnesota.  He says that this storm was the strongest recorded.  I was doing some research to try and figure out exactly what the strongest storms in history are.  Here is what I figured out:

The Nov 10th 1998 storm lowest barometric pressure reading was 28.475″ which equals 964.3 mb.  This was recorded at Duluth.

The storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald had a pressure reading of 28.95″ at its lowest point which equals 980.4 mb.

The “Great Ohio Blizzard” of January 1978 the lowest pressure was recorded as 28.05″ which equals 949.9 mb.

So far those are all the reading that I can come up with of storms that have been the strongest in the last century that have had readings near what we should see for tomorrow.  This in article with the pressure from the last two storms.  This is the records from the 1998 storm.

Looking at this map of tomorrow morning you can see that we are near the 960 mb.  Now this is model data so depending on how low we get will depend on where we get marked down in the record books.

Now this is “comparable” to the pressure of a hurricane but a few things to note that are completely different.  A hurricane is fueled by warm moist ocean waters.  Midwest cyclones are fueled by the jet stream.  So although readings are similar what it means at the surface and for us are different. 

What do you need to know about tomorrow?  Most of us are under a High Wind Warning espcially to the south of 29.  This means wind gusts could range in the 55 to 60 mph zone.  An Advisory has been issued for the rest of us and winds will reach gusts to 40 to 45 mph.  These winds could knock down trees, power lines and throw outdoor furniture across roadways.  These winds are near what we would see in a severe storm and will not just last for a short period but for a much longer period, almost 36 hours!  The warnings/advisories will be in place from Tuesday morning through Wednesday evening. 

We will keep you posted with all the latest so make sure to stay tuned to our webchannel and Channel 9!

PS Our first snow is in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday!

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Fall, First Snowfall 2010, forecast, Records, Severe Weather, Storms, Tropics, Uncategorized, Weather NEws, Weather Safety, Winter Weather

The strongest typhoon this year, Megi, in the Pacific is bearing down on the Philippines.  The winds are sustained at near 180 mph but have been as high as 190 mph! This is as strong as the major Category 5 hurricane for us.   It will likely bring wide spread catastrophic damage across the Islands. Heavy rain and destructive winds will be the biggest predators from this system to the islands.  The typhoon will likely weaken as it moves over the Philippines northern island, Luzon.

With the 20 inches or more that are forecasted for islands, landslides will also be possible and likely.  I think that we will be seeing unbelievable footage and pictures from the aftermath that this storm will put on the area. 

Something interesting to note, once the typhoon hits the Philippines they will change the name to Juan because they use a different naming system then rest of western Pacific countries.   They do this so the names are more familiar to people in their own country.   It can cause confusion though since a person could think it is actually two different systems when they are actually talking about the same one.  When a typhoon forms they can pick from the list of the 17 countires that submitted a name for that year. 

Whats the difference between a Typhoon and a Hurricane? A Typhoon includes Cats 1 to 4 of a hurricane.  A Super Typhoon is part of Cat 4 and 5. So mainly it is just a name since the Typhoon does not add Categories.  

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Natural Disasters, Travel, Tropics, Weather NEws

Hey everyone! Lots going on at Newsline 9 these days.  We have a new partnership that we are in the works on, I don’t think we are allowed to reveal the details just yet but it will be a great way for you to receive more information from us and just another way to get the forecast you need.  We will let you know what exactly that is in the up coming days.

I also wanted to direct you to my “Have You Ever Wondered Page?” I wrote another article on the site about snow to rain equivalent.  This is a question that gets asked often.  How many inches of snow would fall with the rain we saw or vice versus.  I will give you one clue… it depends on the temp! For more information head over to my page.

Other news… you only have 3 days to get your nominations in for our FIRST snowfall of the year contest.  Your nominations have to be in by Oct 1st, so don’t delay! You can win lots of prizes including R Store gift cards and car washes.  It is really simple to enter just head over to this link. Remember you are picking the first one inch of more of snow in the Wausau area.  We will go off of the National Weather Service data once we start to see that snow falling. 

Last but not least we may see our next storm in the Atlantic sometime over the next day or so. Right now it is Tropical Depression 16.  As I was talking to my folks today they said they were “getting ready for the rain”.  This storm will move across the Peninsula and eventually up the Carolinas and could even hit New York this weekend.  It has already brought over 6 inches in some areas of Florida! Seems like they are dealing with the amount of rain we saw last week.  For the totals you can click here.

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under First Snowfall 2010, Flooding, forecast, Tropics, Weather History, Weather NEws, Winter Weather

Just a few crazy states about the hurricanes spinning in the Atlantic:

Since 1851 when records were kept Igor and Julia are the first simultaneously Cat 4 storms since Sept 16th 1926 and those two only happened for 6 hours! Needless to say this is a very RARE occurrence.

Also Julia is the strongest hurricane EVER that far west in the Atlantic ocean.

This blog did an excellent job of categorizing how big Igor is compared two other large storms, Ike and Katrina.  It also superimposed this image of Igor over the Eastern US.  You can see from the image that it would extend from Dallas to New York almost 1400 miles!  This could play an issue as it heads to Bermuda.  Because this storm is so large that even without a direct hit the island will likely see tropical storm force if not hurricane force winds.  Right now tropical storm force winds extend out 225 miles from the center of the storm.  This is just shy off how far tropical storm force winds extended from Ike and Katrina, 275 and 230 respectively. 

 For more info check out the article.

I wanted to share a picture sent from a school I visited on Monday.  The Montessori school in Wausau had  me in to talk about weather.  They were great kids and had fantastic questions :

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Tropics, Viewer pictures, Weather History, Weather NEws

Go Pack Go!  I got into work early today so I would make sure to get everything done and still be able to catch the game in between graphics, web stuff and forecasting.  The guys in back as we call them or our wonderful directors are nice enough to hook me up and put the Packers game on our TV in the studio so I can still watch it. 

I also was surprised to see that not only the packers are in tense so is Igor! Last night when I left work Igor had just become a hurricane.  When I wrote my blog last night it was still a tropical storm, just to show you how much things can change in less than 24 hours.  In 9 hours Igor pressure dropped 38 millibars.  This is what we call a “bomb” in meteorological terms.  When the pressure of a storm drops more than 24 millibars in 24 hours!  It also increased from a Cat 1 hurricane to a Cat 4! Right now winds are estimated at 140 mph.  It could possibly become out first Cat 5 storm in 3 years.  The last Cat 5 storm was in 2007, Hurricane Felix.  Here is a great picture of Igor from NASA.

If there is any good news about this intensifying hurricane it is that it could be one “for the fishes”. Most tracks of the storm take it out to sea and not impacting the United States.  What we will have to watch is the path and Bermuda.  Here is the spaghetti diagrams of Igor:  

As you can see all of them steer clear of the US through the long term.  It is possible that tracks could change but when it is that consistent I highly doubt it will be a storm that we will have to watch for the US.  I believe that is great news considering it will likely be a 5 and could have caused major destruction.   We also have another tropical depression, number 12, just off the Africa coast.  It is amazing to think that YEARS ago we couldn’t look that far out in the sea and see all these hurricanes.  Amazing that the tropics were quite through mid August but now they have really heated up!

Also wanted to update you on the Boulder fire.  It may turn out that a fire pit caused the blaze that has burned 10 square miles in the Boulder area.  If that turns out to be true it could cause criminal charges. 

Also wanted to let you know I will be working tomorrow morning but Justin but have an early school talk so I likely won’t have time to blog. 

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under forecast, Natural Disasters, Tropics, Uncategorized, Weather NEws, Weather Safety

Today was the everything weather day! It rained hard overnight, then it was dark, gloomy with heavy mist through most of the late morning. By early afternoon the clouds broke and sunshine came out and it felt warm.  Tonight we are seeing mainly clear skies and them temps are already dropping.  I tell you, if today didn’t make everyone somewhat happy then I don’t know what could.

Speaking of today we had the 9 Iron challenge.  It is a tournament played by most people who work at Channel 9 and other folks from the community.  It is different from most golf tournaments because you are only allowed to use your 9 iron, a wedge and a putter!  Just imagine how many strokes it takes to get down a par 5 fairway with a 9 iron.  We had a blast playing and I have to say was an easy golf game for me because my hardest decision on the course is which club to use ( I need a catty!)!  I played with Sean in Jayson in sports and with Mike in news and I think we all enjoyed playing even if the weather started out on the crumy side.   

I also went to Dells of the Eau Claire for the first time this past week and was so bummed I had never went in two years of living here!  It is a gorgeous place and a perfect place to take a hike or a walk.  I highly suggest going there if you haven’t been.  It is not to far outside of Wausau, probably 20 min, and it is well worth the drive. 

I am sure it will be even prettier in the Fall!  This year should also be a good one for fall colors.  If you will remember last year was not so good.  We had a very warm Sept and then Oct it was wet and cool so the leaves either fell off or didn’t change before the drastic change in weather.

In the tropics we have Igor which is almost at hurricane strength. There is also an area in the Caribbean that could strengthening.  So far the Caribbean has been quite this year, only once storm has tracked that way.   The area in the Caribbean has a 60% chance of forming and if it does could be something we keep a close I on.  For now it looks like Igor could take a similar track to recent storms, especially Earl and turn towards the north and brush the eastern seaboard.  This is still many days out though and could change.

Last year I blogged about the weather on 9/11 and how it impacted the attacks on US soil.  Of course since  weather and flying go hand in hand it played a big roll in weather the terrorists could execute their attack.  Check out this link for it.

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Fall Color, Science, Summer, Trails, Travel, Tropics, Uncategorized, Weather NEws

We saw a pleasant few days with less humidity and temperatures near 80.  Unfortunately for folks who don’t like the heat and humidity it is coming back and it will be here for the next several days.  We will keep in a chance of storms from now through Wednesday.  Better chances will be tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday.  We are in a slight risk of severe storms through tomorrow.  The biggest threat will be damaging winds, and heavy rain.  As always you can check out website for the latest watches and warnings. 

Because of the rain we have seen all summer we have not dealt with the fire danger we saw in the spring.  One area that is seeing the sweltering heat and excessive fire danger is in Russia.  They have seen a summer for the record books ( the hottest summer in 130 years!) and are continuing to see it with all the wild fires that are burning.  There average temp during the summer is 75, they have been close to 100 all summer long.

  If you look at this picture you can see how horrible the visibilities are.  You can barely see the historic sites in the distant.  The fires have killed 52 people and burned over 2000 homes.  For more info you can check out this article.

We have Colin! Our third tropical storm of the season will not affect the US one bit but Bermuda is feeling the brunt of Colin. As of 8 pm tonight he is producing winds of 40 mph, and moving slowly to the NNE at 3mph.  After about 48 hours this tropical storm will become extratropical.

 Meteorologist Kristen Connolly!

Posted under Environment, Heat, Hurricanes, Pollution, Severe Weather, Storms, Summer, Travel, Weather NEws

Since my last blog was about the upcoming hurricane season I thought I would give a quick update. The National Hurricane Center released their tropical activity forecast on Thursday.  Here is what they are forecasting. 

• 14 to 23 Named Storms (top winds of 39 mph or higher), including:
• 8 to 14 Hurricanes (top winds of 74 mph or higher), of which:
• 3 to 7 could be Major Hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of at least 111 mph)
• Normal is 11 named storms, 6 hurricanes and two major

In their words it should be an “active to extremely active” season.   2005 was the most active season with 28 named storms.  Since 1995 8 of the last 15 seasons rank in the top ten for most named storms.

For more information check out the article from NOAA.

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Hurricanes, Tropics

This past weekend I was talking about how we have to blog on our weather page and that I am always looking for new ideas.  My Grammy, like most most Grandmas, suggest I talk about an event in history. 

She starts to tell me about Hurricane Bob which hit Massachusetts in 1991.  She couldn’t recall the exact year but knew it hit Cape Cod in the early 1990′s and caused extensive damage.  She points out what was most interesting is that the leaves were all grown and that there was so much salt water that came in with the winds that the salt actually killed the foliage!  So that fall they didn’t have the changing of the leaves since the leaves turned brown from the salt.  I was reading a few articles, this one describes exactly what she was explaining.

From the story my Grandma said that in the Spring the leaves began to come out and go through the normal cycle of what would happen in Fall, growing and changing of the colors.  Because of that they called it a “Sprall” – combining Spring and Fall.  I have been doing research to see if I can verify exactly what happened, I’ll let you know what I find out.

Hurricane Bob was a Category 2 hurricane that it the east coast on Sept 3 1991.  Top gusts on the cape were at 125 mph. Approx damage for New England was 680 million dollars. 

For more about the hurricane you can check out:

History of Hurricane Bob

History from the National Weather Service

Have a great night! Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Uncategorized