March 2012 Weather News!
Introduction: The new month starts off with more deadly rare winter tornadoes in the Midwest with snow predicted right behind them! The tragic tales of death and the miraculous survival accounts. More avalanche accidents and a very active season due to unstable snow bases. Japan, one year later after 3-11. Startling news for the Great Lakes area! The dog days of March for record breaking temperatures across the eastern half of the country. Angry Bird game keeps man from going insane when he was stranded in the snow. Special permits issued to kill Bald eagles. The “March Miracle” in northern Arizona one day before the beginning of spring! The state with the most expensive drought in United States history.
3-1- Red Flag Warning issued for most of Arizona tomorrow with 40mph winds expected.
The Northwest finally is getting hit with a blast of winter weather after a mild season. New York to Maine has areas with a foot of snow.
Thirty three confirmed tornadoes is the total from the storm two days ago. Thirteen souls are gone in seven states. Harrisburg, Illinois alone lost six people.
3-2- EF4 tornadoes with wind speeds from 170mph to 200mph across Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana (being the worst hit.) A high school in Indiana was completely destroyed. Seventeen states have Tornado Warnings. This weather is affecting 155 million people in eight states! There is a 90% chance of tornadoes in Kentucky, a very rare forecast.
No wonder there is a Red Flag Warning for fire danger in Arizona due to the wind. The humidity at the Land this afternoon was 9%, the dew point 4 degrees, bone dry!
A skier caught in an avalanche in Alpine Meadows, California died yesterday. He was slammed against a tree and partially buried in the snow.
Six feet of snow has fallen in California’s Sierra Nevada.
3-3- States of Emergency in Indiana and Kentucky. Every home in Henryville, Indiana is gone. Some of the tornado stricken areas are forecast to have snow in two days and many have no electricity or homes.
Warm weather and a dipping jet stream are causing the monster storms that caused tornadoes recently. Yesterday the Storm Prediction Center had received 311 reports of severe weather, including 48 reported tornadoes.
3-4- A fourteen month old girl found in a field one hundred and fifty yards from her home has died of her injuries. Her parents, brother and sister died instantly when a tornado ravaged their home in New Pekin, Indiana. The death toll is now up to 38 from the series of storms.
3-5- “A seven year old boy who was sucked from his home last Friday and dropped 350’ away on the side of a road is home from the hospital, recovering from his injuries. His family’s two story home was destroyed.
An Indiana woman lost both of her legs when her family’s home collapsed on top of her last Friday as she was shielding her two children. All of them survived.
Maryville, Indiana is so badly damaged by the last series of storms and tornadoes residents may not rebuild there. The storms may signal the end of tiny towns destroyed in the Midwest.
So far March has had the most tornadoes ever recorded, 179. Forty now confirmed dead in 46 separate tornadoes. People had only seconds to react since it was in the dead of night. One tornado cut a 52 mile path in Indiana. Now a blanket of snow in the region worsens cleanup operations (and survival.)
3-6- Strong winds and an afternoon humidity of 9% helps cause a two hundred acre brush fire near the Gila River in Buckeye, Arizona. Firefighters can’t fight it because they cannot get to it with the erratic wind behavior. A high voltage powerline in the fire area has been de-energized.
A five acre wildfire has erupted near Flagstaff with wind gusts of 70mph.
Floods in eastern Australia have forced 13,000 to evacuate their homes after record rain amounts have flooded three states.
A snowmobiler buried under ten feet of snow in Utah has been rescued and he was back to work the next day!
The Yuma City council may approve an ordinance to ban rooster crowing in city limits.
3-7- The Arlington Fire near Buckeye, Arizona has grown to five hundred acres.
3-8- The Arlington Fire near Buckeye, Arizona fully contained at one thousand acres. It was started by a farmer doing a “controlled burn.” (You have got to be kidding me when a Red Flag Warning was posted for the day the fire started.)
3-9- “Dry, dry, dry” as my old dad has been saying. Only March and dust storms close portions of I-25 in Albequerque, New Mexico. Also I-10 from the Arizona state line to Las Crucus, New Mexico closed.
3-10- Record breaking severe weather in Hawaii and a State of Emergency is declared. Unprecedented hail, water spouts and a tonado a mile and a half inland. Major flooding with four feet of rain in the past week!
Despite warm weather and high pressure in most of Arizona a “pesky low” has caused three inches of snow in Cochise County.
A high of 47 degrees in El Paso, Texas with a high of 64 degrees in Billings, Montana is highly unusual.
Food production has gone down 40% in Mexico due to the sustained drought and may cause wide spread hunger for years to come.
The bodies of two local recognized skiers from Jackson Hole, Wyoming have been recovered in the mountains of Teton National Park after being buried by an avalanche .
A seventy four year old woman trapped in her bedroom closet where she had hid eight days ago to escape a tornado in Kentucky has been found dead. She could not get out of the closet because the door handle fell off. The death toll is now up to 55 folks.
A woman and her cat have been found alive after three and a half weeks in the rugged Gila National Forest in New Mexico. She stayed bundled in a sleeping bag and kept close to a water source. The woman and her cat had only a “handful of supplies.” She is emaciated and malnourished but well hydrated. Her cat was in better shape because it hunted for food.
The woman, who has a history of mental illness, purposely hiked off a trail and set up camp. Authorities don’t believe she intended to stay as long as she did and aren’t quite sure what she ate when she ran out of food. (She should have eaten the fucking cat!)
3-11- The Great Lakes ice coverage has shrank 70% in the last forty years according to the American Meteorological Society. The data is based on satellite photos from 1973 to 2010. The most ice lost is on Lake Ontorio at 88% and Lake Superior at 77%. (This is serious shit! And I bitch about the lake levels in the West.)
They call it the equivalent to our 9-11, the 3-11 anniversary of the disaster in Japan last year. Three hundred thousand still live in refugee camps and only six percent of the carnage and destruction has been removed. Forty percent of the population in Tokyo is unemployed or under employed.
3-12- Here is the reason why Arizona doesn’t change to daylight savings time; when first enacted during World War 1 and 2 to save energy Arizona wanted days to end sooner not later because of heat. The act was restablished in 1976. (It’s all mind games. Throw away the watch and the sun comes up and the sun goes down when it will.)
Avalanche kills 45 in eastern Afghanistan. Just a week ago an entire village was wiped out killing 50.
3-13- Fifteen inches of rain in portions of Louisiana in five hours leaves seven feet of water on streets! The rainfall is one quarter of the state’s annual rainfall normally.
3-14- Temperature in Chicago today 81 degrees, the same high as The Land!
Warm spell breaks 138 high records in the Midwest and Northeast. In some areas temperatures are 35 degrees above normal.
A ski guide has been killed in an avalanche in the mountains in southeast Alaska near the town of Haines. He was guiding six skiers. One was buried and is “clinging to life.”
A cat jumped into a transformer in downtown Phoenix causing 1500 to be without power. (There was no mention of the condition of the cat although I’m sure it was vaporized upon impact. Speaking of impact remind me to tell you the Christmas gift radio controlled helicopter that knocked out power to our entire “neighborhood.”)
3-15- Southern Arizona has half the snow pack normally for this time of year. The conditions are as dry as normally found in May. There are grave concerns for the fire danger this summer especially the two million acre Coroanado National Forest.
A Winter Storm Advisory is issued for northern Airzona for Saturday through Monday.
More heat records shattered in the East and Midwest. Washington D.C. at 80 degrees broke a record for the third straight day. North Dakota was warmer than Arizona today. 5,600 records have been broken for warmest temperatures so far this year in the U.S.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued the first of its kind permit in Wyoming to the northern Arapaho Tribe, allowing them to kill up to two bald eagles for religious purposes.
Three people in separate attacks have been bitten by coyotes in a Vistancia, Peoria, Arizona neighborhood in the past three days. One woman was bitten on the ankle Monday evening while sitting on her back porch. The next day a woman was bitten on the chest reclining in a chair and a man bitten on the calf. Both were sitting on their porches. There are only eleven documented cases in Maricopa County of coyote bites in the past 15 years. (I can recall one time camping when coyotes were getting brazen and too close to camp when my good friend came out of his tent with a .44 handgun blazing at the bastards. He gave no notice and my dad, who was in camp, almost had a second heart attack. But the bastards were gone.)
A second man pulled from an avalanche in Haines, Alaska has died from his injuries. He had been snowboarding and was buried under six to eight feet of snow. The two men would not have been found if they weren’t wearing avalanche beacons.
3-16- Winter Storm Warning for northern Arizona above 5,000’. Winter Storm Watch in southern Arizona. 60mph winds possible.
A rare tornado near Ann Arbor, Michigan for this time of year is an EF3 with 145mph wind speeds. 110 homes damaged and 13 destroyed. Warning sirens likely prevented injuries and deaths.
A man stranded for three days on a snow covered back woods Montana road attributed his survival to “God, a rationed supply of beef jerky and the video game Angry Birds” that he played on his cell phone to keep from going insane. He had no cell phone reception to call for help.
3-17- Red Flag Warnings in eastern Arizona and a brush fire has broken out near Highways 60 and 77 near Show Low.
With this storm moving in NAU has already cancelled classes for Monday.
First signs of spring at The Land despite only .02 inches of rain since January 1st. The creosotes and barrel cacti are blooming their brilliant yellow flowers and fruit.
Fourth straight day of record heat in Chicago.
If Anchorage, Alaska receives 3.3 inches more snow this season a 60 year old record of 132.6 inches will be broken. Some streets are snow walled canyons and moose seek the city to get out of the deep snow in the woods.
3-18- Due to heavy snow in northern Arizona 180 miles of I-40 closed. Eighteen inches of snow in Flagstaff and thirty inches at the Snow Bowl. It was warmer today in Denver than in Phoenix. Snow level to drop to twenty five hundred feet tonight.
.30 inches of rain at The Land with a high of 56 degrees. I personally witnessed pea size hail at Queen Creek road and I-10. (Stoked a fire in the fireplace, it will probably be the last one until say next November.)
Hundreds of more heat records broken with St. Paul setting one for the eight straight day and an all time record of 79 degrees in International Falls.
3-19- With this storm passing out of Arizona a record .24’’ of rain for the date was recorded at Sky Harbor International Airport breaking the old record set in 1924! The Snow Bowl received 56’’ of snow, Sunrise 39’’ and Prescott 16’’. (There was even rare snow on Table Top Mountain, about thirty miles south of The Land that stuck all day. That mountain is only about 4500 feet high.)
The storm that just dumped heavy snow in California and Arizona has been dubbed a “March Miracle.”
A four hundred and fifty acre wildfire is contained in Santa Cruz County, Arizona.
Wind fueled wildfires in north east Colorado destroy two homes and three hundred evacuations in the tiny town of Eckley. The fire is ten miles long and a mile and a half wide.
Two tornadoes are confirmed outsied of Platte, Nebraska and severe storms have struck parts of Texas and Ohio.
An all time record of 83 degrees in Travers, Michigan and the 5th straight day of 80 degrees in Chicago.
3-20- Thunder was so strong this morning in Tulsa, Oklahoma it registered on seismic equipment. Locals called the NWS to see if an earthquake happened.
A tornado touched down last night 25 miles south west of San Antonio, Texas.
A fire burning on Mount Kenya is sending elephants and other large animals running for their lives. British troops are fighting to put out several fires.
Five skiers killed and one injured after being buried by a 3,000 foot wall of snow on Norway’s Arctic fringe. All were located by rescue beacons.
3-21- A storm dumps twelve inches of rain in parts of Louisiana causing major flooding.
The unseasonably warm weather has raised the danger of wildfires in northern parts of the United States where fires are unusual. Grass fires in Wisconsin last week burned hundreds of acres and caused two deaths.
Fire weather watch warnings are issued for parts of North Dakota and Montana.
3-22- Possibley the most expensive drought of any state ever, Texas agriculture lost 7.62 billion dollars in 2011. Hardest hit were livestock ranchers followed by cotton groweres. Texas is the largest producer of both commodities in the United States producing 15% of beef cattel and 25% of cotton. Many ranchers tried to buy hay from as far away as Montana. (Who is going to replace this shortage and how?)
3-23- A tornado kills a woman in her home in southern Illinois. Six confirmed tornadoes in south east Missouri, southern Illinois and Kentucky.
3-25- A Wind Advisory is issued for northern Arizona and a Red Flag Warning for Tucson.
The largest hailstone ever to hit Hawaii measured 4.25’’ long, 2.25’’ tall and 2’’ wide.
March has broken 6,000 warmest records so far from Minnesota to Michigan and Tennessee to Georgia. There have been about 250 daily record lows.
Warm days in Colorado are bringing out bears early. Bear sightings have been reported in Colorado Springs, Aspen, Durango and Summit County.
3-26- A young designer in Detroit has created the “MWPR” coat that doubles as a sleeping bag for the homeless population in that city, about 20,000. It is made by the homeless, teaching them skills to sew and produce products.
3-27- A fire south west of Denver has destroyed or damaged 23 homes. A husband and wife are dead but it is unclear if by the fire. The fire has burned 448 acres and at zero containment. Nine hundred homes have been evacuated and 6500 others have been warned of possible evacuation. A controlled burn may have started the fire and there were wind gusts up to 90mph yesterday.
After a warm spring temperatures drop into the twenties in New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire.
South African rugby players are swept out to sea in rough waters after a post practice swim. One player dead, five missing and fifteen rescued.
3-28- The two cousins accused of starting the largest Arizona wildfire in history last summer plead guilty to four counts related to building an unsafe campfire. The face up to a year in prison and ten thousand dollars in fines.
3-29- The governor of Colorado suspends state prescribed burns in light of the recent fire near Denver.
Softball size hail breaks windshields in Madison, Kansas.
Because of the severe drought, farmers in Texas and Louisiana have abandoned hundreds of donkeys turning them into “wandering refugees.” Ranchers used them to guard herds of cattle and goats. When the herds were sold off because of the drought the donkeys were “out of a job.” Eight hundred abandoned donkeys in Texas have been rescued.
The reward for information on the killing of six wild burros north of Phoenix has increased to six thousand dollars. Five adults were shot to death and one foal died when its mother was killed.
3-30- A seventy six year old man with diabetes, a pacemaker and has had triple bypass surgery survives ten days in a remote desert in Nevada. He and his seventy five year old friend drove out to scope out mines when they became stuck. His friend set off on foot for help and was later found dead about a mile and a half from the vehicle. The man who survived used a towel to strain drinking water from snow and water in a ditch.
3-31- 93 degrees at The Land, the first for many months! 20.50 degrees warmer than the beginning of the month. It is going to be a long, dry hot summer I’m afraid. Phoenix tied a record of 94 degrees.
Red Flag warning tomorrow in Kingman and state wide the temperature is supposed to drop twenty degrees.
There has been a recent string of shark attacks in Australia. One man is dead after being attacked by a 13’ long shark.
And there you have it my faithful readers of the incredible Blue Duck Weather with all the news that fits our dorky little minds!
We will leave you with the song of the month that reminds us of the transition from winter to spring in more ways than one; “Comin’ Home” by Tim McGraw.
Yours very sincerely, the Incredible, Distinguished, Honorable, Doctor of Quack logy, Professor MR Blue Duck.
