Midwest Braces For Next Wave Of Storms
Accuweather is predicting that a new storm system now hitting the Seattle area is going to pummel the Midwest by the weekend, bringing arctic temperatures with it. Separate storm activity in the northeast will also continue as two more storms will hit that region. It has already been a tough winter - and it is not even winter, yet.
The rain by tonight will reach central California and will extend into Southern California on Thursday.
The Severe Weather Center lists the widespread watches and warnings in effect across the West and the Intermountain West.
Before the storm emerges from the Rockies this weekend, a pair of storm systems will move across the eastern half of the country.
6-9 inches of snow will hit the New Hampshire-Maine area as well. Meanwhile, some people in Oklahoma still do not have power 10 days after the last blast downed lines all over that state.
SKIATOOK, Okla. - Huddled near her fireplace, Marla Carter wondered when Skiatook will be mentioned in news reports about the storm-related power outages that have left her without electricity for the past 10 days.
"It's kind of like we've been forgotten about out here," she said Tuesday. "There is life outside Tulsa."
Carter and thousands of other Oklahomans were still without power early Wednesday, more than a week after a massive storm coated the most populous regions of Oklahoma with ice.
Oklahoma's utility companies expect to restore service to most of their customers Wednesday or Thursday. The company that provides electricity to this town 30 miles north of Tulsa estimated that 99 percent of its customers would be back on line by Christmas.
Having been on both sides of this issue, I can sympathize with the folks who have no electricity, but at the same time, I also know those utility workers are working themselves to exhaustion trying their best to get everyone back on. The fact is that the damage was absolutely enormous. There is also the fact that the utilities have to prioritize the work - and rural customers are going to come in last due to the physical realities of the distribution systems. Rural customers are at the far end the distribution system and everything upstream of them has to be restored before it is physically possible to get those customers back on line. The small electric cooperative that serves that area had some 1,700 power poles broken in the storm. It just takes time to put all that infrastructure back together after nature takes it apart like this.
By feeblemind, Wednesday, 19 December , 2007 @ 1:33 pm
I guess it is time for our weekly snowstorm. Here in Nebraska they are calling for a 30-50% chance of snow over the weekend. That doesn’t bother me as much as the bone chilling wind that is coming with it. Looks like we will have a white Christmas… bah! Humbug! Living in a rural area I know all about being the last to get power. We have to keep a tractor PTO driven generator around because of that.
By NortonPete, Wednesday, 19 December , 2007 @ 2:55 pm
Accuweather is showing very cold air coming down from the Arctic for the next week, hitting the entire middle of the country. So much for Global Warming this December is shaping up as a cold one.
A gas/oil boiler doesn’t need much power to run, a small 3500 watt generator will do fine and run for many hours. Well pumps should not be run off small generators. Store water.
I used to lose power all the time, but the utility company undertook a massive tree cutting program that spanned 2 summers. Now I’m not sure if my generator will even start, its been idle for so long.
By feeblemind, Thursday, 20 December , 2007 @ 10:55 am
Weather forecaster Al Dutcher says that we can expect storms every 4 to 5 days for the next 6-8 weeks. He is forecasting a major bad storm for Jan 4 and much much colder. Says northern USA will have a colder than average winter. He is also predicting a late freeze this Spring for the High Plains. If that happens, it could decimate the hard red winter wheat crop in the affected areas. The US badly needs a bumper wheat crop next year.