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National Situation Update: Sunday, December 30, 2007

Homeland Security Threat Level: YELLOW (ELEVATED).

Significant National Weather

Midwest:  Sunday, December 30, 2007, light snow or flurries may develop late in the day in Ohio, as an east coast storm system moves past.

The next weather system will move out of the High Plains Sunday, December 30, 2007, spreading snow from the Dakotas to the Great Lakes December 31, 2007.

January 1, 2008, will be windy and quite cold from the Dakotas into the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley.  Snow showers should be numerous in the aforementioned region, due to deep, cold air aloft.  However, the most significant snowfall would likely be to the lee of the Great Lakes, where lake-effect snow may linger into Wednesday, January 2, 2008.

South:  Sunday, December 30, 2007, will provide needed rain in parts of the Southeast.

A broad area of soaking rain and embedded thunderstorms is expected to develop and move northeastward along the front Sunday, December 30, 2007.

Including rainfall from Saturday, December 29, 2007, final rainfall totals by Sunday, December 30, 2007, could exceed three inches from Georgia, to North Carolina and South Carolina.

An Arctic cold front will move through the Southeast Monday, December 31, 2007, and Tuesday, January 1, 2008, ushering in cold, windy weather, but little, if any, rainfall.

West
Sunday, December 30, 2007's weather will not only feature heavy mountain snow, but high winds.  A jet stream disturbance will move through the Pacific Northwest and Rockies Sunday, December 30, 2007.  Moist, west-to-northwest winds will move into the west-facing slopes of the northern Rockies, wringing out heavy snowfall over the mountains.

Snowfall amounts measured in feet, rather than inches, are a certainty in the Olympics and Cascades Monday, December 31, 2007.  Totals in excess of a foot are also possible in parts of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.  Lighter amounts can be expected in Utah and Colorado.

A Blizzard Warning has already issued over parts of Idaho, and High Wind Watches/Warnings and blowing snow advisories are posted for the mountains and adjacent Front Range Foothills of Colorado, as well as central and southern Wyoming.  Wind gusts from 60-to-80 mph are possible in these wind-prone areas, particularly above treeline.

Strong, high pressure will dominate the West early in the week, and will force another bout of Santa Ana winds through the mountains of southern California Monday, December 31, 2007, and Tuesday, January 1, 2008.

Northeast:  Snow is expected to blanket some in the Northeast Urban Corridor.

A low pressure system will move northeastward from the Carolinas Sunday afternoon, December 30, 2007, off the Eastern Seaboard Sunday night, December 30, 2007, then finally into the ocean well off Nantucket Island, RI, Monday morning, December 31, 2007.

Rain should spread into the Middle Atlantic States Sunday afternoon, December 30, 2007.  Rain will move into Long Island and New York.

Snowfall totals should remain on the light side in the immediate Boston, Massachusetts-Washington, DC, corridor by the time the storm exits early Monday, December 31, 2007.  Generally, an inch-or-less of wet snow is possible from the northwest suburbs of Washington, DC, to the western and northern suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to New York.  Boston, Massachusetts, may see three-to-five inches downtown.

More moderate snowfall accumulations, generally in the three-to-possibly-six-inch range, can be expected over Pennsylvania's Poconos, the Lower Hudson Valley, Massachusetts and Maine.

A new frontal system will move into the Great Lakes and the Appalachians December 31, 2007, and spreading light snow from New York to West Virginia.  Cold winds will be on the increase from west-to-east January 1, 2008, and Wednesday, January 2, 2008, with significant lake-effect snow possible in the favored snowbelts. (NWS, Media Sources)

Rain, Snow Hit Northeast After Midwest Bash

Air travel in the Midwest was returning to normal Saturday, December 29, 2007, following a storm that blanketed the Great Lakes region with several inches of snow.  Only two dozen flights were canceled Saturday morning, December 29, 2007, at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

That was in sharp contrast to Friday, December 28, 2007, when nearly 300 flights were canceled at O'Hare because of the weather, and delays averaged 30-to-45 minutes.  Delays at Midway Airport averaged 30 minutes, with about 25 cancellations. 

By early afternoon Saturday, December 29, 2007, the storm had largely blown out to sea after spreading snow across New England, with rain elsewhere in the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic states.  Radar showed snow lingering in Maine.

On Friday, December 28, 2007, both runways at Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport were closed due to snow for about an hour in the afternoon, and at least two hours in the evening, an airport spokesman said.

At Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, snow caused some radar equipment to shut down automatically, closing one runway to arriving planes for about two hours.  Planes were diverted or circled while crews replaced the device, which tells aircraft whether they are properly lined up for landing.

Five-to-seven inches of snow was reported in the region.  Milwaukee's total at Mitchell International was 6.3 inches, topping the record for the date of 5.3 inches set in 1968.  (Media Sources)

Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG)

No new activity to report. (FEMA HQ)

Disaster Activity

No new activity to report. (FEMA HQ)

Tropical Weather Outlook

Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico/Eastern Pacific/Central Pacific:
A surface low pressure system, centered over the east Atlantic Ocean, about 950 miles southwest of the Azores, has been gradually acquiring some subtropical characteristics since yesterday, December 8, 2007. 

This system has been producing gale-force winds, mainly to the north and east of its circular center, and it could become a Subtropical Storm later today, December 29, 2007, or tomorrow, December 30, 2007, as it remains nearly stationary.

Western Pacific:
No current tropical cyclone warnings. (NOAA, National Hurricane Center, Central Pacific Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center)

Earthquake Activity

At 5:58 pm EST, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck in the Fox Islands, Aleutian Islands, AK, about 30 miles southeast of Nikolski, AK, and 913 miles west-southwest of Anchorage, AK, at a depth of 21.7 miles.  There were no reports of damage or injuries, and no Tsunami was generated. (USGS/NEIC, West Coast & Alaska Tsunami Warning Center)

Preliminary Damage Assessments

No new activity to report.  (FEMA HQ)