West: A low pressure system moving into northern California will produce heavy snows, in the Oregon Cascades, northern California mountains, Sierra Nevada, Sawtooths, Grand Tetons and Wasatch. Scattered showers and mountain snows will fall in Idaho, western Montana, western Wyoming, northern Nevada and northern California
Midwest: Gusty winds up to 45 mph will blow over the Great Lakes and lower Midwest producing lake-effect snow in the Upper Midwest, the Great Lakes and eastern Ohio.
South: The cold front will move off the Carolinas early this afternoon taking the showers and thunderstorms into the Atlantic so much of the South will be sunny and dry. Gusty winds up to 45 mph are forecast across the Southeast with peak winds over the Appalachians.
Northeast: The cold front will move off the East Coast early this afternoon taking the showers and thunderstorms over the Atlantic. The tight pressure gradient behind the front will produce strong, gusty winds. Much of the Northeast, except for northern New England will have winds gusting to 50 to 60 mph. The strong winds will move much colder air over the region with lake-effect snow forecast east of Lake Ontario in New York and extreme northwest Pennsylvania. (NWS, media sources)
Texas Forest Service (TFS) reported that Sunday (03/12), was possibly the single worst day in Texas wildfire history. In a 24-hour period, the State of Texas responded to 162 new fires that burned 50,589 acres.
Many homes were threatened during the wildfire outbreak on 03/11 in the Panhandle. The Texas Civil Air Patrol (TXCAP) is flying over four (4) counties to assist in determining the number of homes saved, as well as the number of homes that were lost. There were 1,191 persons evacuated. There were 17 aircraft sorties flown and 5,525 gallons of fire retardant dropped.
Currently, there are nine (9) active fires burning. Since 12/26/2005, more than 10,138 fires have burned 3,488,482 acres. For the same period, there have been 380 homes lost and 4,123 homes saved.
The State of Texas has 25 Aircraft, 47 Dozers, 11 Engines and approximately 373 State personnel in direct support of wildfire operations. Texas aircraft have now flown a total of 6,004 sorties, dropping a total of 4,653,265 gallons of fire retardant. The Texas Army National Guard (TXARNG) is activating 7 dozers with crews and support elements to support fire suppression operations.
To date, the TXCAP has now flown 1,589 hours and detected 253 fires. Three (3) missions were flown on 03/12. One (1) fire was detected. Four (4) missions are scheduled for 03/13/2006. (Joint Field Office (JFO) FEMA-1624-TX Austin TX)
Event and Impacts
NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) Operations
The current Color Code for Alaska's Augustine volcano is ORANGE.
Low-level eruptive activity continues at Augustine Volcano. There continues to be periods of prolonged volcanic tremor and small volcano-tectonic earthquakes. Block-and-ash-flows, rock avalanches, and rock fall originating from the summit lava dome and lava flows continue to be recorded by the seismic network, particularly at the east flank station. (United States Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Hazards Program, Alaska Volcano Observatory)
There are no tropical disturbances in the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. (National Hurricane Center, Central Pacific Hurricane Center, and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center)
There have been a number of earthquakes in northern Alaska during the last 24 hours ranging in magnitude from 3.0 to 4.5. There are no reports of damage.
There was a strong magnitude 6.8 earthquake off the coast of Seram Indonesia at 1:57 am (EST) March 14, 2006. There were no immediate reports of damage or a tsunami. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reported "This earthquake is located outside the Pacific. No tsunami threat exists to coastlines in the Pacific. However - earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a few hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter. Authorities in the region of the epicenter should be aware of this possibility and take appropriate action. This center does not have sea level gauges outside the Pacific so will not be able to detect or measure a tsunami if one was generated. Authorities can assume the danger has passed if no tsunami waves are observed near the epicenter within an hour of the earthquake." (USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, media sources )
No new activity (FEMA HQ)
National Preparedness Level 2 (On a scale from 1 to 5).
March 13, 2006: Nationally, fire activity was light with 168 new fires reported throughout the states. Six new large fires were reported: one in Arkansas, two in Oklahoma, and three in Texas. One large fire was contained in Oklahoma. (National Interagency Fire Center)
No new activity (FEMA HQ)
Last Modified: Wednesday, 29-Mar-2006 14:58:06 EST