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National Situation Update: Sunday, December 24, 2006

Homeland Security Threat Level: YELLOW (ELEVATED).

National Weather Summary

South:
A developing Gulf storm will bring heavy rain to eastern Texas, southern Louisiana, southern Mississippi, southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle Sunday.
 
More flooding is expected for New Orleans, between 1 and 6 inches of rain could fall. Severe thunderstorms are forecast in the northern Gulf Coast.

Monday, the storm intensifies as it heads northward toward the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic States.
Rain from the lower Mississippi River Valley eastward will be heaviest from northern Florida to the Carolinas where between 1 and 4 inches could fall.

Some severe thunderstorms may develop across Florida, southern Georgia and the coastal Carolinas in the warmest air. Cold air will move in later Monday with strong west to northwest winds, changing the rain to snow before ending in Arkansas and northern Louisiana.

Northeast:
After a quiet Sunday with just a few snow showers toward the Canadian border, a new storm will begin to make itself felt in the Northeast Christmas Day.

Midwest:
A strong and dry upper-level storm will bring light snow and snow showers (mostly non-accumulating) to the Dakotas, Nebraska, western Minnesota and Iowa on Sunday.

West:
A series of new north Pacific Storms will hit the Northwest and northern California late Sunday into Monday and through the coming week.

Bringing with them strong winds to coastal and parts of interior western Washington and western Oregon along with heavy rainfall.

Locally heavy snow will accompany each of the four storms inland from the Cascades to the northern and central Rockies. (Media Sources)

Winter Storm Update

Thousands in central Wisconsin without power
Wet, heavy snow downed power lines across north central Wisconsin leaving thousands of customers without electricity.

Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service Corp. reported there were more than 19,000 customers affected by outages as of Saturday evening, including about 6,300 at Wausau and 3,300 at Stevens Point.
 
More than 100 repair crews are on the job working through the night. The restoration efforts likely would continue through Sunday.

The Red Cross opened an emergency shelter at Stevens Point Area High School for those without electricity. Local authorities Saturday evening have stated that no one had gone to the shelter.

The forecast called for low temperatures overnight dipping to the teens in the north and mid 20s in the south. Sunday's prediction included partly cloudy skies with highs from the mid 30s in the north to the mid 40s in the south. (NICC, Media Sources)

Colorado
Tonight with lows in the teens, and another weather disturbance Sunday snow is forecast for the Denver metro area. No new information on shelters.

All major state and federal highways are now open.  Some mountain passes and secondary roads may be closed or have restricted travel (chains, snow tires, hours).

Denver International Airport currently now has five runways operational.
Colorado State Emergency Operations Center (EOC) ceased 24 hour operations at 5:00 p.m. Friday (Dec 22).  (NICC, Region VIII)

Volcanoes Activity:

December 24, 2006, the Bezymianny Volcano located in Kamchatkan and Northern Kurile (Russia) became active. Current level of concern is: RED
  
Seismic activity significantly increased. Series of ash explosions and ash avalanches began from 6:52 EST on December 23. Ash plumes rose up to 6.0 km (19,700 ft) ASL and extended to the north-east from the volcano.
 
Possible U.S. concerns over the sky of Alaska.  (USGS) 

Tropical Weather Outlook

No new activity (FEMA HQ)

Earthquake Activity

At 10:43 pm EST a earthquake of 4.1 magnitude at a depth of 8.6 miles was located 8 miles from Coachella, CA. ( 90 miles from San Diego, CA.) There have been no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

At 12:21 pm EST a earthquke of 3.5 magnitude at a depth of 6.1 miles was located 2 miles from Berkeley, CA. In the San Francisco Bay area. There have been no immediate reports of injuries or damage.  (USGS, Earthquake Hazards Program, Alaska Earthquake Information Center, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, and West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Centers, media sources)

Preliminary Damage Assessments

No new activity (FEMA HQ)

Disaster Declaration Activity

No new activity (FEMA HQ)