Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!
Hopefully everyone had a great time tearing up NYE and not too long of a recovery NYD.  Man, one more year down and it feels like this past year just flew! 2010 sure did go out with a vengeance! Well, in this case, the weather sure did.
Here is a recap of just these past few weeks!
Goodness where to start!

- Series of Lows traveling along the Pineapple Express (no, not the movie or the illegal substance associated with it). Actually, just a side note: the Pineapple Express is a phenomenon characterized by a strong persistent flow of moisture from the water adjacent to the Hawaiian Islands extending to any location along the Pacific coast of North America. Essentially an atmospheric river if you will. Needless to say, California was inundated with over a foot  or two of rain. The mountains received feet upon feet of snow totaling around 12 feet of snow by storm's end.

- This very same storm system reeked havoc along the South and Gulf states before phasing into a trough from the North that gave birth to Blizzard of 2010 in the Northeast.

- Southern states experienced their first white Christmas in decades and were very much pleasantly surprised and welcomed the holiday snow (if it was any other day besides Christmas, I am sure it would not have seen so welcomed).

- Back up a few days...days before Christmas, amidst the heavily traveled week for the holidays. Hundreds of trains and planes were canceled over two days and thousands of people were stranded at London's Heathrow Airport due to heavy snow conditions that grounded all planes in and out of London for days, leaving travels left wondering if they would make it their destinations in time of the holiday.

- The infamous Blizzard of 2010 arrived a few hours shy of a White Christmas. Aside from guidance forecast discrepancies 36 hours out, this Nor'easter arrived fast and furious! I remember (specifically) telling people Sunday (D-day) depending on your location, the snow will start falling late morning and will stick and accumulate fast! Every few hours I kept reloading the RADAR. I felt like a kid in a candy shop watching what looked like a glacier slowly creeping North (mind you, a glacier would move from higher elevation south to lower elevation with the exception of it were receding...) taking over Jersey!
After reading all the newspapers this past week, I still keep scratching my head wondering why so many people never listened to our snow storm warnings and still ventured out to the malls or where ever to later being stranded in parking lots and on the roads. There was no reason for it!
Hey, how about this: the next time we say there is going to be a doozy of a storm, and your well-being could be in danger, how about you listen?
Unbelievable snow accumulations were left by the storm. Last post I recorded snow totals. It was just epic...EPIC!

-  Floods take over Australia as the final days of 2010 were upon us. Some towns in Northeast Australia were declared to be disaster zones. Water levels reached past 50 feet covering houses! Thankfully though, thousands of people were able to flee the rising waters but the damage has been done.

- If the West had not already seen the fury of Mother Nature, they sure did receive a swift kick in the backside to help ring in the new year. Snow, snow, and more snow! The Eastern Rockies got dumped upon with snow and palm trees in Las Vegas have snow on them!Over 20 inches of snow in Colorado along with negative digit temperatures and hurricane force winds gusting, and many casualties in Colorado. Blizzard conditions and ultimately zero visibility along I-94 in North Dakota caused a 100 car pile up! Yes, you read that correctly! This storm stretched as far North as the Dakotas, and as far South as Arizona and New Mexico and every where in between! The same storm took six (6) lives and created such destruction New Year's Eve, from rare Winter tornadoes (EF2 and EF3) that tore across the Midwest (Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois).

All this weather! What a way to end 2010! Just goes to show, Mother Nature can not be reckoned with. She will prevail.

May this coming year treat everyone well. I send positive energy and wish everyone a healthy and prosperous near year!

Keep tuning in for all of your weather updates and headlines!

~ V.S