A tornado ripped through western Oklahoma on Monday destroying five homes and a barn. Dramatic video captured by stormchasers show the twister ripping apart out-buildings as it crosses a highway near Hammon.
According to the Storm Prediction Center, the twister was reported at 5:57pm local time. Residents said the area’s warning sirens did sound and provided nine minutes of warning before the tornado struck.
Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokeswoman Michelann Ooten told the Associated Press that no injuries were reported. In addition to the five homes, a barn owned by the county was destroyed and the roofs of several homes were blow off.
Stormchasers were tracking the storm and captured amazing video of the twister from the distance and from very close proximity. The first is from Arick Inman and the second from Mike Scantlin.
Massive boulders lie strewn on Interstate 70 through Colorado's Glenwood Canyon Monday morning. (CDOT)
A rockslide that dropped boulders the size of semi-trucks has forced the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to close I-70 in both directions. Officials are unable to provide an estimate on when the road will reopen as damage is extensive on both east and west bound sides.
CDOT spokesperson Stacey Stegman said the boulders were big enough to punch holes into the surface of the highway. Some are large enough that moving them as they are may not be an option – they instead will have to be blown apart into smaller pieces.
CDOT reported on Twitter that the boulders ranged in size from 3 to 10 feet with the largest weighing 66 tons. The largest hole on the westbound side of the highway measures 20 feet by 10 feet and the largest on the eastbound side measures 6 feet by 6 feet.
The slide occurred near mile marker 125, west of Hanging Lake Tunnel. Officials said they were lucky the slide occurred at 12:09am when traffic on the highway was at a minimum.
Interstate 70 is closed in both directions between mile markers 116 and 133. CDOT says it could be a couple of days before traffic is able to utilize the route.
The shortest detour around the slide area is not a quick one requiring nearly a 200 mile route. Drivers are being encouraged to use U.S. 40 through Steamboat Springs or U.S. 50 through Montrose and Gunnison.
March 7 to March 13 - This week in Denver weather history
As we talked about in our March weather preview, Denver can see the entire gamut of weather conditions this time of year and our look back at this week in history shows that. There are of course plenty of the famous March snowstorms including big ones in 1992 and 1998. We also see the usual high winds such as was the case in 2000 and even extreme cold as we saw over an extended period in 1906.
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6-7
In 1981…a storm dumped 4 to 8 inches of snow over higher elevations between Denver and Colorado springs. At Stapleton International Airport…north winds gusted to 16 mph and snowfall totaled only 2.5 inches.
In 1998…heavy snow fell over portions of metro Denver and the adjacent foothills. Snowfall totals included 11 inches at Chief Hosa…10 inches near Evergreen…8.5 inches in Broomfield…8 inches at Bailey…and 7 inches at both Standley Lake and Thornton. Elsewhere…snowfall across metro Denver ranged from 3 to 6 inches with 4.9 inches measured at the site of the former Stapleton International Airport. North winds gusted to 26 mph at Denver International Airport on the 7th. Several accidents occurred along area roads and highways when they became icy and snowpacked.
6-8
In 1932…snowfall totaled 6.3 inches in downtown Denver. Most of the snow…5.2 inches…fell on the 8th. Northeast winds gusted to 20 mph on the 6th.
7
In 1872…heavy rain started shortly after midnight and soon turned to sleet…which continued to just after sunrise…the ground at that time not even being white. At about 7:00 am the worst snow storm of the winter commenced and continued until 10:00 pm…snowing heavily nearly all the time. North winds averaged a sustained speed of 25 mph. About 8 inches of snow fell…but it drifted too much to obtain a direct measurement.
In 1901…northwest winds were sustained to 40 mph with gusts as high as 58 mph. The strong Chinook winds warmed the temperature to a high of 70 degrees.
In 1902…northwest winds were sustained to 45 mph with gusts to 53 mph.
In 1950…strong north winds at 40 mph with gusts as high as 60 mph produced a dust storm across metro Denver. At Stapleton Airport…blowing dust reduced visibility to as low as 1/4 mile for most of the day.
In 1972…northwest winds gusted to 51 mph at Stapleton International Airport. The Chinook winds warmed temperatures to a high of 64 degrees.
In 1984…a wind gust to 63 mph was recorded at Golden Gate Canyon west of Denver. West winds gusted to 39 mph at Stapleton International Airport.
This screen capture from amateur video shows one of the massive waves crashing into the cruise ship Louis Majesty.
Massive rogue waves struck the cruise ship Louis Majesty in the Mediterranean on Wednesday killing two and injuring more than a dozen passengers. The waves, at least 25 feet in height, broke windows and flooded cabins on the ship carrying 2,000 people.
The Louis Majesty was traveling from Barcelona to Genoa on the last day of a 10-day cruise of the western Mediterranean when the waves struck. Reports indicate that three massive waves broke windshields on the front of the ship and sent water over the decks.
Two deaths were reported as a result of the waves and both died at the scene. The victims were a 52-year-old Italian man and a 69-year-old German man from North Rhine Westphalia.
Fourteen injuries were reported, most minor and none life-threatening. Two of those had serious injuries including a 62-year-old woman who broke both of her legs.
Passenger Claude Cremex of Marseille, France told the Associated Press, “It was spectacular. A lot of water came in. Many cabins were flooded.”
Exactly where the accident occurred was still unclear. Most reports said the ship was sailing near the French Mediterranean port of Marseille but others placed it off the coast of Cabo de San Sebastian, Spain near Palafrugell.
Reports are that there were high winds in the area the ship was traveling through and automated buoy data indicates significant wave action at the time. A buoy operated by Meteo France in the area recorded waves to 21 feet high and winds in excess of 40 mph.
The 680 foot ship is owned and operated by Louis Cruises and had 1,350 passengers and 580 crew members on board at the time of the accident. The nearly 41,000 ton ship is “the most stylish and biggest ship in the fleet” according to Louis Cruises.
The debate about manmade climate change continues with a group of climate scientists now seeking to launch a PR campaign against skeptics.
Climate science and the purveyors of the manmade climate change theory have been sent reeling backwards over the past year. Errors discovered in their data and reporting, the Climategate email scandal and the shame it brought upon them, and continued cooling of the globe have set back their efforts. Now, a group of climate scientists is working to take the offensive against skeptics.
The Washington Times reports today that a number of scientists will start a new public relations campaign in the hopes of turning back the tide. Among the efforts by the scientists are to solicit a group of them to donate $1,000 each toward purchasing an ad in the New York Times.
One of the scientists, Dr. Stephen Schneider, Professor of Environmental Biology and Global Change at Stanford University lamented the state of the debate and sought to call up fears of the hunt for communists. “I don’t want to see a repeat of McCarthyesque behavior and I’m already personally very dismayed by the horrible state of this topic, in which the political debate has almost no resemblance to the scientific debate.”
Schneider is most famous in many circles for making outrageous claims. In 1989 he told Discover magazine, “So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have.”
More recently, here on Examiner.com he told San Francisco Environmental Policy Examiner Thomas Fuller that any those who doubt the anthropogenic global warming theory would be “slaughtered in public debate.” When a number of notable scientists including Roger A. Pielke Sr. offered to debate him, Schneider quickly backpedaled.
The Earth's axis was shifted slightly and our days shortened by last Saturday's earthquake in Chile. (NASA)
NASA scientists have determined that the massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday has shortened our days and shifted the Earth’s axis. Officials said that the effects of the event while not unusual are a testament to the power of the temblor.
Richard Gross, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said his team had determined the Chile earthquake shorted the length of an Earth day by 1.26 microseconds. A microsecond is one millionth of a second.
The 2004 earthquake in Sumatra which triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people was a magnitude 9.1 temblor. That event shortened the days by 6.8 microseconds according to the same computer models.
Most interesting is the effect the quakes had on the earth’s axis. Saturday’s earthquake shifted the earth’s axis by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches). The Sumatran quake shifted the planet’s axis by 2.32 milliarcseconds (about 7 centimeters, or 2.76 inches).
The scientists said the 2010 Chile quake had a greater effect on the Earth’s axis than the 2004 temblor because it occurred in the planet’s mid-latitudes. By contrast, the Sumatran quake was near the equator.
Researchers have said that all earthquakes affect the Earth’s axis. Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said “Any worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth’s rotation, from seasonal weather down to driving a car.”
For the first time since at least 1950, no tornadoes were recorded during the month of February. (Chris Foltz, NOAA)
While there was plenty of notable weather last month in the United States including the severe winter storms in the northeast, tornadoes were not one weather phenomena anyone had to worry about.
According to the National Weather Service, there were no twisters reported during February 2010 – the first time since record keeping began in 1950 that February did not have any. The previous low number of tornadoes in February was 2 in 2002.
Harold Brooks, a meteorologist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory, said the last time the United States went a calendar month without a tornado was January 2003. Through yesterday it has been 36 days since the last twister struck on the 24th of January in Tennessee.
Brooks cautions against reading too much into the statistic. He said it tells us, “Somewhere between a little and nothing at all.”
Most years that start out slow in terms of tornado events end average or below average Brooks said. However, he also points to 2003 when the year started out 45 days without a tornado but by the middle of May the season was above normal.
In the wake of the Climategate email scandal, the failure at the climate summit and with revelations of errors in IPCC documents, Al Gore has been conspicuously absent - until now.
Former Vice President Al Gore had been conspicuously absent from the public eye recently. Following on the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit and new revelations of errors in key climate science reports, the Nobel Laureate was nowhere to be found. On Sunday he returned with an op-ed in the New York Times discussing the ‘attacks’ on the manmade climate change theory.
As is the norm for his work, Gore as always takes the opportunity to use over-the-top language to push for action against what he describes as an “unimaginable calamity” that will be visited on the earth. He used the liberal ‘Old Gray Lady’ to discuss his thoughts on the errors in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) work, the Climategate email scandal and took jabs at news organizations like FOX News.
Gore only concedes two of the many errors – the one concerning Himalayan glaciers and another comical one about the Netherlands finding itself flooded. He says science will “never be completely free of mistakes” and says that “the overwhelming consensus on global warming remains unchanged.”
Few would argue that science is perfect in any area of study. However, many would simply expect that if drastic measures are to be taken to combat the purported threat of manmade climate change, the science should be sound before jumping in.
March in Denver typically means frequent and rapid weather changes. The days grow longer and we start enjoying more sunshine and sometimes summer-like weather. However, on occasion arctic air masses can still force their way south into Colorado dropping temperatures quickly and markedly.
These changes are due to March’s “in between” status – elements during the month have much in common with winter and spring. In addition to arctic fronts, Pacific storms frequently move across Colorado from the west and warm moist air streams up from the Gulf of Mexico northeastward into the state. When these cold fronts collide with the warmer air masses the result can be some crazy weather.
A crushed car in a parking garage in Concepcion Chile following the earthquake early Saturday morning Feb. 27, 2010. (TVN)
Buildings lie in heaps of rubble, highway overpasses collapsed and large crevices opened in the earth following a massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile yesterday. Aftershocks continue to rock the nation while rescuers try to reach an untold number lying buried in the remnants of towns and cities.
Yesterday’s earthquake struck the nation early in the morning hours when most residents were still sleeping. The temblor’s 8.8 magnitude rating demonstrates the power of the quake and put the event in a tie for the fifth most powerful earthquake since 1900.
Tsunami warnings were issued immediately following the quake for thousands of miles of coastline surrounding the Pacific Ocean. From California and Alaska to Hawaii and Japan, officials worried about a devastating wave that could have been generated by the quake.
Near the epicenter, Chile is under a ‘state of catastrophe’ and officials work to direct recovery efforts. Outgoing President Michelle Bachelet said, “It was a catastrophe of devastating consequences.”
Officially the death toll from the quake stands at 214 however officials warn that number will almost certainly grow. 500,000 homes were damaged by the quake and 1.5 million residents have been affected.
Concepcion, the largest city closest to the epicenter, saw widespread destruction and the greatest count of fatalities thus far. Buildings across the city were collapsed into ruin and rescuers were working to comb the rubble for survivors.
The nation’s capital, 200 miles from the epicenter, was not spared. Elevated highways collapsed and apartment buildings were reduced to piles of brick and mortar.
Rescuers were struggling to reach possible survivors as they run low on supplies and gasoline. Adding to the difficulty are ongoing aftershocks that threaten to bring down already weakened structures. More than 80 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 have occurred since the main quake struck at 3:34am Saturday.
Officials with the U.S. Geological Survey said yesterday’s quake was several hundred times more powerful than the magnitude 7.0 quake that devastated Haiti last month. Chile however is in an earthquake-prone region and newer buildings have been built to withstand quakes.
The service also said that the Chile quake was centered 21.7 miles beneath the earth’s surface, considerably deeper than the 8.1 mile depth of the Haiti quake. Its magnitude 8.8 rating puts it in a tie as the fifth largest earthquake to strike the globe since 1900.
.jpg "The debate about manmade climate change continues with a group of climate scientists now seeking to launch a PR campaign against skeptics.")
