Back to Normal: weather 1/12/14

After the extreme weather of the last few weeks, this last week has been much more normal for this time of year.  Temperatures have moderated to seasonal levels across the nation.  The severe storms that pushed through the SE are not unusual in January, nor are the feet of snow in the known lake effect areas near the great lakes.  The flooding resulting from snow melt and rains isn’t that unusual either.  I for one say HOORAY, for normal.

Over the next week I don’t see anything unusual occurring either for January.  We’ll see some more cold in the Midwest and east, a couple small systems racing through, and maybe an east coast storm.  The west will remain on the mild and drier side.  While weather extremes excite everyone and make news, we would all prefer to have things a bit more “normal” than they have been this winter in much of the country.  

There was some exciting weather out there in some locations.
Raleigh, NC had it fastest thunderstorm gust measured at 86 mph.  The following video of an under construction building collapse was the result.
Building Collapses During Storm

At the height of the cold early in the week, many places reported seeing "sun dogs" in the skies.  A sun dog is when the sunlight is reflected off of ice crystals either in thin clouds or just the very cold skies themselves showing a sort of Halo effect around the sun.  I took this picture of what it looked like in my area.

And some video I took the same day.  Temps outside were about -20 and we had one measured wind gust that put the wind chill at -71 degrees.  As I said, I am glad we are back to more "normal" weather.

And I have to share this photo taken in Chicago.  This is a picture of a water spout in below zero weather.  Had this made landfall, it would have been classified as a tornado.  This is an unbelievably rare event and may not have even been considered possible before this picture.  I did see one other picture of a tornado in snowfall from Montana, but that is it.

It had gotten so cold last week that even the snowmen wanted out.



Not sure if that was the smartest move for the snowman, but I don't think they are known for their brilliance, lol.