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U.S. Basks, Rest of the Northern Hemisphere Shivers

Submitted by Kevin Williams, Director of Meteorology
Monday, April 2nd, 2012, 5:46am

The average March temperature in Rochester was 47.3 degrees.  This was a remarkable 13 degrees above average.

The average winter (December-January-February) temperature in Rochester was 32.4 degrees.  This placed the winter as the fifth warmest on record.  The warmest winter in Rochester history was in 1931-32 when the average temperature reached 34.5 degrees.  (The only noteworthy item to cheer if you are a winter weather fan was the above normal snowfall that was observed in February.)

Additionally, this past winter nationally also turned out to be the 5th warmest on record.

You thus might be surprised to learn that globally, this winter was the 11th coldest on record in the 34 year satellite record.

This is attributable to the fact that parts of Europe and Asia were breaking records for low temperatures and heavy snow, while we in the States were basking in the glow of a low winter sun.

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Genesee River named one of the nation's dirtiest

Submitted by WHEC_Web_Staff
Friday, March 23rd, 2012, 9:58pm

An environmental group says the Genesee River is one of the most toxic rivers in the country.

"Environment New York" ranked the Genesee the 32nd dirtiest river in the country, saying it contains far too many toxic chemicals.

The Seneca and Hudson Rivers also made the top 40.

The report calls for industrial facilities to stop using toxic chemicals that drain into waterways. It also pushes for stricter enforcement of the Clean Water Act.

You can read Environment New York's report on their website. 

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Port to be dredged this spring

Submitted by WHEC_Web_Staff
Thursday, March 15th, 2012, 8:14pm

A plan to clear sediment buildup in the Port of Rochester -- that's what Congresswoman Louise Slaughter announced on Thursday morning when she visited Rochester.

Slaughter says the venture will be privately funded for the first time, after no federal dollars could be secured for the approximately $1 million process.

It has been three years since the port was last dredged, and the Army Corps of Engineers brought up a quarter of a million cubic yards of sediment. Since then, sediment has caused part of the port to be as shallow as 14-feet which could cause problems for large cargo ships, like cement ships traveling down the river.

The press conference was held at Essroc, one such company, today.

"We must must do everything we can to assure that harbors receive the money that they deperately need to keep our economy and businesses like Essroc strong for decades to come," Slaughter said at the press conference.

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A Flaky February After All

Submitted by Kevin Williams, Director of Meteorology
Thursday, March 1st, 2012, 8:44am

Meteorological winter ended at midnight last night.  (Astronomical winter has about three weeks left.  And, of course, Mother Nature cares little for how we define winter with accumulating snow falling here as late as May.)  

Certainly no one should ever mistake the winter of 2011-12 as a harsh season in Rochester and the Finger Lakes.

And no one is likely to mistake this past February as a harsh month either.

But February was snowy.  In fact, it was by far the snowiest month of the season.  It was even snowier than the months of November, December and January combined.

The total Rochester snowfall for February was 27.3 inches which was 5.8 inches above normal.  And since 1980, there were only 11 February’s
when more snow fell.

By the way, while the winter nationally was unusually warm and relatively storm free, that was not the case elsewhere in the northern Hemisphere.  

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Winter -- better late than never...?

Submitted by Kevin Williams, Director of Meteorology
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012, 3:12pm

Here is one metric provided by the National Weather Service relative to the snow drought in Rochester, which I think is symptomatic of much of the country:  In a normal winter, there are 76 days where the ground is covered be at least one inch of snow.  The record for the least amount of such days is 35.  So far this year there have been just 9 such days!  (BTW, the record for the least amount of snowfall is 11 inches which was set in the winter of 1932-33.  That record is safe.)

The other city we included in our analogue forecast for the Great Lakes was Chicago.  And there certainly has been a snow drought there, as well.  The total seasonal snowfall to date in Chicago stands at 13.9 inches.  The normal snowfall to date is 22.9 inches and by this time last year there had been 50.1 inches of snow.

The numbers in Rochester and Chicago are consistent with what our analogue forecast suggested.  So far, so good.

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City of Rochester, USDA Wildlife Services to start crow management efforts

Submitted by WHEC_Web_Staff
Monday, February 6th, 2012, 8:08pm

Those loud, messy crows in Rochester are being scared away.

Right now, wildlife crews are taking action against about 20,000 crows in Rochester.

USDA officials will spend the next five nights using pyrotechnics, electronic guards, lasers and amplified recordings to break up the large roost.

The "harassment methods" will be loud with sounds similar to sirens and fireworks, but will not harm the birds.

"The one thing that you have to keep in mind is that this is not a cure. There's no way to keep these birds out of the city. It's too big of an area. There's too many birds. So what we have to try to do is find a balance that everybody can live with. The crows and the people," said Mark Carrara, USDA Wildlife Services Div.

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Winter: The Coming Highs and Lows

Submitted by Kevin Williams, Director of Meteorology
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012, 2:05pm

The cold air coming to the Midwest and Northeast over the next 10 days will come in two or three surges with a spell of modestly milder air coming after each surge. This will result from the NAO going negative (please see our first blog in December for terminology explanations) during a developing +PNA pattern. This will allow Siberian air to cross over the North Pole, rush through Canada and then enter the United States via potent arctic fronts.

The –NAO appears likely to have resulted from the stratospheric warming event that we detailed several weeks ago.  The result is going to be more typical winter conditions across the northern third of the country over the next one to two weeks, including air that is colder than normal more times than not and enhanced risks of accumulating snow.  For Rochester and the Finger Lakes this means more snow and more cold than we have seen so far this winter, not that that is saying much.

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