Weather

The Associated Press reports: Nearly 200,000 people remained under evacuation orders Monday as authorities try to fix erosion of the emergency spillway at the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam that could unleash uncontrolled flood waters if it fails. About 150 miles northeast of San Francisco, Lake Oroville – one of California’s largest man-made lakes – had water levels so high that an …

Orlando’s first post-Pulse pride celebration was postponed this morning due to the change in course of Hurricane Matthew, which is now expected to strike the Central Florida coast sometime tonight at Category 4 strength. From Orlando Pride’s Facebook page: Due to the incoming threat of Hurricane Matthew and the risk that it imposes to Central Florida, the organizers of Come …

USA Today reports: Residents and tourists were streaming out of the coastal areas of southeast Florida and South Carolina Thursday as a strengthening Hurricane Matthew zeroes in for a late night landing on the U.S. mainland after hammering the Bahamas. Packing maximum sustained winds of 125 mph, the storm was around 60 miles southeast of Nassau and around 255 miles …

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports: Strong winds, heavy rains and a dangerous storm surge were beginning to spread over the Bahamas Wednesday from Category 3 Hurricane Matthew, which is tracking north toward the east coast of Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center. The possibility that South Florida could be struck by a storm of at least Category 3 strength …

NBC News reports: While its potential impact on the U.S. remained unclear, NBC News meteorologist Bill Karins suggested that that Hurricane Matthew’s path could be reminiscent of Hurricane Floyd in 1999 — which required the evacuation of 2.6 million people across five states. As of Tuesday morning, Karins expected the storm could be a “major hurricane” from Florida all the …

Via Mashable: The storm that tore through Wray, Colorado on Saturday left at least five people injured and left several buildings and homes damaged or destroyed. But it also provided this jaw-dropping video of an encounter with the tornado, filmed by well-known storm chaser Reed Timmer. The five minute video begins with a small funnel cloud stretching out to make …

NBC News reports: Millions of Americans across the Northeast should brace for what could be the coldest temperatures in over a decade this Valentine’s Day weekend, forecasters warned Friday. The National Weather Service said the “life threatening” icy blast was set to arrive in the region Saturday, but the coldest air would not arrive until Sunday morning — with several …

Last week’s record-setting blizzard aside, we still haven’t had much of a winter. And this morning Punxsutawney Phil said spring is coming early. NPR reports: A crowd gathered at Gobbler’s Knob early this morning, awaiting the emergence of the groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil. After a tap of a cane on Phil’s tree-trunk cage, his door was opened, and the animal …

From the New York Daily News: Dramatic drone footage has captured California homes on the brink of collapse at the edge of a cliff. Powerful weather caused by El Niño has eroded the land and left several in Pacifica buildings teetering over oblivion. The city declared a state of emergency last weekend partly due to accelerated erosion of the cliffs, …

From the Time-Lapse Group: We set out to cover New York City’s 2nd biggest snowstorm since 1869. Central Park total snow accumulation at the end of the winter storm was 26.8 inches. We started at 1am Saturday at the Brooklyn Bridge, covering the Dumbo area. We proceeded into the city shortly after and covered midtown Manhattan, Central Park, Columbus Circle, …

Yesterday’s blizzard came within one-tenth of an inch of breaking the all-time snowfall record for New York City. From the Daily News: The killer blizzard that forced New Yorkers to stay home amid a city-wide travel ban will go down as one of the city’s worst snowstorms in history. At least 18 people were killed as the blizzard pummeled the …

New York City is being clobbered by the blizzard today, surprising the forecasters. The National Weather Service has increased its snowfall estimate to 24-30 inches for Manhattan, more than double the total forecast yesterday. All bridges and tunnels have been closed and the MTA has suspended above-ground service. Winds are gusting at 40-50mph in the other boroughs. Broadway will be …

Watch below. Here’s how they did it: The near-real-time operational GEOS-5 system ingests more than 5 million observations every six hours producing comprehensive analyses and forecasts of the atmosphere each day at 25-km global resolution. This experimental product uses the global mesoscale capabilities of GEOS-5 to downscale the operational product to 6-km global resolution. Subsequent forecasts are launched with this …

FlightAware.com reports that more than 5100 flights scheduled for today and tomorrow have been canceled nationwide due to the blizzard already underway in the mid-Atlantic. More from the Associated Press: A blizzard menacing the Eastern United States started dumping snow in Virginia, Tennessee and other parts of the South on Friday as millions of people in the storm’s path prepared …

This certainly doesn’t bode well for the coming blizzard. The Washington Post reports: “Horrible.” “Pathetic.” “Painful.” “Unbelievable.” “One inch of snow did this.” From every corner of the region and into the wee hours of the morning, from every highway and byway, motorists vented their anger and frustration that they were still out there — at 1 a.m., then 2 …

Months into the wimpiest winter in recent memory, we’re finally going to get a major blizzard this weekend. Allegedly. Meteorologists are positively giddy about having actual news to report. From the Weather Channel: Winter storm watches have been issued for 14 states from the Mid-South to the East Coast in advance of Winter Storm Jonas. In addition, blizzard watches have …

CNN reports that beach volleyball is underway in Central Park and skaters at the Rockefeller Center rink are wearing shorts.

The posh Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta, long a popular destination for gay tourists, escaped Hurricane Patricia with little damage. Gay PV Magazine reports: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico has escaped Hurricane Patricia. After a day of hotel evacuations, airport closures, flight cancellations and pending power interruptions the worst is over for Puerto Vallarta residents as of 11 pm CST. However, …

With 200-mph winds, the strongest recorded hurricane in Western Hemisphere history is bearing down on the popular gay resort town of Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast of Mexico. The Associated Press reports: With maximum sustained winds near 200 mph (325 kph), Patricia is the strongest storm ever recorded in the eastern Pacific or in the Atlantic, said Dave Roberts, …