NATIONAL STORM SUMMARY

MARCH 2009

1st-7th…A ferocious storm packing freezing rain, heavy snow and
furious wind gusts paralyzed most of the East Coast on Monday, sending
dozens of cars careening into ditches, grounding hundreds of flights
and closing school for millions of kids. The devastating effects of
the storm were seen up and down the coast. A crash caused a 15-mile
traffic jam in North Carolina, forcing police and the Red Cross to go
car-to-car to check on stranded drivers. The storm was blamed for 350
crashes in New Jersey, and a Maryland official counted about 50 cars
in the ditch on one stretch of highway. By Monday, the storm had moved
north into New England, and most areas in the storm's wake expected to
see at least 8 to 12 inches of snow. The weather contributed to four
deaths on roads in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and on Long Island.
Diane Lugo, of Yonkers, NY, received a ride with her husband to avoid
walking 10 minutes in the slush to her bus stop. "Getting out of the
driveway was pure hell," Lugo said. "He got to work late. I'm
obviously late." The South was especially hard hit, dealing with
record snowfalls, thick ice and hundreds of thousands of power outages
in a region not accustomed to such vicious weather.
In North Carolina, Raleigh got more than 3 inches of snow; the March
snowfall for the city has exceeded 3 inches only 11 times in the last
122 years. The Weather Service said parts of Tennessee received the
biggest snowfall since 1968. The 15-mile traffic jam in North Carolina
caused no serious problems and authorities were able to get traffic
moving again.
Travelers were stranded everywhere, with about 950 flights canceled at
the three main airports in the New York area and nearly 300 flights
canceled in Philadelphia. Boston's Logan International Airport had to
shut down for about 40 minutes to clear a runway, and hundreds of
flights were canceled there. Philadelphia declared a Code Blue weather
emergency, which gives officials the authority to bring homeless
people into shelters because the weather poses a threat of serious
harm or death.
Dozens of schools across North Carolina, South Carolina, New
Hampshire, New Jersey and Maine gave children a snow day. Schools in
Philadelphia, Boston and New York City did the same. It was the first
time in more than five years that New York City called off classes for
its 1.1 million public school students. Some New York parents
complained that the city waited until 5:40 a.m. to call off classes,
saying they didn't have enough notice. Mayor Michael Bloomberg brushed
off the criticism and praised the city's storm response, which
included dispatching 2,000 workers and 1,400 plows to work around the
clock to clean New York's 6,000 miles of streets. "It's like plowing
from here to Los Angeles and back," Bloomberg said at a news
conference, standing in front of an orange snow plow at a garage.
Central Park recorded 7 inches of snow, and more than a foot was
reported on parts of Long Island, where high winds caused 2-foot
drifts on highways in the Hamptons. In Fairfax, VA, 8-year-old Sarah
Conforti said Monday's day off was just what she'd been hoping for,
and planned to "make a snowman or play in the snow with my friends,"
she said. Her mother, Noelle Conforti, said Sarah and her 10-year-old
sister couldn't be happier about the school-free day. "The kids are
against the window, just looking out the window like a cat," she said.
"It's hilarious." Outside a medical center in New Rochelle, NY, Emilia
Rescigna struggled to push a stroller through the snow and slush.
Asleep in the stroller was her 1-year-old son Adam, who had a 9 a.m.
appointment with his pediatrician. The snow began to accumulate in New
Hampshire and Massachusetts as the storm moved north, but most
residents there were taking it in stride. "This is New England, after
all," said Dave Richardson of Salem, Mass.

8th-14th…Today's main weather activity occurred over the Northern US
and the Central Plains. In the North, an arctic frontal system dropped
southward across the Northern Plains and produced wintry precipitation
across the Northwest, Northern Plains, and Upper Mississippi Valley.
Blustery winds streamed in behind the system, allowing arctic air to
plunge into the region. Temperatures were significantly lowered and
windchills reached bitter extremes. Cold temperatures supported
numerous bands of light to moderate snow showers, with pockets of
heavy snowfall across these regions. The Northwest, Northern Plains,
and Upper Mississippi Valley remained under Winter Storm Warnings and
Wind Chill Advisories.
Today's main weather activity occurred over the Eastern US as a cold
front continued to produce mixed precipitation and thunderstorm
activity.
In the Northeast, a major storm system over the Great Lakes lifted
into southeastern Canada today. A cold front associated with this
system continued to produce mostly cloudy conditions with mixed
precipitation across New England throughout the morning and afternoon.
The heaviest amounts of precipitation fell across Rhode Island and
Connecticut. Showers began to taper off by the afternoon as strong 20
to 30 mph winds with gusts up to 40 mph pushed the front toward the
East Coast. Active weather also developed over the southern half of
the front that extended through the Southeast and the Southern Plains.
The system triggered cloudy conditions with light, scattered rain
showers and sprinkles across the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys.
Meanwhile, the Lower Mississippi Valley and the Southern Plains saw
light to moderate rain showers with periods of heavy localized
rainfall. The heaviest rainfall and strongest thunderstorms occurred
over central Texas. Northeast winds accompanied storms and pushed
unsettling weather into northern Texas.
The most remarkable weather in the country occurred in the Southeast
and up into the Appalachian Mountains on Friday. A weak front lingered
along the Gulf Coast and up through the Southeast and allowed
considerable moisture to stream into the Southeast. This produced
widespread moderate rain from Texas through the Carolinas. A mixture
of rain and snow fell in the Appalachians in the early morning hours,
but this precipitation quickly moved into the Mid-Atlantic and became
rain.

15th-21st…The East Coast saw active weather on Monday as a lingering
front hovered over the South. A low pressure system sat just off shore
and produced a stationary front that extended into Alabama. Moderate
to heavy showers and thunderstorms developed over the region, with
Range, Alabama reporting 1.42 inches of rain. Dense fog stretched from
Alabama to North Carolina, while strong winds were reported in
Jackson, Florida. The Northeast saw increasingly cloudy skies and
seasonable temperatures.
A blizzard shut down major highways Monday in Wyoming and South
Dakota, and meteorologists said one mountainous area might get as much
as 40 inches of snow. Mount Rushmore National Memorial closed because
of the icy, blinding weather in South Dakota's rugged Black Hills.
Temperature plummeted as the storm moved eastward and wind gusted to
more than 60 mph. Some residents of hard-hit northeast Wyoming said
they had heeded
forecasts and stocked up on groceries. "We are well prepared for a day
or two of blizzard conditions," Marcia Shanks said in a telephone
interview from her home in Gillette. The National Weather Service
posted a blizzard warning for eastern Wyoming and western sections of
South Dakota and Nebraska, with a winter storm warning for much of
central Wyoming and mountain sections of Colorado. Four tornadoes
briefly touched down in north-central and eastern Nebraska on Monday,
while the western part of the state got snow. There were reports of
downed power lines near the city of O'Neill. Wyoming shut down a 290-
mile stretch of Interstate 25 from Cheyenne to Buffalo and a 165-mile
section of Interstate 90 between Sheridan and the Wyoming state line.
South Dakota closed the gates on a 250-mile stretch of I-90 from the
Wyoming state line to Chamberlain. Parts of I-80 in southeast Wyoming
also were closed. "There were places of maybe one-vehicle length
visibility, just absolutely whiteout conditions," David King,
emergency management coordinator for Campbell County in northeast
Wyoming, said of I-25. Poor visibility and heavy drifting forced the
South Dakota Department of Transportation to pull its snowplows off
the roads Monday afternoon in several counties. The department said
its plows would be back out Tuesday morning if conditions allow. No-
travel advisories were issued for parts of central and northeast
Wyoming and northwest South Dakota. Colorado closed about 30 miles of
state highway in that state's northeast corner. Numerous schools
called off classes altogether or closed early. The weather service
said accumulations of up to 20 inches were possible in parts of
Wyoming and northwest South Dakota, but 30 to 40 inches was possible
in the northern Black Hills, where Rapid City, S.D., recorded a gust
to 63 mph.

22nd-31th…The Southern Plains saw severe weather on Wednesday while
wintry weather persisted in the Northern Plains. A low pressure system
tracked across the Northern Plains and produced a frontal system that
extended down the Mississippi River and into the Southern Plains.
Strong flow from the Gulf of Mexico pulled abundant moisture into the
South, which allowed for thunderstorm development with areas of heavy
rain. Some of these storms turned severe. Penny size hail was reported
in Gorman, Texas while strong winds blew trees on a church and pool in
Meridian, Mississippi. Heavy rain with total accumulation of 1.67
inches was also reported in Meridian, Mississippi. To the north, the
back side of this low pressure system pulled in cold air from Canada
and triggered light snow over the Dakotas. Total accumulation ranged
around 1 inch. The region continued to see flooding problems due to
ice and snow melt. The region also saw near blizzard conditions with
17 mph winds gusting to 32 mph in Bismarck, North Dakota.
The most active weather continued to be in the East Saturday as a
major storm developed in the Southern Plains and moved towards the
Mississippi Valley. In the cold air to the north and northwest of the
storm, significant snow fell from northern Texas through the Plains.
In the warm air to the east of the storm, a tremendous amount of
moisture streamed into the Southeast and moved toward the Southeast
Coast. This moisture produced very heavy rain and strong
thunderstorms. Strong wind and large hail accompanied these
thunderstorms in Georgia, Alabama and the panhandle of Florida.
The Northern Plains saw heavy snow on Monday associated with a late-
season winter storm. A low pressure system moved off the Rockies and
into the Central Plains and pulled moisture northward from the Gulf of
Mexico. This allowed for moderate to heavy snowfall over the Dakotas
with blizzard strength winds. In Bismark, North Dakota, 7 inches of
snow have been reported, while 29 mph winds gusting up to 44 mph were
reported in Trail City, South Dakota. Most of the region saw snowfall
rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour. In the East, a low pressure system in
the Northeast pushed eastward and offshore on Monday. The system
triggered light snow over northern New York, while heavy snow hit
Maine with total accumulation ranging around 5 inches.
The Southeast saw severe weather on Tuesday, while the Northern Plains
and Upper Midwest continued to see wintry weather. A strong low
pressure system moved through the Great Lakes region and produced a
cold front that swept through the Mississippi River Valley. In the
South, the system pulled abundant moisture in from the Gulf of Mexico
which triggered moderate to heavy showers and thunderstorms, many of
which turned severe. In Natchez, Louisiana, a tornado uprooted several
trees and damaged a few homes. Meanwhile, quarter sized hail was
reported in Montgomery, Louisiana, with 60 mph winds reported in
Gonzales, Texas. Light rain extended along the front up the
Mississippi River with 0.24 reported in Fiatt, Illinois. The Upper
Midwest and Northern Plains saw light and steady snowfall with
accumulations ranging between 1 to 3 inches. Blizzard like conditions
persisted over the region with 28 mph winds and gusts up to 40 mph
reported in Aberdeen, South Dakota.