Thanksgiving and It's Weather Past

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  Today in 2011 marks the 390th anniversary of celebrating Thanksgiving here in the United States.  This Thanksgiving has started out to be a fantastic day to celebrate around the United States, but it hasn't always been that way.  One memorable Thanksgiving event was all the way back in 1898 on November 26.  There were two strong low pressure systems that combined and created a terrible winter storm in the New England region.  The amount of snow that accumulated isn't well known, but the death tragedy was high in numbers.  A completely opposite event occured in 1922 on November 25th and 26th where there was a tornado outbreak in the southern U.S. known as the Late-November 1926 Tornado Outbreak.  There were an estimated 47 tornadoes reported that caused devastating damage and changed the lives of thousands of people as some perished and some were injured.  In 1950, the eastern U.S. experienced one of the worst winter storms in history on November 24th and 25th.  Some places received as much snow as 30 inches with winds gusting over 100 mph!  On the other side of the U.S. in 1983 there was a damaging windstorm that spand from November 10th to the 24th.  Wind gusts as high as 63 mph in some areas and downed power lines and trees causing widespread power outage for Thanksgiving in the Pacific Northwest part of the U.S.  The next day on the 25th in the same year a memorable storm produced more than 20 inches of snow in Colorado and began an unusual and unique stretch of day to day snow until January 27th, 1984.  In 1993, Texas experienced an unforgetable Thanksgiving Day not primarily because of the type of weather, but because of a sports event.  The Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins played at the Texas Stadium with below freezing temperatures and sleet.  Due to a slip of a Cowboys player the Dolphins claimed victor for the game.  In 1994, a tornado outbreak sparked the day after Thanksgiving on November 27th when 19 tornadoes occured in the Southeastern portion of the United States known as 1994 Thanksgiving Weekend Tornado Outbreak.  The strongest tornado was an F3, unfortunately 6 people lost their lives.  On a brighter note, that is all that lost their lives on that day.  Another post-Thanksgiving tornado outbreak was the Arkansas-Mississippi-Alabama Tornado Outbreak when 67 tornadoes spawned in the 3 states that resulted in some loss of life with the strongest being three F4 tornadoes.  In 2005, the 'Blizzard of 2005" tracked as much as 20 inches of snow and 2 inches of ice in certain places in South Dakota and Minnesota.  No loss of life, but tens of thousands of people were left without power on Thanksgiving.  To finish up the list is a pre-Thanksgiving weather event that caused coastal flooding and damaging winds to people in the New England region.  At the same time, some of the earliest recorded snow along the Atlantic coast of Georgia and South Carolina.

These are only some of the memorable weather events that could be found without deep research.  Since Thanksgiving has been celebrated for almost 400 years it's hard to keep track of every event that occured.  One thing is for sure though.  The weather that was experience on the first day Thanksgiving was celebrated is nearly impecable to what it looks like now in the U.S.  When the English settlers and Wampanoag Indians gathered for Thanksgiving they enjoyed 3 straight days of nice weather which was perfect since their Thanksgiving feast lasted that long.  Look at the current radar for the entire United States.


Besides parts of California, Western Washington, and a some patches of snow in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana and spoty showers in Southern Florida this could look fairly identical to what was experienced 390 years ago.  Expect most of the places with no precipitation around them today to persist for almost 3 days.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

If you would like to look at some of these events in more detail visit this website.  http://www.earthgauge.net/wp-content/EG_Thanksgiving%20Weather.pdf

City Forecast Discussion: Juneau, Alaska

One of the most beautiful cities due to is location near 5,000 ft mountains, glaciers, and beautiful cool Alaskan waters.  The most northern city in the forecast contest was, as you can guess, the hardest to forecast for.  It was one of those cities that everything possible that has been mentioned in previous cities played a factor in temperatures, wind, and precipitation and at the same time those things didn't play a factor.  The image above shows downtown Juneau which is a little ways away from the airport which is at the foot of the distant mountains in the background.

Starting off with the temperatures, they typically don't vary from day to day with stable conditions in Juneau.  A typical range from the high and low is 5 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit.  When low pressures and fronts are passing through the area then all bets are off.  Winds play a big factor because if the are from the any direction from the NE to the E then the winds are coming down the mountains which would result in some warming of the air, but due to the mountains being covered in snow and a glacier to the north of the airport that just keeps temperatures rather steady.  If winds come from a westerly direction then they are coming off water that is sitting around the low to mid 40's.  Winds from the south come off a mountain over water and then onto land.  Needless to say when trying to contribute direction of wind and temperature with Juneau it's just too hard to figure out.  Clouds have a big factor, but like wind it's not a good indicator of how much it will warm or cool.  One night it was clear with snow on the ground and you would think the temperature would drop with calm conditions.  Well, the temperature slowly fell throughout the night with no mixing of the air.  Strange huh?

Wind is a whole different story.  Juneau is known to have very gusty winds and its reputation still holds, but trying to forecast how high it will get is nearly impossible.  Stations around the Juneau International Airport would gust to 40 or 50 mph and the airport could get winds of 12 or 13 mph and the opposite can happen too.  The terrain has a lot to deal with that, but how can you see that to forecast it is hard.  Finally, precipitation is just as difficult as the other things.  Due to some mountains reaching as high as 3,000 to 4,000 feet south of the airport and a number of large high elevated islands west of it, it really makes a huge impact on how much precipitation falls.  Another thing is the precipitation, at this time of year, is typically a mix of rain and snow and accumulates very slowly if any when it does that.

With all of this in mind and keeping in mind that some models have a hard time forecasting for Juneau since it rests on the outskirts of their range, it is truly a diffucult city to forecast whether you live there all your life or have never set foot in the city.  Fortunately, forecasting for this city is done and now on a break before the next forecast city starts.  This city is primarily known as either The Flagship City or The Gem City and rests on one the five Great Lakes.

City Forecast Discussion: Dayton, Ohio

The city of Dayton, OH is a big city with an interesting history to it.  Weather plays a big role in that history as much as anything else does.  Forecasting for this city was rather challenging.  It may not seem like it since there are not any local effects such as mountains, bodies of water, or valleys.  The only thing that is left to affect the city is larger scale effects such as clouds and fronts.  The main determining factor for the temperatures is the wind.  You might think that the sky conditions would cause some variability in the city and it does to a point.  The speed and direction of the wind was such a key factor that it literally determined your high and low more than clouds did.  If winds were light in any direction then it practically had little to no effects on the temperature.  If winds reached and exceeded 6 or 7 mph then the direction was key on how warm or how cool it would make the city.  To add on to the challenge of Dayton is its location.  It is in a prime spot to be affected by mid-latitude systems.  Most fronts that drive across the Eastern U.S. will impact Dayton whether it receives a lot of rain or only a little.

The next forecast city is fair away from this city and much further north.  It is the capital of The Last Frontier state that has the longest shoreline than any other state of the U.S. and this state holds Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in the U.S.