It’s been an eventful weather week in many parts of the United States, with heat waves, snowstorms and flash floods.
Here’s a look at some of the weather events:
Midwest in the grip of heat wave
Millions of people in the Midwest are experiencing dangerous heat and humidity.
An emergency room doctor treating Minnesota State Fairgoers for heat-related illnesses watched as firefighters cut rings from the swollen fingers of two people Monday in hot weather that, combined with humidity, made the temperature feel well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees Celsius).
High late-summer temperatures also prompted some Midwestern schools to end sports practices early or cancel them. The National Weather Service issued heat warnings or advisories in Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. Several cities, including Chicago, opened cooling centers.
West Coast Mountains Get Early Snowstorm
An unusually cold storm slammed into the West Coast peaks last week, hinting at an early winter in August. The system moved down from the Gulf of Alaska toward the Pacific Northwest and California. Mount Rainier, southeast of Seattle, was covered in dust at high elevations, as was Mt. Bachelor in central Oregon.
Mount Shasta, a volcano in the Cascade Range that rises 14,000 feet (4,317 meters) above the northern tip of California, was covered in a white blanket after storm clouds passed through. Lake Helen, at 10,000 feet (3,170 meters), received about 6 inches (15 centimeters) of snow, with amounts higher at higher elevations, according to the U.S. Forest Service’s Shasta Station.
February was the warmest month on record, and global data shows it was also the warmest winter on record, by nearly 3°F! The meteorological winter also ended with a week of extreme weather across the United States. National climate reporter Chase Cain shows that winter is the fastest warming season.
Tropical storm dumps heavy rain on Hawaii
Three tropical cyclones swirled over the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, including Tropical Storm Hone, which brought heavy rain to Hawaii; Hurricane Gilma, which weakened to a tropical storm on Tuesday; and Tropical Storm Hector, which was tracking westward away from the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula.
The biggest impacts from Tropical Storm Hone (pronounced HOE-neh) were rainfall and flash flooding that led to road closures, downed power lines and tree damage in some areas of the Big Island, said William Ahue, a forecaster with the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu. No injuries or major damage were reported, authorities said.
Deadly Alaska landslide destroys homes
A landslide that carved a path down a steep, forested hillside has destroyed several homes in Ketchikan, Alaska, the latest such disaster to hit the mountainous region. Sunday’s landslide killed one person and injured three others and prompted the mandatory evacuation of nearby homes in the town, a popular cruise ship stop along Southeast Alaska’s famed Inside Passage.
The landslide area remained unstable Monday, and officials said local and state geologists were arriving to assess the area for possible secondary slides. Last November, six people, including a family of five, were killed when a landslide destroyed two homes in Wrangell, north of Ketchikan.
Flash flood hits Grand Canyon National Park
The body of an Arizona woman who went missing in Grand Canyon National Park after a flash flood was found Sunday, park rangers said. The body of Chenoa Nickerson, 33, was discovered by a group rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, the park said in a statement.
Nickerson was hiking along Havasu Creek, about a half-mile from where it joins the Colorado River, when the flash flooding hit. Nickerson’s husband was among the more than 100 people evacuated safely.
The flooding trapped several hikers in the area above and below Beaver Falls, one of a series of typically blue-green waterfalls that draw tourists from around the world to the Havasupai Tribe reservation. The area is prone to flooding that turns its iconic waterfalls chocolate brown.
