Weather whiplash

Colliding hot and cold fronts set to bring extreme heat, flooding and possible snow

This article was written by the Associated Press and was published in the Toronto Star on June 16, 2024.

Some areas between Miami and Fort Lauderdale were left underwater in recent days, as storms dumped up to 50 centimetres in southern parts of Florida. Forecasters said the threat of heavy rains in the state continues to dissipate, but some thunderstorms could cause local flooding given the already saturated soil.

After days of intense flooding in Florida, that state and many others are bracing for an intense heat wave, while the Pacific Northwest will experience unseasonably cold weather and there is a potential for late-season snow in the Rocky Mountains early next week.

The chaotic weather map includes the possibility of severe thunderstorms developing in between hot and cold fronts. Forecasters said the colliding fronts could lead to areas of flash flooding between eastern Nebraska and northern Wisconsin on Saturday night, as well as strong storms across parts of eastern Montana into North and South Dakota.

Meanwhile a plume of tropical moisture will reach the central Gulf Coast during the next couple of days, with heavy rain expected to start Monday morning, according to the National Weather Service.

“They’re all related,” said David Roth, a forecaster with the National Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md. “This heat that’s going to be building over the Midwest and the Northeast is because we have an unusually amplified weather pattern for June.”

A trough of low pressure in the Northwest brought scattered thunderstorms and hail to Seattle and other cities in western Washington in the afternoon, and frost warnings prompted gardeners in northern Idaho to cover delicate plants for the weekend. In Phoenix, temperatures reached 43.8 C by 5 p.m. and were predicted to climb a few degrees higher.

Forecasters said the threat of heavy rains in Florida continues to dissipate, but some thunderstorms could cause local flooding given the already saturated soil. Some areas between Miami and Fort Lauderdale were left underwater in recent days as storms dumped up to 50 centimetres in southern parts of the state.

The damaging no-name storm system coincided with the early June start of hurricane season, which this year is forecast to be among the most active in recent memory amid concerns that climate change is increasing storm intensity.

Across much of the southern parts of the country, temperatures were rising Saturday. In Atlanta, where highs were forecast to near 38 C both weekend days, city officials opened a cooling centre to provide relief. The city also postponed a “Family and Friends Field Day” due to the heat.

And in the west Texas city of El Paso, Saturday highs were expected to approach 40.6 C, and the National Weather Service issued a heat advisory through Monday morning for the region. The city has opened five cooling centres that will operate daily until further notice.

Though Arizona is entering its three-month monsoon season, when a shift in wind patterns pulls moisture in from the tropical coast of Mexico, no rain is forecast for most of the coming week.

An atmospheric river of moist air is getting funnelled into the upper Midwest, causing an unusual “moderate risk of excessive rainfall” from Sunday into next week in Minnesota, Roth said.

“They don’t get heavy rain events like this very often. We’re forecasting up to seven inches in Minnesota — it can’t be understated how unusual this is,” Roth said. The last time the state tallied that much precipitation in one event was in 2008, he said.

In Tennessee, tens of thousands of revellers at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival braved a hot, sunny weekend to take in more than 150 performances at the 700-acre farm campground and concert venue that hosts the annual event. While medical crews treated various heatrelated conditions, some fans constructed elaborate canopy and tent combinations for shade. Others had their sunscreen confiscated upon entry because of restrictions on full-size bottles and aerosol cans, The Tennessean reported.

Last year the U.S. had the most heat waves — abnormally hot weather lasting more than two days — since 1936. In the South and Southwest, last year was the worst on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

While most of the country bakes, parts of Montana have been placed under winter storm watches with a potential for wet snow lasting into Monday night.

Heavy rain and sporadic thunderstorms were expected in western Washington into Saturday evening. Hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts in the state’s Cascade Mountains and Montana’s Rocky Mountains were also likely to see snow at lower elevations than normal.

Author: Ray Nakano

Ray is a retired, third generation Japanese Canadian born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He resides in Toronto where he worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years. Ray was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 and practises in the Plum Village tradition, supporting sanghas in their mindfulness practice. Ray is very concerned about our climate crisis. He has been actively involved with the ClimateFast group (https://climatefast.ca) for the past 5 years. He works to bring awareness of our climate crisis to others and motivate them to take action. He has created the myclimatechange.home.blog website, for tracking climate-related news articles, reports, and organizations. He has created mobilizecanada.ca to focus on what you can do to address the climate crisis. He is always looking for opportunities to reach out to communities, politicians, and governments to communicate about our climate crisis and what we need to do. He says: “Our world is in dire straits. We have to bend the curve on our heat-trapping pollutants in the next few years if we hope to avoid the most serious impacts of human-caused global warming. Doing nothing is not an option. We must do everything we can to create a livable future for our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations.”