My folks are in town visiting from Arizona. So I've rented a car and we're headed to the Catskills and the Finger Lakes region for some Fall Hiking, Driving and Exploring. With the two nor'easters a week ago, snow, wind, rain and general crazy October weather, I think we're probably a couple weeks late. It's hard to plan a fall trip when vacation days and plane tickets are involved.
So what are your favorite Fall hikes? Drives? Also, send me pics to the link on the side and I'll get them posted on here for everyone to see.
This is the rainiest October on record in St Louis. 8.55" of rain breaks the old record set in 1919 of 8.52". So far, it's also the 3rd coldest October. Enjoy today, because the rain returns tomorrow and things look unsettled for most of the week....probably another 1-2" by weeks end. Thanks Marianne for the picture of your nice fall day. Take advantage!
I took this picture while walking home through Central Park yesterday. Our overnight temps don't get too cold so early in the season due to the our proximity to the ocean. The leaves change color a few weeks later here than those just about 20 miles inland! This time of year is absolute magic. Send me your fall pictures!
Did you hear the one about Moscow's Mayor? He wants a snow-free winter in his city and is pushing this controversial project. I'm not a fan of the idea.
Just a quick welcome to my blog, which went live today. I'm looking forward to this!
Also, since Janice Dean has so many and such loyal followers she's getting her own URL! So if you're looking for her, bookmark this new address. http://janicedean.blogs.foxnews.com/ she'll be keeping up her blog as always right there!
I can't remember a more bizarre October. When this month started, the northeast was on it's nicest stretch of weather all summer. California was in severe drought and facing a dangerous fire season. South Florida was beginning a stretch of 13 days of temperatures above 90 degrees.
Suddenly two early season nor'easters hit the northeast bringing the earliest snowfall on record for the mountains of Pennsylvania and New York. A cold front drives all the way to Cuba and the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and drops Florida's temps from record highs, to record lows...a drop of around 25 degrees. And the west coast gets pummeled by an early season storm dumping up to 10" of rain in parts of central California and winds of over 60 mph in the bay area. This system was actually remnants of Typhoon Melor which hit Japan last week!
This week was certainly a game changer. Much of northern California declared an end to Fire Season. This means burn bans have been lifted in many National Forests and BLM areas. The northeast went straight to winter. And Autumn finally arrived in Florida.
Spring and Fall are the two wacky seasons in weather. This fall is certainly off to a strong start.
Japan is being battered by Typhoon Melor, the worst typhoon to strike the island nation in a decade. (A typhoon is the same thing as a hurricane...they call it a typhoon is the western Pacific and Indian Oceans.)
Melor is interesting for a couple of reasons. As of three days ago, Typhoon Melor was a Super Typhoon and the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 160 mph. It's making landfall with winds around 90-95 mph, but the storm surge and waves will be more damaging than a 90 mph storm due to it's prior intensity. Also, the storm will impact pretty much the entire main island of Honshu, which is home to over 100 million people. Tokyo will be on the bad side of Melor. Fortunately, Melor is booking to the northeast at about 29 mph, so that will keep rainfall totals down and limit widespread flooding.
Japan is no stranger to Typhoons having last been struck two years ago.