By Tim Tender on May 31st, 2010 at 12:09 PM
 Kennywood Park Damage - 2002 - Courtesy NWS May 31, 1889
May 31, 1985
May 31, 2002
Are you sensing a pattern here? May 31st has traditionally been a day of weather devastation in western Pennsylvania. Let me explain each of those dates.
May 31, 1889: The Johnstown Flood – The flood was the result of the failure of the South Fork Dam and resulted in a torrent of 4.8 billion gallons of water. The result was over 2,200 people dead and $17 million in damage.
May 31, 1985: Tornado Outbreak – There were at least 41 tornadoes and the death toll was 88. There were over 1,000 injuries, too. This is the 25th anniversary of this outbreak. It’s notable for our region because of the Moshannon State Forest tornado. The F4 tornado traveled over 70 miles and was over one-half a mile wide. For more details, right click and save target as on this link.
May 31, 2002: Kennywood Macroburst – I include this one because it hits home for me. A lot of people here go to Kennywood, too. It was an extremely volatile day and a macroburst hit Kennywood Park. I remember this well because my brother was at the park when this hit. He had to jump into a vendor’s booth and they shut the window. Here’s how the National Weather Service describes the day:
(Read More)
By Tim Tender on April 12th, 2010 at 10:43 AM
Map of Coxes Creek
I get lots of ideas while surfing the web. While surfing today, I stumbled upon a story from WPXI (our sister station in Pittsburgh) about Somerset County.
The director of the Somerset County Conservation District, Len Lichvar, secured a grant for $24,000 to provide rain barrels to residents along [...]
By Tim Tender on March 16th, 2010 at 5:47 AM
Severe Weather Awareness Week
It’s that time of year… Severe Weather Awareness Week! Every year the National Weather Service puts out a public statement telling the general public what to do in severe weather. They cover everything from lightning to tornadoes to flooding.
Here’s the rundown for this week’s topics:
Monday: Tornadoes
Tuesday: [...]
By Tim Tender on March 15th, 2010 at 9:52 AM
 Flooding - Courtesy: Ron Penrod It was a wet weekend across the Alleghenies and some of us picked up over 2 inches of rain between Friday and Sunday. The bulk of the rain fell on Saturday, as expected.
Some of the hardest hit areas were in Somerset County as residents in Holsopple were evacuated on Saturday due to the rising waters. The returned home Sunday to start the clean-up. It wasn’t all bad as some actually went kayaking in the ocean-like waters of the Stonycreek River near Greenhouse Park in Somerset County.
So how much rain did we pick up? Have a look below at some of the totals. These come from the NWS Public Information Statement released Sunday at 2 PM.
Bedford County
Buffalo Mills – 2.32″
Wolfsburg – 1.95″
East Saxton – 1.82″
Blair County
Altoona – 2.58″
Williamsburg – 2.48″
Tyrone – 2.11″
Cambria County
Belmont – 1.09″
Cameron County
Stevenson Dam – 1.71″
Centre County
State College – 2.13″
Philipsburg – 2.09″
Clinton County
Lock Haven – 1.57″
Renovo – 1.38″
Somerset County
Meyersdale – 2.30″
Our rivers and streams across the Alleghenies crested early Sunday morning. Have a look at some of the final crests for some of the places we were watching.
(Read More)
By Tim Tender on March 13th, 2010 at 9:31 PM
 Rt. 281 into Confluence I would have loved to do a live stream today, but the cards just didn’t fall into place. Sorry.
However, we did get several pictures from the flooding event across the Alleghenies. I’ll share a couple of them for you on here.
As of 9:00 PM on Saturday, rain totals look like this:
Altoona – 1.5″
State College – 1.8″
Johnstown – 1.1″
DuBois – 0.6″
Clearfield – 0.8″
Indiana – 1.1″
The storm is still expected to bring more rain (albeit lighter) through the day on Sunday and into Monday before coming to an end.
Rivers are expected to crests in flood stage across the region early Sunday morning. Some rivers will be into moderate or even major flood stage by the time all is said and done.
At the time of this post, rivers currently at flood or action stage include the Conemaugh River at Seward and the Youghiogheny River at Confluence. The Frankstown Branch of the Juniata and the Aughwick Creek at Shirleysburg are also at action or flood stage and expected to rise overnight. We’ll get a better idea and updated information after 10 PM at the AHPS River Forecasts website (which is currently down due to server issues).
In the meantime, you can get more river information by clicking on either of these links. One has information for rivers in the area covered by NWS Pittsburgh and one is for NWS State College. http://bit.ly/dwCyDi and http://bit.ly/bsyWgW
(Read More)
By Tony Martin on March 11th, 2010 at 9:51 PM
All signs are pointing to a heavy rain event for the Alleghenies, starting later Friday into Saturday.
(Read More)
By Tony Martin on March 9th, 2010 at 9:47 PM
There’s a few changes in the thinking from last night, but the overall theme remains the same. The steadiest and heaviest of the rain looks to fall on Saturday. Right now, amounts appear to be on the order of an inch to an inch and a half.
If we see rainfall amounts over 1.5 [...]
By Tony Martin on March 8th, 2010 at 9:57 PM
There’s still quite a bit of snow on the ground in the Laurel Highlands, and that has the potential to pose some problems later this week.
(Read More)
By Tim Tender on February 15th, 2010 at 10:43 AM
I know this is a little out of our viewing area, but a lot of these events impacted the Alleghenies, too.
NWS in Pittsburgh has listed the top 10 weather events for 2000 through 2009. I have to agree with the biggest weather event, as it was a major disaster in my hometown, as well. The only good that came from all the flooding is the fact that we ended up getting a McDonald’s in our little town.
Here’s half the list… To read more, click the link at the end to be taken to the NWS page.
(Read More)
By Tim Tender on September 23rd, 2009 at 10:50 AM
The southeast has been pummelled with terrible rains over the past week or so. It’s been so bad that there have been multiple deaths and incredible amounts of damage. I saw video this morning from the Today Show of a rollercoaster that was half underwater. (Update: I’m pretty sure the video is fixed. If it isn’t, click the msnbc.com link below. You can also get the whole story from msnbc.com by clicking here.)
If the video isn’t readily available, visit msnbc.com. I found this graphic indicating just how much rain they’ve received. First off, I don’t know who uses the metric system, but 300 mm is equal to almost 12 inches. Second, take a look at the multiple bullseye over the southeast of areas with more than a foot of rain. It’s just devastating.
(Read More)
By WJAC Weather on May 31st, 2009 at 8:09 PM
Today is the 120th anniversary of one of the worst natural disasters in American history.
On May 31, 1889, the South Fork Dam gave way sending a 40-foot high wall of water roaring down the Conemaugh Valley. The flood crashed into the city of Johnstown in the late afternoon.
More than 22-hundred people lost [...]
By WJAC Weather on May 28th, 2009 at 7:46 PM
It’s a busy night in the Severe Weather Center (both of them actually… more on that in a second!).
Here’s what we have going on… a storm system is moving through the Alleghenies and bringing very heavy rains to parts of the viewing area. Along with that, expect some thunderstorms, high winds, and even [...]
By WJAC Weather on May 8th, 2009 at 1:46 PM
Have you had enough of the rain yet? I sure have. We’ve had our fair share of it over the past week across the Alleghenies. In particular, areas south and east have had a lot of rain.
Let’s compare a couple of locations in the region and see how much rain we’ve had…
Altoona: [...]
By Tony Martin on May 5th, 2009 at 8:43 PM
More rain is in the forecast over the next 36 hours, and it looks very similar to what we picked up on Monday morning. Rainfall totals should average about 3/4″, which is not good news since we picked up more than that in some areas on Monday. For that reason, we have Flood Watches out from the National Weather Service from Wednesday afternoon through Thursday:
(Read More)
By WJAC Weather on May 5th, 2009 at 11:10 AM
Like Tony mentioned yesterday, we got a good drenching across PARTS of the Alleghenies. We actually came pretty close to breaking a record in Johnstown.
The record rainfall for May 4th is 0.85″ in a single day. Yesterday, we had 0.80″. We were only 0.05″ away from a new record.
Courtesy of the NWS, [...]
By Tony Martin on March 20th, 2009 at 9:21 PM
The spring (April through June) temperature and precipitation outlook issued today by the Climate Prediction Center – a division of the National Weather Service – indicates warmer-than-normal temperatures from Texas westward to the California deserts north to central Utah with cooler-than-normal temperatures in the Northwest, Hawaii and much of Alaska. Odds favor below-average precipitation across the northwestern U.S. and South Florida and favor above-average precipitation in Hawaii and northern Alaska.
(Read More)
By Tony Martin on March 11th, 2009 at 9:00 PM
Over the past few days, we’ve had some rivers and streams come out of their banks across the Northern Alleghenies. Next week is Flood Safety Awareness Week, brought to you by the National Weather Service. National Flood Safety Awareness Week is intended to highlight some of the many ways floods can occur, the hazards associated with floods, and what you can do to save life and property.
(Read More)
By Tony Martin on March 5th, 2009 at 9:52 PM
Before we start on our next topic for the week (courtesy of NOAA/NWS), here’s a slogan that most of us are familiar with:
Floods can occur at any time and at any location. Although the recurrence rate of floods has not changed during the past century, the nature of associated disasters has mutated because of population growth and rapid changes in our society (Institute for Business & Home Safety, 2001). For example, more people live on marginal lands subject to floods and modern economics depend on large-scale infrastructure (networks of roads, pipelines, railroad tracks), which are costly to repair when damaged by natural hazards. Natural disasters cause more than physical damage. They shut down businesses, many of which never re-open.
(Read More)
By WJAC Weather on February 10th, 2009 at 6:23 PM
I told you I’d update you on that flood warning. It’s for Jefferson County. Here’s the details from the NWS…
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PITTSBURGH HAS ISSUED A
* FLOOD WARNING FOR… Â JEFFERSON COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA…
* UNTIL 615 PM EST WEDNESDAY
* AT 611 PM EST LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTED [...]
By Tony Martin on December 23rd, 2008 at 5:30 PM
Another winter storm will impact the Alleghenies over the next 24 hours with ice and heavy rain. It looks like most areas will receive less than a 1/4″ of ice from this storm, with the exception of Northern Centre, Cameron and Clinton counties. The ice could be damaging in these areas and accumulate up [...]
|
|
Filed in: 
Comments: 
Share:
Recent Comments