Weather

Blog: Is Rochester one of "America's Safest Weather Cities"?

Submitted by Kevin Williams, Director of Meteorology

Tuesday, September 4th, 2012, 11:39am

Recently, The Weather Channel (TWC) released a report highlighting “America’s Safest Weather Cities.” There were two on the list in the Northeast: Caribou, Maine and Rochester.

Interestingly, for a city that is normally maligned in various “places rated almanacs” for its snowy winters (not everyone thinks snow is bad, by the way), I suppose this is a nice change of pace for the Rochester Chamber of Commerce.

Perhaps I am taking this ranking too seriously, but it irks me, nevertheless.

The Weather Channel claims that it used certain criteria to make these determinations (heat, flood, cold, snow/ice, lightning and tropical cyclones).

So then how is it that Albany, with half the annual snowfall of Rochester and otherwise comparable conditions, did not make the list? Why is it that Buffalo, which receives slightly less snowfall than Rochester, but is mostly similar, did not make the list?

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How hot has it been this summer?

Submitted by Kevin Williams, Director of Meteorology

Monday, August 6th, 2012, 7:38am

This summer has been, by many measures, a brutal one in much of the lower 48 states.

Record heat and a pervasive drought have been in the headlines since the late spring and the toll on agriculture has been high. Lives have been lost due to the heat and the cost of some grocery items has been on the rise due to the lack of rain.

But if one pays attention to the national media reporting of the drought and heat, one might come to the conclusion that this has been an unprecedented event.

It has not. And it’s not even that close.

The severe (or worse) drought classification reached 45% of the contiguous United States this summer. During the infamous “dust bowl” era of the 1930s, nearly twice as much of the country was classified in a severe (or worse) drought.

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Here comes the sun

Submitted by Kevin Williams, Director of Meteorology

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012, 7:25am

As many celebrated the arrival of spring with warm, sunny days, some may have also noticed that sun glare has become a bit of an issue for that early morning drive.

Sun glare refers to the contrast lowering effects of stray light on a visual scene. This stray or extra light received on the human retina tends to wash out the contrast in the field of view.

Sun glare can impact pedestrians, drivers, boaters and pilots. It can be intense and sudden. And the results can be serious, even deadly.

Glare from the sun comes in two forms: 1: From looking directly into the area of the sky in which the sun is located, and 2: reflected off a surface such as water or snow (the level of reflectivity is known as the “albedo”).

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U.S. Basks, Rest of the Northern Hemisphere Shivers

Submitted by Kevin Williams, Director of Meteorology

Monday, April 2nd, 2012, 5:46am

The average March temperature in Rochester was 47.3 degrees. This was a remarkable 13 degrees above average.

The average winter (December-January-February) temperature in Rochester was 32.4 degrees. This placed the winter as the fifth warmest on record. The warmest winter in Rochester history was in 1931-32 when the average temperature reached 34.5 degrees. (The only noteworthy item to cheer if you are a winter weather fan was the above normal snowfall that was observed in February.)

Additionally, this past winter nationally also turned out to be the 5th warmest on record.

You thus might be surprised to learn that globally, this winter was the 11th coldest on record in the 34 year satellite record.

This is attributable to the fact that parts of Europe and Asia were breaking records for low temperatures and heavy snow, while we in the States were basking in the glow of a low winter sun.

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A Flaky February After All

Submitted by Kevin Williams, Director of Meteorology

Thursday, March 1st, 2012, 8:44am

Meteorological winter ended at midnight last night. (Astronomical winter has about three weeks left. And, of course, Mother Nature cares little for how we define winter with accumulating snow falling here as late as May.)

Certainly no one should ever mistake the winter of 2011-12 as a harsh season in Rochester and the Finger Lakes.

And no one is likely to mistake this past February as a harsh month either.

But February was snowy. In fact, it was by far the snowiest month of the season. It was even snowier than the months of November, December and January combined.

The total Rochester snowfall for February was 27.3 inches which was 5.8 inches above normal. And since 1980, there were only 11 February’s
when more snow fell.

By the way, while the winter nationally was unusually warm and relatively storm free, that was not the case elsewhere in the northern Hemisphere.

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High winds moving through Rochester area

Submitted by WHEC_Web_Staff

Friday, February 24th, 2012, 10:05pm

Wind gusts have started knocking down trees and power lines in the Rochester area, with more powerful gusts expected overnight.

One large tree collapsed onto a house in Spencerport, and there have been several other reports of trees and lines down across the area. Around 1,700 people were without power around 8:45 p.m., according to RG&E's website, most of them near Elmgrove Road in Greece.

The Rochester area is under High Wind Warning, and wind gusts could reach 50-60 miles per hour after midnight tonight.

For more Rochester, N.Y. news, visit our website www.whec.com

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Winter -- better late than never...?

Submitted by Kevin Williams, Director of Meteorology

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012, 3:12pm

Here is one metric provided by the National Weather Service relative to the snow drought in Rochester, which I think is symptomatic of much of the country: In a normal winter, there are 76 days where the ground is covered be at least one inch of snow. The record for the least amount of such days is 35. So far this year there have been just 9 such days! (BTW, the record for the least amount of snowfall is 11 inches which was set in the winter of 1932-33. That record is safe.)

The other city we included in our analogue forecast for the Great Lakes was Chicago. And there certainly has been a snow drought there, as well. The total seasonal snowfall to date in Chicago stands at 13.9 inches. The normal snowfall to date is 22.9 inches and by this time last year there had been 50.1 inches of snow.

The numbers in Rochester and Chicago are consistent with what our analogue forecast suggested. So far, so good.

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