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Storms
in the US Midwest have claimed at least 14 lives as temperatures
plunged below freezing point over the holiday weekend. Tens of thousands
of homes have been left without electricity, while driving conditions
are treacherous due to icy roads.
A
wintry storm system that has been moving through parts of the Great
Plains and the Midwest since Thursday has brought extremely cold weather
to the region. Eight people have lost their lives in Texas, with a
further six dying in the state of Kansas.
The icy conditions are
also causing havoc for local residents. Some 78,000 people in parts of
Oklahoma have been left without power after trees collapsed onto power
lines, according to Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co.
Increased drought portends lower future Midwestern U.S. crop yields
May 1, 2014
Source:
North Carolina State University
Summary:
Increasingly
harsh drought conditions in the US Midwest's Corn Belt may take a
serious toll on corn and soybean yields over the next half-century,
according to new research. Corn yields could drop by 15 to 30 percent,
according to the paper's estimates.
Increasingly
harsh drought conditions in the U.S. Midwest's Corn Belt may take a
serious toll on corn and soybean yields over the next half-century,
according to research published today in the journal Science.
Corn yields could drop by 15 to 30 percent, according to the paper's estimates; soybean yield losses would be less severe.
North
Carolina State University's Roderick Rejesus, associate professor of
agricultural and resource economics and a co-author of the Science
paper, says that corn and soybean yields show increasing sensitivity to
drought, with yields struggling in dry conditions in Iowa, Illinois and
Indiana during the 1995 to 2012 study period.
"Yield increases
are getting smaller in bad conditions," Rejesus said. "Agronomic and
genetic crop improvements over the years help a lot when growing
conditions are good, but have little effect when growing conditions are
poor, like during droughts."
U.S. corn and soybeans account for
approximately 40 and 35 percent of global production, respectively,
making the results important to the world's food supply.
Security Camera Captures Possible Meteor Thursday Evening
Courtesy the City of North Liberty
Story Created:
Dec 27, 2013 at 3:25 PM CST
Story Updated:
Dec 27, 2013 at 3:36 PM CST
NORTH LIBERTY, Iowa - People across the Midwest reported seeing a
bright fireball streak across the sky Thursday evening ... and it was
caught on camera in North Liberty.
The fireball, a possible
meteor, was spotted at about 5:40 p.m. Thursday. Reports indicated that
it was seen across many Midwestern states, including Iowa, Illinois,
Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Nebraska and South Dakota.
Winter starts Saturday -- with everything from snow to tornadoes to record heat.
Winter
– which starts Saturday afternoon – will begin on the wild side this
weekend across much of the central and eastern U.S., with a crazy
potpourri that includes snow, ice, flooding rain, fog, the chance of
tornadoes and even some record-setting warmth.
A ferocious storm,
which will affect nearly 30 states, will likely lead to travel problems
for the millions of people heading out for the Christmas holiday,
AccuWeather reports.
The action began Friday, with rain forecast
from the southern Plains across the mid-Mississippi and Ohio Valleys and
into southern New England, with freezing rain for parts of the central
Plains and snow in the Rockies and Great Lakes, according to the
National Weather Service. Severe thunderstorms were possible for parts
of the southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley.
On Saturday,
on the cold side of the storm, light freezing rain will spread from the
central Plains to the upper Midwest, which will transition over to snow
late Saturday into Sunday, meteorologist Chris Dolce of the Weather
Channel reported.
Cities such as Kansas City, Des Moines and
Milwaukee should all see snow, though most of the significant snow
should stay northwest of Chicago, the Weather Channel forecast.
AccuWeather reports that some spots could see as much as a foot of snow.
Ice storm warnings were issued for Oklahoma, while winter storm
watches, advisories, and warnings were in effect from northern Texas to
northern Michigan. Read More Here
.....
Nation
braces for holiday travel misery as snow is forecast for the Midwest,
rare winter tornadoes could cause chaos in the South... and storms are
heading for the East coast
By Associated Press and Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 15:57 EST, 20 December 2013 | UPDATED: 16:20 EST, 21 December 2013 A
stew of foul weather, from freezing rain and snow in the Midwest to
thunderstorms and possible tornadoes in the South, is arriving just in
time for one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. More
than 94 million Americans are expected to travel over the holiday
period, from today until January 1 - just as another round of hazardous
weather conditions roll in.
Much
of the nation was bracing for something, with freezing rain then snow
likely in the northern Plains and downpours expected from St. Louis
through Appalachia.
Weekend tornadoes were even a possibility in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. While much of the East awoke Friday to unusually warm weather, the region was next in the storm front's cross hairs.
Delays
possible: Passengers walk inside Terminal 3 at O'Hare International
Airport in Chicago on Friday. A selection of foul weather is arriving
just in time for one of the busiest travel weekends of the year
Cold snap: A police officer stops to photograph the cracked ice in the Chicago River on Thursday
This has created pre-Christmas travel worries from Chicago and Detroit to Boston and New York.
With
more than 85 million people expected to make journeys by car over the
festive period, and 5.53 million due to fly, the weather conditions are
likely to cause traffic delays. Freezing rain on Friday morning snarled traffic and forced some school closures in Michigan and Wisconsin.
The
Wisconsin Department of Transportation said Interstate 90/94 was
ice-covered from Tomah and Mauston. The state was bracing for
significant snow, sleet and ice. Chicago's
O'Hare airport was caught out by the winter storms yesterday - its
busiest day with 209,000 passengers due to pass through the terminal.
Although many faced delays during the afternoon and evening, holiday spirit was in abundance.
Weekend
forecast: Much of the nation was bracing for something, with freezing
rain then snow likely in the northern Plains and downpours expected from
St. Louis through Appalachia
Winter Storm Gemini: Snow and Ice in Midwest and New England
By Chris Dolce Published: Dec 21, 2013, 4:42 PM EST weather.com
Icy Mess for Holiday Traveler
Winter Storm Gemini will
continue to impact portions of the Midwest and Northern New England
with snow and ice through the busy holiday travel and shopping weekend.
Gemini is the seventh named winter storm of the season.
Below is a breakdown of the forecast details through Sunday for both the Midwest and New England.
Midwest Snow and Ice: Through Sunday
Saturday Night Midwest Forecast
Snowfall Forecast
Moisture
riding over the top of a shallow layer of cold air near the surface of
the earth has resulted in significant ice accumulations in portions of
Oklahoma, southwest and central Missouri and southeast Kansas. Tree
damage and power outages have been reported in Oklahoma.
Saturday
night into Sunday, the snowy side of Gemini will ramp up as an
upper-level system swings out of the Plains and into the Midwest.
This
accumulating snow will spread from the Texas Panhandle and northwest
Oklahoma through southern and eastern Kansas, northern Missouri,
southern and eastern Iowa, northern and western Illinois, Wisconsin and
northern Michigan. Some locations in this zone, including Kansas City and Milwaukee, could see 5 inches or more of snow. At this time, it appears the most significant snow will stay northwest of Chicago.
November
19, 2013 - UNITED STATES - Stunned residents across the Midwest picked
through the wreckage of what used to be their homes on Monday after a
fierce storm system swept across six states, spawned nearly 60 reported
tornadoes and killed at least eight people. From the air, large areas
of the devastated city of Washington, Ill., looked like a moonscape as
the vastness of the devastation was exposed.
Even large
electrical towers made of steel lay on the ground, twisted like
pretzels. The storm system tore the steeple off a church 10 minutes
after Mass let out and even forced the Chicago Bears to stop their game
against the Baltimore Ravens. Jeff Ekena, Principal of John L. Hensey
Elementary in Washington said he hunkered down in the basement with his
family when the storm came through sounding "like a freight train." The
Ekenas emerged to find "just flatness," and then the destruction beyond,
he said. "Nobody has anything left," Nancy Rampy, of Washington, Ill.,
told NBC Chicago. "It's all gone. It's just awful." Guida Scheer,
owner of one of the destroyed homes, sifted through the rubble and
pulled out a Bible. "It was my boyfriend's Bible," she said. "It was
actually his dad's and that was one of the things that he wanted to make
sure that we tried to find."
"I've found pieces of my house 100
yards northeast of me," Scott Gundy, another resident of Washington,
where one person died, told TODAY. "I got the most important things
out, which were pictures, video of my kids growing up," he said. "To me
that's the most important thing. Everything else can be replaced." The
mayor of Washington, Gary Manier, said the devastation there was
"unbelievable." He said that 250 to 500 houses were destroyed in
Washington, a city of about 15,000 people. The National Weather
Service rated the tornado that ripped through the area an EF-4 — a notch
down from most intense rating — with wind speeds ranging from 170 to
190 mph. Andrea Bowers said she and her husband and their 3-month-old
daughter took shelter in the basement of their Washington home. The
couple used their bodies to cover their baby and protect her from
falling debris. "Everything just started falling in and we just kind of
rode it out and just prayed," she said. Ryan Bowers said they were all
unharmed , and that his wife and daughter even fell sleep during the
storm.
Schools were closed in Washington on Monday, and
churches and community groups also canceled events as the focus turned
to recovery efforts and helping victims. The Red Cross opened a
shelter, and mental health experts were on hand. Earlier, people who had
left and were trying to come back were turned away by police because of
concerns about unstable buildings, and other lurking dangers. "There's
a lot of power lines down a lot of power lines that could still be
alive. There's gas leaks all over the place. So it is still a very
dangerous situation," Illinois State Trooper Dustin Pierce told NBC
station WEEK TV. Later, many of Washington's residents, including
members of the high school football team, went to the destroyed areas to
pitch and help those whose homes were destroyed. "Hopefully, we can
grow strong as a community together and jet get over it," said one of
the football players, Nathan Barker. The National Weather Service said
there were 81 reported tornadoes from the system on Sunday. Illinois
Gov. Pat Quinn declared seven counties disaster areas. He said that
dozens of people were hurt.
