ICYMI: December kicks off with snowstorms, hurricane-force winds in US, tropical cyclones around the world
By
Staff, AccuWeather
Published Dec 6, 2019 10:56 PM EDT
Heavy snow has turned the Xinli Gol grasslands in northern China into a winter wonderland. Thousands of horses are seen galloping through these snowy fields.
‘Tis the season to be singing, “let it snow,” but for those negatively impacted by the wintry snowstorms across the United States earlier this week, those might not be the exact words they have in mind. Investigations are underway after a deadly plane crash occurred amid a major storm in South Dakota. Meanwhile, the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season has wrapped up, but tropical cyclones are still wreaking havoc in other parts of the world. Here’s a look back at the week in weather news.
Historic nor'easter dumps snow across northeastern US
With mere weeks to go until the seasons change, wintry conditions blasted through the Northeast earlier this week. A major snowstorm, which began Saturday but ramped up on Sunday, dumped 3 feet of snow over parts of New Hampshire and around 2 feet of snow in other states across the region.
AccuWeather meteorologists noted that this nor’easter was not like the others, in that instead of producing accumulating snow for 10-16 hours in one spot, snow accumulated over a large area for more than a day. “In parts of New England, it ended up being about 36 hours," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Bowers said.
As you can imagine, travel became a nightmare for many. Almost 1,000 crashes were reported, leading officials to declare a state of emergency to encourage drivers to steer clear of the treacherous roadways. The storm also caused headaches for air travelers, who had to deal with over 700 flights being canceled — with many of those flights heading into and out of New York and Boston.
Take a look at these impressive snowfall amounts:
New York’s capital of Albany received just under 2 feet of snow. Albany International Airport reported a whopping 22.6 inches for its final three-day storm total, making it the city’s eighth-biggest-ever snowstorm and its fourth-biggest December snowstorm. "This is also the most snow in one storm since the March 13-14, 1993 superstorm," the National Weather Service (NWS) in Albany tweeted.
The snow wasn’t just problematic for humans. It made Charlie the dog’s game of fetch very challenging. Check out his struggle to play in the snow here.
Kammuri leaves trail of damage in the Philippines
Though the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season has now ended, tropical cyclones are still developing in other parts of the world. Widespread flooding and damaging winds pummeled southern Luzon and Mindoro in the Philippines Tuesday night as Typhoon Kammuri — known as Tisoy in the Philippines — bore down.
Police inspect a truck that was damaged as Typhoon Kammuri slammed Legazpi city, Albay province, southeast of Manila, Philippines, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019. (AP Photo)
The powerful storm made landfall in Sorsogon on Monday night, local time, and it peaked in intensity — reaching the equivalent of Category 3 major-hurricane strength — just before coming ashore. Kammuri took a deadly turn, with government officials on Tuesday reporting at least four people killed.
Areas that received the worst of Kammuri’s fury, particularly from heavy downpours and strong winds, were Bicol, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, eastern Central Luzon and Cagayan. Around 6-10 inches of rain drenched Bicol, Calabarzon and northern Mimaropa on Tuesday.
Blizzard conditions linked to doomed airplane takeoff in South Dakota?
In South Dakota last weekend, near-blizzard conditions may have played a role in a tragedy in the skies. Nine people were killed after a plane went down in Chamberlain within a mile of takeoff on Saturday. The deadly crash left three others hurt.
On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released new information regarding the crash, indicating that weather conditions played a significant role. At the time that the single-engine Pilatus PC-12 crashed, Chamberlain and much of South Dakota were under a winter storm warning.
According to Travis Garza, president of wellness company Kyani, the company's two founders, Jim Hansen and Kirk Hansen, were among the crash victims. The other seven passengers who died were their relatives; three passengers survived.
An NTSB investigator examines the wreckage of a Pilatus PC-12 airplane at Chamberlain Municipal Airport in South Dakota. The aircraft crashed on Saturday, November 30, 2019, moments after taking off amid heavy snowfall. The crash killed nine of the 12 people on board. (NTSB)
(NTSB)
The plane appeared to be left parked on a runway after it landed the Friday before the storm, which might have meant that by the next day, “a whole lot” of ice and snow were left to accumulate on the aircraft, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist David Samuhel.
The NTSB is still working to determine the cause of the crash. It’s not yet clear if the snow and ice were cleared from the plane prior to takeoff. “If they didn’t get the snow and ice off the wings, that would be a huge problem,” Samuhel said.
Dangerous winterlike storm blasts through central US
The same snowstorm that caused issues in the Northeast and may have contributed to the South Dakota plane crash also hit other portions of the central U.S. this week. People lost power and had a rough time navigating traffic on dangerous roads.
Emergency personnel in Minnesota had to warm drivers that open roadways didn’t necessarily mean the path was was safe. In South Dakota, the storm also brought strong winds, with one of the highest gusts of 53 mph reported in Edgemont.
Those winds — up to 94 mph — blasted through Nenderland, Colorado, with the strength of a Category 1 hurricane. The winds were so high in Kimbell, Nebraska, that icicles were freezing sideways.
Sideways icicles were captured after a blizzard whipped Kimbell, Nebraska, with fierce winds on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019. (Twitter / Sgt. Williamson @HPDSgt221)
The snowstorm dumped a considerable amount of snow across the central U.S., and Duluth, Minnesota, had to dig out of 21.7 inches that fell over a two-day period. In Lead, South Dakota, which is at the base of the Rocky Mountains, 30 inches of snow was recorded.
France endures another round of dangerous flooding
Southern France was inundated for the second time in a week with deadly flooding. Areas around the city of Cannes were hit hard by downpours that drenched the south with over a month’s worth of rain over several hours.
The Cannes region received 7 inches of rain and subsequent severe flooding from Sunday into Monday. For context, the region usually gets around 4 inches of rain for all of December.
Six people were killed, including three emergency workers that perished in a helicopter crash near the town of Leluc. At least 50 people had to be rescued from rising floodwaters, and the flooding shut down train services and the A8 motorway for hours.
Tropics spring to life in Indian Ocean
While the Atlantic hurricane season concluded on Nov. 30, there is still plenty of tropical activity around the world, as Kammuri proved.
The Indian Ocean was particularly active this week, keeping forecasters busy watching multiple tropical systems.
Three tropical cyclones developed this week. Pawan sprung to life in the Arabian Sea, while Ambali and Belna emerged in the southern Indian Ocean.
As of Friday, Dec. 6, none of the storms had made landfall, but Pawan was setting its sights on Somalia, while Belna was targeting Madagascar.
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News / Weather News
ICYMI: December kicks off with snowstorms, hurricane-force winds in US, tropical cyclones around the world
By Staff, AccuWeather
Published Dec 6, 2019 10:56 PM EDT
Heavy snow has turned the Xinli Gol grasslands in northern China into a winter wonderland. Thousands of horses are seen galloping through these snowy fields.
‘Tis the season to be singing, “let it snow,” but for those negatively impacted by the wintry snowstorms across the United States earlier this week, those might not be the exact words they have in mind. Investigations are underway after a deadly plane crash occurred amid a major storm in South Dakota. Meanwhile, the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season has wrapped up, but tropical cyclones are still wreaking havoc in other parts of the world. Here’s a look back at the week in weather news.
Historic nor'easter dumps snow across northeastern US
With mere weeks to go until the seasons change, wintry conditions blasted through the Northeast earlier this week. A major snowstorm, which began Saturday but ramped up on Sunday, dumped 3 feet of snow over parts of New Hampshire and around 2 feet of snow in other states across the region.
AccuWeather meteorologists noted that this nor’easter was not like the others, in that instead of producing accumulating snow for 10-16 hours in one spot, snow accumulated over a large area for more than a day. “In parts of New England, it ended up being about 36 hours," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Bowers said.
As you can imagine, travel became a nightmare for many. Almost 1,000 crashes were reported, leading officials to declare a state of emergency to encourage drivers to steer clear of the treacherous roadways. The storm also caused headaches for air travelers, who had to deal with over 700 flights being canceled — with many of those flights heading into and out of New York and Boston.
Take a look at these impressive snowfall amounts:
New York’s capital of Albany received just under 2 feet of snow. Albany International Airport reported a whopping 22.6 inches for its final three-day storm total, making it the city’s eighth-biggest-ever snowstorm and its fourth-biggest December snowstorm. "This is also the most snow in one storm since the March 13-14, 1993 superstorm," the National Weather Service (NWS) in Albany tweeted.
The snow wasn’t just problematic for humans. It made Charlie the dog’s game of fetch very challenging. Check out his struggle to play in the snow here.
Kammuri leaves trail of damage in the Philippines
Though the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season has now ended, tropical cyclones are still developing in other parts of the world. Widespread flooding and damaging winds pummeled southern Luzon and Mindoro in the Philippines Tuesday night as Typhoon Kammuri — known as Tisoy in the Philippines — bore down.
Police inspect a truck that was damaged as Typhoon Kammuri slammed Legazpi city, Albay province, southeast of Manila, Philippines, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019. (AP Photo)
The powerful storm made landfall in Sorsogon on Monday night, local time, and it peaked in intensity — reaching the equivalent of Category 3 major-hurricane strength — just before coming ashore. Kammuri took a deadly turn, with government officials on Tuesday reporting at least four people killed.
Areas that received the worst of Kammuri’s fury, particularly from heavy downpours and strong winds, were Bicol, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, eastern Central Luzon and Cagayan. Around 6-10 inches of rain drenched Bicol, Calabarzon and northern Mimaropa on Tuesday.
Blizzard conditions linked to doomed airplane takeoff in South Dakota?
In South Dakota last weekend, near-blizzard conditions may have played a role in a tragedy in the skies. Nine people were killed after a plane went down in Chamberlain within a mile of takeoff on Saturday. The deadly crash left three others hurt.
On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released new information regarding the crash, indicating that weather conditions played a significant role. At the time that the single-engine Pilatus PC-12 crashed, Chamberlain and much of South Dakota were under a winter storm warning.
According to Travis Garza, president of wellness company Kyani, the company's two founders, Jim Hansen and Kirk Hansen, were among the crash victims. The other seven passengers who died were their relatives; three passengers survived.
An NTSB investigator examines the wreckage of a Pilatus PC-12 airplane at Chamberlain Municipal Airport in South Dakota. The aircraft crashed on Saturday, November 30, 2019, moments after taking off amid heavy snowfall. The crash killed nine of the 12 people on board. (NTSB)
The plane appeared to be left parked on a runway after it landed the Friday before the storm, which might have meant that by the next day, “a whole lot” of ice and snow were left to accumulate on the aircraft, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist David Samuhel.
The NTSB is still working to determine the cause of the crash. It’s not yet clear if the snow and ice were cleared from the plane prior to takeoff. “If they didn’t get the snow and ice off the wings, that would be a huge problem,” Samuhel said.
Dangerous winterlike storm blasts through central US
The same snowstorm that caused issues in the Northeast and may have contributed to the South Dakota plane crash also hit other portions of the central U.S. this week. People lost power and had a rough time navigating traffic on dangerous roads.
Emergency personnel in Minnesota had to warm drivers that open roadways didn’t necessarily mean the path was was safe. In South Dakota, the storm also brought strong winds, with one of the highest gusts of 53 mph reported in Edgemont.
Those winds — up to 94 mph — blasted through Nenderland, Colorado, with the strength of a Category 1 hurricane. The winds were so high in Kimbell, Nebraska, that icicles were freezing sideways.
Sideways icicles were captured after a blizzard whipped Kimbell, Nebraska, with fierce winds on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019. (Twitter / Sgt. Williamson @HPDSgt221)
The snowstorm dumped a considerable amount of snow across the central U.S., and Duluth, Minnesota, had to dig out of 21.7 inches that fell over a two-day period. In Lead, South Dakota, which is at the base of the Rocky Mountains, 30 inches of snow was recorded.
France endures another round of dangerous flooding
Southern France was inundated for the second time in a week with deadly flooding. Areas around the city of Cannes were hit hard by downpours that drenched the south with over a month’s worth of rain over several hours.
The Cannes region received 7 inches of rain and subsequent severe flooding from Sunday into Monday. For context, the region usually gets around 4 inches of rain for all of December.
Six people were killed, including three emergency workers that perished in a helicopter crash near the town of Leluc. At least 50 people had to be rescued from rising floodwaters, and the flooding shut down train services and the A8 motorway for hours.
Tropics spring to life in Indian Ocean
While the Atlantic hurricane season concluded on Nov. 30, there is still plenty of tropical activity around the world, as Kammuri proved.
The Indian Ocean was particularly active this week, keeping forecasters busy watching multiple tropical systems.
Three tropical cyclones developed this week. Pawan sprung to life in the Arabian Sea, while Ambali and Belna emerged in the southern Indian Ocean.
As of Friday, Dec. 6, none of the storms had made landfall, but Pawan was setting its sights on Somalia, while Belna was targeting Madagascar.
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