If I didn't know any better, I'd say there was a big-ass Hurricane over the Eastern half of the US.

[A HERETIC I AM]

Sure looks like a big hurricane is forming to me;

http://www.weather.gov/sat_loop.php?image=ir&hours=24





Edited to add the still shot.

[tridim]

1. It'll be interesting to see what it does when it moves out to sea.

[Angry Dragon]

2. I was outside just a little while ago and it sounded like

a rushing train ........ really windy

In Minnesota

[aquart]

3. And now I know why my cat just crawled into my lap.

He HATES bad weather (rescue cat).

[HCE SuiGeneris]

4. More here... lowest barometric reading EVER over the continent

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=9395939&mesg_id=9395939

[malaise]

8. And that is why it is being compared to

hurricane conditions.

Stay safe DUers :grouphug:

[Rhiannon12866]

5. It's pouring right now here in NY

I just became aware of the noise. And it was a really nice day today and pretty pleasant when I was out earlier tonight. I've really had enough of this, was in SC at the beginning of the month during the typhoons... :(

[Sherman A1]

6. That band over VA on the image, pounded us here in STL

yesterday about 4:30am local time. I was driving to work and between the darkness, wind & rain simply could not see a thing. I was lucky in that at that moment I was leaving the highway to stop for a coffee and just sat in my car for 5 minutes or so until it let up. Lost power at home for a bit, but nothing too bad. I think Illinois & Indiana had it worse.

[originalpckelly]

7. Do you ever look at the weather?

Well, this is a low pressure system. A hurricane is also a low pressure system, just a very powerful one. That's why this looks like a hurricane without actually being one. Just pay attention to the actual cloud shapes this year and you will probably find out that you're going to see many more hurricane shaped low pressure systems. :P

[Occulus]

14. I've been 'looking at' weather all my life. RADAR, GOES images, etc

Watching pattern develop, predicting their movements, that sort of thing.

I have never seen the sort of weather activity over the continental US we've seen in the past 18 months or so. This is very new. Systems that I'd see perhaps once or twice a year in years gone by are being seen every few weeks now, and they're not occurring in the same places they usually have, nor are they following traditional tracks.

There's something up with the weather, it's not normal, and I think it's only going to get worse.

[originalpckelly]

17. If you look at a very practical thing, plant hardiness maps, they're dramatically changing.

http://www.arborday.org/media/mapchanges.cfm

That was 2006 by the way, not today, so it has probably changed even more.

Sorry for being such an asshole, I need to work on this know-it-all complex of mine. You weren't even the OP, but I recognize the errors of my ways.

[Occulus]

19. The PLANT HARDINESS maps are changing?

Seriously?

Uh...... that's not really all that good. If something messes up wheat and corn harvests, well....

Simply put, weather is getting worse. Call it "too hot" or "too cold" or "too stormy" or "too dry", but it always seems to be "too something" and that's a dramatic, noticeable change from when I was a kid.

[laundry_queen]

21. It's changed dramatically since I've been gardening.

I looked at an old one once when I lived up north. It had my town as zone 0. A few years later I looked at a newer one, we were zone 2. Scary.

[reggie the dog]

24. you would expect a storm like this in the winter

and to move north east, not north west.... the warm air sector of the storm is wrapped all the way around the center and there is some rain north of some of the snow because of this, that is quite strange, also the dry wedge is absolutely huge and wraps up way WEST to get to the center. i wonder if this thing will make it across to europe???

[boomerbust]

9. Yep

Thats the storm that created 12 foot waves on Lake Michigan off the Wisconsin coast.

[mmonk]

10. This morning while I went down the driveway to grab the paper,

you could hear a roar from the wind. I began asking myself if I had missed something (I live in Raleigh NC).

[taterguy]

12. Just a few F-15s from Seymour Johnson AFB

[mmonk]

16. Could be.

But I'm used to the low roar of military aircraft at night with no lights.

[reggie the dog]

11. just a low pressure system

typical for this time of year.

[progressoid]

13. Not "just" a low pressure system

The lowest on record "for a U.S. non-tropical land-based system".


ETA:


This is a storm stronger than the infamous "Edmund Fitzgerald" storm in Nov. 1975 and an even stronger version almost exactly 23 years after that in Nov. 1998.

In fact, its central pressure is now a record low pressure for a U.S. non-tropical land-based system! The central pressure not only beat the infamous Superstorm of 1993, but also nudged by the "Cleveland Superbomb of 1978"! Its pressure is also lower (stronger) than the last 4 hurricanes of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/major-wind-snow-storm-timing-2_2010-10-26

[originalpckelly]

18. I didn't know that, that's very interesting.

On the map it doesn't look that powerful, usually they're well organized when they're that powerful.

[Progressive_In_NC]

15. A meteorologist on TV last night was calling it a cyclone....

An event that used to happen all the time in the US in the 1800's apparantly, now we don't see them so much.

[Occulus]

20. That's the word I've been hearing. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. A cyclone is an everyday occurrence in temperate latitudes

They are the systems in which the winds rotate counter-clockwise (in the Northern hemisphere) around a low pressure centre.For instance:

A daily task for our weather forecasters is to assess the most likely developments of major weather systems for several days ahead - most of our forecast products depend on them getting this right! Among the most important systems for NW Europe are Atlantic low pressure centres (cyclones). To aid the forecasters in assessing the most likely positions and movements of lows, cyclone tracks predicted by all the ensemble members are plotted on a single chart. The example below for a 3-day forecast in February 2004 shows that it is most likely that a low pressure will move northeastwards to the west of the British Isles. However for anyone interested in risks, it is also worth noting that there is a small chance that the low will pass further south over Scotland, bringing rain and wind much further south across the country. This is just one example of the types of charts used to summarise ensemble forecasts for forecasters.

http://research.metoffice.gov.uk/research/nwp/ensemble/

There's a cyclone with its centre just north of Scotland right now: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/surface_pressure.html

[Swede]

23. We got blasted in Canada from that thing.

A huge winter storm coming from the Southeast of all things. Storms here almost always come from the Northwest.