Snow In The Great Lakes And Northeast – National Weather Outlook For January 19, 2024

by | Jan 19, 2024 | Weather

National Weather Forecast

On Friday, a system working through the Mid-Atlantic will bring snowy weather to the Northeast and Ohio Valley, with some rain near the Mid-Atlantic Coast. Behind that, the lake effect machine keeps cranking off the Great Lakes. We’re also watching a system approaching the West Coast – with one already in place in the Northwest – both leading to rain, snow, and even some icing.

The heaviest precipitation that will fall as rain will be in coastal areas of the West Coast, where some 3”+ tallies are expected.

Snow will be heaviest in some of the northwestern mountains, the Appalachians, and downwind of the Great Lakes through the first half of the weekend. Some areas will be measuring the snow in feet.

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Texas power grid handles record-breaking demand, avoiding outages

More from KVUE: “The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has not issued an energy emergency alert (EEA) this week as freezing weather blankets the state and the demand for power is driving higher than any other winter on record. “You had low thermal power plant outages. You had decent to very good wind depending on the time of the event. You’re looking at solar and storage. So this is where, you know, it’s a system – it’s all kind of working together,” said Doug Lewin, founder of Stoic Energy Consulting. Lewin said weatherization mandated by the state since a deadly February 2021 winter storm likely helped keep power plants running.”

Hundreds of ERCOT power facility inspections were not completed before winter blast

More from NBC Dallas: “To be more prepared for winter weather, power generation and transmission companies have spent millions winterizing their equipment since the 2021 winter storm that caused widespread blackouts across Texas. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) now conducts more robust inspections of many plants and power transmission facilities. But NBC 5 investigates has learned most of this year’s seasonal winter inspections had not been completed ahead of the bitter cold snap the state is experiencing this week. ERCOT told NBC 5 that by the end of February 2024, it plans to inspect 450 generation and transmission facilities. But the latest numbers available from the grid operator show, as of two weeks ago, only 126 of those inspections had been completed with 324 inspections yet to go.”

The more scientists study Greenland, the worse its ice melt looks

More from NBC News: “The Greenland ice sheet has lost about 1,965 square miles to glacial retreat since 1985, a new study says. That’s an area roughly the size of Delaware. The study analyzed satellite images to track retreat and found that the breakup of icebergs has accelerated in Greenland and that previous analyses might have underrated its influence. “Current consensus estimates of ice-sheet mass balance have underestimated recent mass loss from Greenland by as much as 20%,” the study’s authors wrote. In recent decades, almost every Greenland glacier has thinned or retreated. The study, which was published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is yet another sign that Greenland’s ice is melting at hastening and concerning rates. Scientists are growing increasingly concerned that the Earth’s warming could trigger tipping points for major ice sheets. Greenland contains about 8% of the world’s freshwater. Its total melt would raise sea levels by almost 7 feet and could change ocean circulation patterns.”

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– D.J. Kayser