Flooding Rains Along The East Coast Continue – National Weather Outlook For December 18, 2023

by | Dec 18, 2023 | Weather

National Weather Forecast

We’ll continue to watch the nor’easter moving up the East Coast on Monday, bringing heavy rain and flooding, strong winds, and coastal flooding. A cold front will quickly follow that out of the Plains into the Great Lakes and Northeast, bringing the threat of snow along with it. That also drags down colder air into the Upper Midwest, with highs much closer to average than what they’ve recently been. We’re also tracking a system in the western United States, bringing the potential of rain, snow, and ice.

The nor’easter impacting the East Coast will continue to produce heavy rain on Monday before another system moves in, also producing rain and snow for the Northeast. In some areas along the East Coast, rainfall tallies could top 4-5”. Heavy rain will also be expected in the western United States with a system during the beginning of the week, with areas of Oregon and northern California expected to receive 3-5”.

The heaviest snow through Tuesday will fall in parts of the Appalachians and downwind of the Great Lakes behind that early week frontal boundary moving through the region. In these areas, at least several inches of snow is expected.

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Trees are in trouble

More from UC Santa Barbara: “This holiday season brings surprising news about your Christmas tree. Scientists just discovered that globally, trees growing in wetter regions are more sensitive to drought. That means if your tree hails from a more humid clime, it’s likely been spoiled for generations. Scientists have long debated whether arid conditions make trees more or less resilient to drought. It seems intuitive that trees living at their biological limits will be most vulnerable to climate change, since even just a little extra stress could tip them past the brink. On the other hand, these populations have adapted to a harsher setting, so they might be more capable of withstanding a drought. According to a new study in the journal Science by researchers at UC Santa Barbara and UC Davis, greater water availability could “spoil” trees by reducing their adaptations to drought.”

Wildfires Also Impact Aquatic Ecosystems

More from UC San Diego: “In devasting cases dotting the globe in recent years, climate warming has led to an increase in the number and severity of destructive wildfires. Climate change projections indicate that environmental and economic damage from wildfires will spread and escalate in the years ahead. While studies have analyzed impacts on land, new research from the University of California San Diego and other institutions indicates that aquatic ecosystems are also undergoing rapid changes as a result of wildfires. Led by School of Biological Sciences Professor Jonathan Shurin’s laboratory, the researchers compared how aquatic systems change with the input of burnt plant matter, including effects on food webs.”

Extreme weather cost $80 billion this year. The true price is far higher.

More from Grist: “While Walker waits, the destruction of Rolling Fork has vanished beneath headlines about wildfires, floods, and heat waves elsewhere. Millions of people have come to feel his pain: A November poll found that three-quarters of Americans experienced some kind of extreme weather in 2023. By some metrics, this year was among the worst for climate disasters. The U.S. saw more weather events that caused at least a billion dollars in damage than at any other time on record. The emergence of an El Niño weather pattern pushed global temperatures higher than ever before in recorded history and caused a spate of deadly heat waves as well as catastrophic floods. By other metrics, it was no more than an average year for a world that has warmed by more than 1 degree Celsius.”

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– D.J. Kayser