Impactful Weather Across The Middle Of The Country – National Weather Outlook For January 8, 2024

by | Jan 8, 2024 | Weather

National Weather Forecast

On Monday, we are tracking a system barreling across the central United States that will bring storm chances in the South and snow/ice concerns farther north. Strong storms will be possible along the Gulf Coast from Texas to the Florida Panhandle. We will also be watching a system in the Pacific Northwest bringing rain and higher-elevation snow chances.

The system across the central United States to begin the week will bring very heavy rainfall through Tuesday across the Southeast, where rainfall amounts of 3-5” can’t be ruled out. Some of this rain is likely to lead to flash flooding. Heavy precipitation is also expected in the Pacific Northwest, but some of that will be snow at the higher elevations.

It’ll be the Cascades and Northern Rockies that see the heaviest snow through the beginning of the work week, with 2-4 feet possible. We’ll also track a band of at least 4” of snow from the central Plains into parts of the Upper Midwest/Great Lakes with the central U.S. system.

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Persistent Wildfire Smoke Is Eroding Rural America’s Mental Health

More from The Daily Yonder: “Will and Julie Volpert have led white water rafting trips on Southern Oregon’s Rogue and Klamath rivers for over a decade for their company Indigo Creek Outfitters, out of the small town of Talent, Oregon. The rafting season, which extends from May to September, is a perfect time to be out on the river where snowpack-fed cold water provides respite from the region’s hot summer. Or it would be perfect if wildfire smoke weren’t a looming concern. “We’ve been in operation here since 2011, and almost every year there’s some smoke that comes in and is noticeable on our trips,” Will Volpert said in an interview. If people have flexibility, he recommends that they schedule a trip before the third week of July when the likelihood of smoke in the air is lower. Customers frequently cancel in late July and August because of the smoke, especially for day-trips. Federal data shows air quality tends to be more than four times worse on average in Jackson County, Oregon, during this period than earlier in the summer.”

Can Florida’s corals survive climate change? Fate of one small reef may hold the answer

More from the Miami Herald: “When marine scientist Ian Enochs jumped into the water at Cheeca Rocks, a small reef in the Florida Keys known for vibrantly colorful corals, what he saw shook him to the core. “Literally everything was white,” said Enochs, a research ecologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami. “It does not look normal at all, it’s just like a different reef.” It was July, still early in what would become the hottest summer on record in South Florida, and Enochs was witnessing a mass event bleaching — a telltale trouble sign that corals are struggling in abnormally hot ocean waters. Keys reefs have been hit periodically by bleaching over the decades and recovered, the corals weakened but still alive. But prolonged bleaching can prove fatal. To Enochs, this looked severe and potentially lethal. “The flesh, the tissue [of the soft corals] were just falling off of them,” Enochs said, “They were literally falling apart before our eyes.””

Extreme heat is pushing India to the brink of ‘survivability.’ One obvious solution is also a big part of the problem

More from CNN: “By 2050, India will be among the first places where temperatures will cross survivability limits, according to climate experts. And within that time frame, the demand for air conditioners (AC) in the country is also expected to rise nine-fold, outpacing all other appliances, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA). … India emits nearly 2.4 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year based on data collected by the European Union – contributing about 7% of global emissions. The United States, by comparison, causes 13% of CO2 emissions, despite having a quarter of India’s population. This raises a question of fairness that climate scientists have often asked: should people in the developing world shoulder the cost of reducing emissions, despite being among those least responsible for rising greenhouse gases?”

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– D.J. Kayser