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New storm brings more snow to Southern California mountains; I-5 corridor in jeopardy
A new storm moved into Southern California on Saturday, bringing light rain and concerns over snow in mountain passes.
Snow was beginning to stick along the Interstate 5 corridor in the Tejon Pass, the National Weather Service said Saturday morning.
Snow level were predicted to drop to 3,500-to-4,000 feet Saturday. Higher mountains could see 2...Read more
California is finally getting a wet winter
SAN FRANCISCO -- Snow-capped mountains are pretty typical in California -- just not the peaks that got dusted this week.
A series of storms has brought a rare wet winter to the state, sending snow levels plunging and creating some surreal scenes Californians won't soon forget: Blankets of white covering vineyards in Napa Valley. Plows clearing ...Read more
New scale will measure atmospheric rivers from 1 to 5, like hurricanes
LOS ANGELES -- Marty Ralph was sitting in a San Francisco restaurant a couple of years ago when the morning forecast came on the TV, showing the typical weather symbols indicating what the week ahead would bring: a sun, a cloud, a rainy cloud and a darker, more ominous rainy cloud.
Ralph, the director of the Center for Western Weather and Water...Read more
Hurricane Florence evacuees with disabilities endured unsafe, 'disrespectful' conditions, report says
RALEIGH, N.C. -- The state set up a special medical shelter in an old building during Hurricane Florence in a section of Goldsboro, N.C., at risk for flooding, a new report says.
In Winston-Salem, people who were unable to climb stairs were marooned on the first floor of the Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, separated by steep stairs from the ...Read more
States that voted for Trump to be hardest hit by climate change — as concerns over warming surge
SAN DIEGO -- Forests decimated by drought and wildfire from Montana to California. Homes blasted by hurricanes and flooding from North Carolina to Texas.
Climate change, according to scientists, is already fueling natural disasters across the United States, causing billions of dollars worth of devastation.
Now a new report from UC San Diego ...Read more
Burst pipe at Ronald McDonald House in Chicago displaces families after polar vortex
CHICAGO -- For the past year, Kayla Ybanez and her family have lived at a Ronald McDonald House on Chicago's South Side while Ybanez's 4-year-old daughter undergoes treatment for her immune system at nearby Comer Children's Hospital.
Ybanez, who is from Tinley Park, Ill., said it's been a relief to stay closer to her daughter and to have a ...Read more
Mudflows shut down PCH in Malibu and Highway 101 in Montecito as new storm lashes Southern California
LOS ANGELES -- A powerful winter storm pounded Southern California on Saturday, triggering mudflows that shut down Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu and Highway 101 in Santa Barbara County and left residents throughout the region bracing for flash flooding in areas made vulnerable by last year's furious wildfires.
Pacific Coast Highway was closed...Read more
'It was pure survival': One man fights despair, frostbite in the polar vortex
MINNEAPOLIS -- As the temperatures plummeted, Jay Mitchell huddled in his truck thinking he would die in the relentless cold.
He'd spent the past three weeks living in his vehicle. Cancer killed his wife a month earlier and he lost the month-to-month lease on his home in Randall, Minn. He had nowhere to go because he refused to give up his 10-...Read more
Chicagoans wake up to snow, but 75-degree warmup is underway
CHICAGO -- Chicagoans woke up Friday to more than an inch of snow, but it's finally above zero -- and headed toward springlike temperatures by Sunday, with the thermometer expected to hit the 50s on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
O'Hare International Airport and Midway Airport recorded 1.7 inches of snow by Friday morning, ...Read more
Good Samaritans who moved more than 100 people from tents to a hotel are 'just regular people trying to help'
CHICAGO -- In a room at the Amber Inn in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, bundles of clothing were piled high on a queen-size bed on Thursday afternoon, jackets, scarves and sweaters spilling onto the floor. Boxes of doughnuts sat stacked on a table next to a carton of coffee and a tub of broccoli soup.
A group of about eight friends, ...Read more
Bye bye polar vortex; temps finally rise above zero in Twin Cities
MINNEAPOLIS -- Thermometers on Friday morning inched above zero for the first time in 78 hours in the Twin Cities as the Polar Vortex that has kept the state on ice all week released some of its grip.
The mercury at 6 a.m. reached 1 above zero at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the official weather reporting station for the ...Read more
Pacific Coast Highway closed as rainstorm hits Southern California
LOS ANGELES -- The first in a parade of three winter storms that brought thunder and lightning to California's Central Coast overnight began to hammer Los Angeles County early Thursday, sending mud streaming onto Pacific Coast Highway and prompting the closure of the roadway between Ventura and L.A. counties.
The rain also sent gushing mud down...Read more
Yes, fire is used to keep Chicago trains running in the cold
CHICAGO – If you see fire along Metra tracks, don't panic. The Chicago area's commuter rail service is fighting the cold with fire to keep switches working, and help with track repairs.
Winter weather can cause snow and ice to clog switches, which control which rail trains run on. Clogged switches can bring trains to a halt until the blockage...Read more
What's that smoke above Lake Michigan? It's arctic sea fog
CHICAGO -- Smoke on the water. It's not just a song lyric when it is hovering over Lake Michigan.
Called sea smoke or sea fog, this phenomenon happens when a mass of very cold air blows over warmer water. It's similar to what happens when a football player removes his helmet, and "smoke" appears above his head during a cold game.
National ...Read more
Good Samaritan picks up hotel tab for 70 homeless as Chicago flirts with all-time cold record
CHICAGO – A good Samaritan has offered to spring for hotel rooms for 70 people who were camped out in tents overnight in the bitter cold after their propane tanks were confiscated, leaving them without any source of heat.
"Isn't that wonderful? At least they're warm and they're safe," said Salvation Army spokeswoman Jacqueline Rachev.
The 70...Read more
Cold enough in Chicago to freeze-fry an egg? This and other wacky experiments while you hibernate
CHICAGO – In sweltering summer heat, wacky newspaper editors often send reporters outside to test the expression "It's hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk."
So what happens when it's the opposite of hot?
Turns out, newspaper editors become even wackier.
Reporters were ordered outside -- where the thermometer read minus 14 degrees -- to...Read more
Chicago's polar vortex freeze makes it the coldest it's been since 1985
CHICAGO – The National Weather Service's official temperature fell to 21 degrees below zero overnight, falling short of Chicago's record low temperature of 27 degrees below zero, set Jan. 20, 1985.
Though it remains possible the temperature may get slightly colder, it won't be enough to break the all-time record, said Matt Friedlein, a ...Read more
Editorial: Chicagoans hibernate for a day, together
"Hamilton": Curtains.
Metra tracks: Alight.
Deep-dish delivery: Debatable.
Chicagoans have settled into polar vortex survival mode, nestling under blankets to work on laptops at home or layering socks with Saran Wrap if venturing out. Some stopped for a quick iPhone photo of the lake or skyline. Others succumbed to the irresistible urge to ...Read more
Kentucky governor: Closing schools for cold temperatures signals that 'we're getting soft'
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Political rivals and educators took Gov. Matt Bevin to task Tuesday, after he told a talk-radio host that canceling schools for cold weather is an indication that "we're getting soft."
Bevin followed up the comment by saying that "it's better to err on the side of being safe, and I'm being only slightly facetious."
WHAS radio...Read more
Arctic, Antarctic vets offer warm advice for surviving the polar vortex
CHICAGO -- As she bikes or walks to work at Chicago's Field Museum on especially cold days, Akiko Shinya sometimes sniffs and feels the inside of her nostrils freeze, or blinks and feels her eyelashes briefly freeze together. That's when she flashes back to fossil-hunting in Antarctica.
"I kind of like that sensation for an instant," she said. ...Read more
Inside Weather
Popular Stories
- New storm brings more snow to Southern California mountains; I-5 corridor in jeopardy
- Hurricane Florence evacuees with disabilities endured unsafe, 'disrespectful' conditions, report says
- New scale will measure atmospheric rivers from 1 to 5, like hurricanes
- California is finally getting a wet winter
- Good Samaritans who moved more than 100 people from tents to a hotel are 'just regular people trying to help'
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