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Death Toll Rises as Floodwaters Continue to Plague Missouri, Other States

Large portions of the central United States remained under flood warnings on Thursday morning as high waters continued to wreak havoc on dozens of riverside communities.

The National Weather Service issued the warnings for significant swaths of Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, where floodwaters reached historic levels following a powerful winter storm, but also issued isolated flood warnings throughout the southeast. The service also issued flash flooding watches in large portions of Florida, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.

While floodwaters began to recede in many locations, particularly around hard-hit greater St. Louis, they remained at critically high levels. The National Weather Service warned that towns and cities further south along the Mississippi River could experience “significant river flooding” into mid-January as the massive amounts of water flowed downstream, according to its website.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that 365 river gauges remained at flood stages on Thursday, 44 of which were at “major flooding” levels. The river gauges don’t always consider lakes, creeks or streams, many of which also breached their banks.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, who declared a state of emergency and mobilized the National Guard in the wake of the flooding, said the floods are responsible for killing 14 people in the state, according to a news release from his office. The Missouri Department of Transportation said at least 200 roads were submerged statewide early Thursday, according to a news release.

A busy 21-mile stretch of Interstate 44 remained closed near St.Louis, and the statement from Nixon’s office indicated it was the first time floodwaters shut down the road since 1982.

The Meramec River in Valley Park, Missouri, near St. Louis, crested at a record level of 44.11 feet early Thursday, according to the NOAA, which was more than four feet above a 33-year-old record and only the second time the river reached 38 feet in the past century. The river receded slightly to 43.57 feet later Thursday, the NOAA said, but that was still 27 feet above flood stage.

The community ordered those in low-lying areas to evacuate as the waters surged toward historic heights, according to a posting on its Facebook page. The city is protected by a levee, the posting indicates, but there was still “significant flooding” in several portions of the city.

The Meramec River flooding also damaged “hundreds of homes and businesses” in Pacific, Missouri, according to the governor’s office. The city, located upstream from Valley Park, crested just shy of its all-time record, the NOAA said, but that was still 18 feet above flood stage.

As the waters departed Valley Park and Pacific, they arrived further downstream.

NOAA data indicates the Meramec River in Arnold climbed to an all-time high of 47.22 feet on Thursday morning, nearly two feet above the record and roughly 23 feet above flood stage. The city recommended people evacuate because of the danger to residences, according to its website.

The Meramec flows into the Mississippi River, and communities downstream were expected to see waters rise further. In Chester, Illinois, the NOAA said waters were already at 44.26 feet on Thursday, 17 feet above flood stage and its second-highest level ever, and forecasts called for another 3-foot rise this week. Several roads in the city were already closed, its website indicates.

“This historic flooding event will continue to cause significant hazards and disruptions – from Missourians being forced from their homes, to businesses temporarily closing, to traffic congestion and impacts on interstate commerce due to the closure of a major trucking corridor,” Nixon said in a statement. “I thank the many Missourians who are assisting their neighbors by providing rooms in their homes, helping with sandbagging efforts and countless other acts of kindness.”

Missouri wasn’t the only state affected by the extreme weather.

The storm dumped snow, ice and rain throughout Oklahoma, prompting Governor Mary Fallin to extend a state of emergency. The state Department of Emergency Management reported Wednesday evening that five people lost their lives and another 104 were injured in the storm.

Earlier this week, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner said “significant issues related to flooding” had occurred in seven counties and he issued a disaster proclamation for those areas, according to a news release from his office.

Historic Floods Continue to Devastate Missouri, United States

Significant portions of the United States remained under flood warnings on Wednesday morning as the fallout from a powerful storm system left their communities waterlogged.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings in at least 18 states in the Gulf Coast, Atlantic Coast and Ohio Valley. Most of the warnings were concentrated in Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma, three of the states that received the highest rainfall totals during the recent storm.

According to the National Weather Service, the storm dropped six to 12 inches of rain across those three states and northwest Arkansas, where additional flood warnings were in effect.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said 379 river gauges across the country were in flood stage Wednesday morning, including 48 that reported “major flooding.” Those were down from Tuesday’s respective totals of 438 and 53, but that decline likely provided little relief to the regions that were still underwater, or where floodwaters were expected to rise.

Those river gauges don’t necessarily include lakes or other smaller bodies of water, like creeks or streams, that were also flooding. The rivers alone reached historic levels in several communities.

According to the NOAA, the Meramec River, which runs just south of Saint Louis, had already surpassed its record crests in two different locations on Wednesday morning. That included a whopping 45.33-foot total near Eureka, which was about 2.5 feet above a 33-year-old record and more than 25 feet above the threshold for what the NOAA considers to be major flooding. The waters were expected to continue to rise, reaching an all-time high of 46.2 feet later Wednesday.

Those rising waters were also forcing some mandatory evacuations and road closures.

City officials in Valley Park, Missouri, ordered residents to leave their homes and seek higher ground as the Meramec River reached 40 feet, according to the city’s Facebook page. The Missouri Department of Transportation shut down a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 44 near St. Louis because of flooding, according to a news release. That road is expected to be closed several days.

The National Weather Service reported that Union, Missouri, received more than a foot of rain in the storm. According to the NOAA, the Bourbeuse River reached a historic height of 34.31 feet on Tuesday before receding to 29.3 feet on Wednesday morning. Still, that was three feet above the threshold for major flooding in the city, located some 55 miles southwest of Saint Louis.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard, according to a news release from his office. The National Guard will assist evacuation efforts, as well as ensure traffic stays away from the numerous closed roads. Floods have killed 13 people in the state alone, according to the governor’s office, 12 of whom died when rushing waters swept vehicles off roads. St. Louis County officials also declared a countywide state of emergency, writing in a news release that the waters trapped people in businesses and homes.

Some locations along the Mississippi River were also expected to see record flooding, according to the NOAA. But even in areas where records weren’t broken, the waters were still very high.

The NOAA indicated there was major flooding along several rivers in Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Minor or moderate flooding was occurring in parts of the southeast.

Destructive Winter Storm Reaches New England

A powerful and deadly winter storm that brought heavy snow and widespread flooding to the United States continued to travel east on Tuesday morning, leaving more destruction in its path.

The National Weather Service issued winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings in parts of Pennsylvania, New York and New England as the storm was poised to finally exit the country. But the storm’s fury was still being felt across the nation, particularly in the Great Plains and Ohio and Mississippi valleys, where numerous flood warnings remained in effect.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said 438 river gauges across the nation were in flood stage on Tuesday morning, 53 of which were experiencing “major flooding.” Most of them were clustered in the central United States, though a few were in the southeast. In many locations, floodwaters had already reached or were threatening to surpass historic levels.

Fueled by 10 inches of rainfall in the vicinity, the Illinois River near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, reached an all-time high crest of 30.69 feet on Monday, more than 2.5 feet above the previous record that was set 65 years ago, the NOAA reported. The floodwaters had receded to about 21 feet there on Tuesday morning, though that was still more than three feet above the threshold for what is considered major flooding. The NOAA said parts of Texas, Arkansas and Missouri also saw 10 or more inches of rain, including a storm-high 12.25 inches near Union, Missouri. The storm also packed a powerful punch in Illinois, dumping 9.98 inches of rain near Roxana.

Rising waters prompted the mayor of St. Louis to declare a city emergency. Just south of the city in Arnold, the NOAA reported Meramec River was already experiencing major flooding, and was expected to surpass its all-time high level of 45.3 feet later this week. That water flows into the Mississippi River, and the NOAA projected that the further-south riverside communities of Chester, Illinois, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, were also expected to tie or break local crest records.

That’s just a sampling of the storm’s flooding, and the 438 river gauges do not necessarily cover the lakes or other water bodies causing floods. In southern Missouri, for example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported that waters at Table Rock Lake rose approximately 17 feet between Monday and Tuesday, fueling a massive release of water into flood-prone Lake Taneycomo. The United States Geological Survey reported that waters at Ozark Beach Dam in Forsyth, some 20 miles away from Table Rock Lake, rose three feet between Monday and Tuesday.

The storm brought more than just flooding and heavy rains.

More than three inches of sleet fell in Iowa and Illinois, the NOAA reported. But an inch was enough to snarl traffic at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, one of the world’s busiest.

Flight monitoring website FlightAware.com reported that 1,366 flights to or from the airport were cancelled on Monday, more than half of the airport’s scheduled traffic. Another 303 flights involving Chicago Midway International Airport were also cancelled, according to FlightAware, and lingering effects of the storm caused an additional 236 cancellations at O’Hare on Tuesday.

According to NOAA data, no place came close to receiving the 41 inches of snow the storm dumped on Bonito Lake, located in a mountain range in New Mexico. But the storm did produce more than nine inches of snow in Oklahoma, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Texas.

The storm knocked out power to tens of thousands in Oklahoma, according to utility companies.

While the storm appears seems to have weakened considerably, it’s still packing a punch. According to the National Weather Service, parts of Maine could receive up to a foot of snow.

Chance of Imminent Tornado Outbreak Rises, Meteorologists Warn

Meteorologists warn that “an outbreak of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes” could imminently impact the Ohio, Tennessee and Mississippi valleys.

The National Weather Service issued a severe weather outlook on Wednesday afternoon, warning that a dangerous storm system capable of producing hurricane-force winds, several tornadoes and sizeable hail was trending across the central United States.

The National Weather Service issued tornado watches for parts of ten states: Louisiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, Alabama and Indiana.

Meteorologists said the outbreak is expected to occur this afternoon and last into tonight. The areas most at risk for “long-tracked tornadoes” are western Tennessee, northern Mississippi and eastern Arkansas.

The news comes on one of the busiest travel days of the year. AAA projects a record 100.5 million Americans would be traveling in the 12-day period that began this morning, more than 90 percent of them driving.

The Weather Channel uses its own index, called TOR:CON, to calculate the risk of a tornado occurring at any given time in a specified area. Initially, meteorologists said the areas most at risk only had a 50 percent chance of seeing a tornado, but that rose significantly Wednesday.

Meteorologists now warn northern Mississippi, northern Alabama and western Tennessee have an 80 percent chance of a tornado occurring within 50 miles. The channel said there was also a 70 percent chance of a tornado within 50 miles of eastern Arkansas, and at least a 50 percent chance of a tornado in a widespread region from the Florida panhandle to Kentucky, North Carolina and Missouri.

High winds were already being blamed for at least one death.

Arkansas television station KTHV reported an 18-year-old girl was killed after high winds uprooted a tree and sent it crashing through a home in Pope County.

Weather Experts Predict 2016 Could Be Hottest Year in History

British meteorologists said Thursday that 2015 is on track to be the warmest year in history, and forecasts indicate that next year could be even hotter.

Britain’s Met Office predicts the average global temperature is expected to be between 1.2 and 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than a 30-year average, with a “central estimate” of 1.5 degrees.

Temperatures in the first 10 months of this year were about 1.3 degrees hotter than that 30-year average, the Met Office said. If that trend continued, 2015 would be the hottest year on record.

“This forecast suggests 2016 is likely to be at least as warm, if not warmer,” Chris Folland, a research fellow at the Met Office, said in a statement accompanying the forecasts.

The 30-year average the Met Office cites covers global temperatures from 1961-1990. In those years, the average temperature on Earth was 57.2 degrees. But the Met Office said that human-induced climate change, as well as naturally occurring weather phenomena like El Nino, have factored into the recent observed temperatures, along with the forecasts for the future.

“This forecast suggests that by the end of 2016 we will have seen three record, or near-record years in a row for global temperatures,” Adam Scaife, who heads long-range prediction at the Met Office, said in a statement.

The Met Office said the forecast doesn’t include “random events” like volcanic eruptions, which could cause temperatures to cool temporarily. It also said that while it doesn’t expect the run of record-setting years to continue indefinitely, the forecast does indicate how climate change “can combine with smaller, natural fluctuations” to push temperatures to unprecedented levels.

The latest forecast comes on the heels of last week’s landmark COP21 agreement in which nearly 200 countries pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in an attempt to keep average global temperatures from rising to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels. Scientists have publicly warned that eclipsing that long-feared threshold could yield catastrophic results.

White Christmas? Try A Hot One Instead

If you’re dreaming of a White Christmas, you might get a hot one instead.

Temperatures are expected to be warmer than usual across most of the United States this Christmas, according to forecast maps released this week by the National Weather Service.

Meteorologists are all but guaranteeing it’ll be hotter than usual in the eastern United States, placing the chance that temperatures will be above their historical averages above 90 percent.

The probability of above-average temperatures decreases to about 33 percent the further you travel west, but even states in the Great Plains are expected to see a hotter Christmas than usual.

The only states expected to see cooler-than-usual Christmases are Alaska, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Arizona, as well as parts of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. Every other state is expected to see average or above-average temperatures.

That’s in line with what the United States has seen for much of December.

According to the National Climate Data Center, more than 2,300 daily high temperature records have been tied or broken through the first 16 days of December. If these new forecasts pan out, that means there’s a chance this Christmas could be the hottest one many people have ever seen.

The forecasts come at a time when a strong El Niño is present in the Pacific Ocean.

Weather experts have noted that this year’s El Niño is on track to be one of the three strongest in the past 65 years. The phenomenon occurs when part of the ocean is abnormally warm, setting off a ripple effect that brings atypical and sometimes extreme weather to all corners of the world.

Nearly 725,000 Evacuated as Typhoon Slams Philippines

Nearly 725,000 people were evacuated from their homes as a powerful typhoon brought heavy rain and winds as high as 115 mph to the Philippines on Monday.

Typhoon Melor, known within the Philippines as Typhoon Nona, made landfall at 11 a.m. local time Monday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said.

The NDRRMC reported that 724,839 people had been evacuated ahead of the storm, with 589,235 of them in the Albany province that’s located near where the storm made landfall.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), which is monitoring the typhoon, reported the storm features 93 mph sustained winds and gusts of up to 115 mph. The weather service forecast “heavy to at times intense” rainfall within a 150-mile radius of the storm, and cautioned of the chance for flash floods and landslides.

For comparison’s sake, 93 mph sustained winds would make the storm a category 1 hurricane.

The storm is expected to weaken as it trends further west over the Sibuyan Sea, according to a PAGASA forecast, but meteorologists were expecting wind gusts could still reach 105 mph on Tuesday and 75 mph on Wednesday. The weather service warned the high winds could damage or destroy buildings in other provinces, as well as impact local banana, rice and corn crops.

The NDRRMC reported that the eastern and northern portions of the island of Samar, as well as the Sorsogon province lacked power because the typhoon brought down transmission lines. Additional outages were possible, PAGASA warned. The weather service also issued flood advisories throughout the central Philippines and warned of the chance for 10-foot storm surges.

The storm was also wreaking havoc on travel, as the NDRRMC reported that 42 flights were cancelled as a result of the typhoon, and some 6,800 would-be sea travelers were stranded because of abnormally rough sea conditions. A host of shipping channels were also disrupted.

Pacific Northwest Storms Claim Another Life, More Rain on the Way

The devastating rainstorms that have caused flooding, mudslides and power outages throughout the Pacific Northwest claimed another life on Wednesday, according to a published report.

The Oregonian reported an elderly woman drowned in Clatskanie, Oregon, when a man she was traveling with drove a car into high water. The man was able to escape, but the woman was not.

It was the second death caused by the storm, which also brought high winds to the region.

The Oregonian previously reported the storm sent a 30-inch diameter tree crashing into a house in Portland early Wednesday morning, pinning a 60-year-old woman in her bed. She was killed.

The National Weather Service reported that more than seven inches of rain fell in parts of Oregon and more than five inches of rain fell in parts of Washington between 4 p.m. local time Monday and 6 a.m. local time Thursday. Washington Governor Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency after landslides closed major highways, rain led to “widespread flooding of roadways, homes and property,” and high winds left thousands without power, he said in a statement.

The storm is the latest in a line of storms to pass through the Pacific Northwest dating back to the end of last month. Inslee said the state of emergency covers all storms since Nov. 30.

The National Weather Service issued storm warnings off the Washington and Oregon coasts, as forecasts called for additional storms to arrive Thursday and this weekend. The Weather Channel reported the new storms would bring additional rain and wind, as well as snow in higher elevations. That could spur further landslides or flooding, particularly in coastal areas.

The National Weather Service reported that Thursday morning’s rainfall pushed Seattle-Tacoma International Airport over six inches in the first 10 days of December, a new record. Previously, the fastest the airport reached six inches in the month was 14 days, set in 1946 and tied in 2010.

The arrival of more rain wasn’t good news for residents who were already experiencing flooding.

At least 17 river gauges in Washington and Oregon were still in flood stage Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service. “Major flooding” was reported in the Washington cities of Snohomish, located northeast of Seattle, and Potlatch, which is northwest of Olympia. Flood warnings remained in effect for parts of Washington, largely around the Puget Sound.

More than 21,000 Puget Sound Energy customers in Washington were without power Thursday morning, the company said. Portland General Electric also reported some scattered outages.

The storm led to dozens of road closures in both Washington and Oregon. Culprits included mudslides, sinkholes rockslides and flooding. Some of the repairs were expected to be lengthy.

In Portland, the rainfall caused the city’s sewer system to overflow into two local waterways on Monday morning. The city’s Bureau of Environmental Services continued to advise residents to avoid parts of the Willamette River on Thursday morning “because of increased bacteria.”

Thousands Without Power After Deadly Storm Pummels Oregon, Washington

About 30,000 people near Portland, Oregon, were reportedly without power Wednesday morning a deadly rainstorm caused widespread flooding and toppled some utility lines.

The Oregonian newspaper reported the number of outages as of 5 a.m. local time. That number was down to about 6,000 less than two hours later, according to Portland General Electric data.

The outages came after the latest in a line of rainstorms swept through the Pacific Northwest.

The National Weather Service reported that about 6 inches of rain fell on parts of Oregon between 3 p.m. local time on Monday and 6 a.m. local time on Wednesday. The agency reported wind gusts of up to 125 mph at Mount Hood and gusts of at least 60 mph in 12 other locations in Oregon, as well as six in Washington. Those winds reportedly contributed to at least one death.

Authorities told The Oregonian the storm sent a 30-inch-diameter tree crashing through a home early Wednesday morning, pinning a 60-year-old woman in her bed. The woman later died.

In Washington, Puget Sound Energy reported about 73,741 customers lacked power Wednesday morning. There were 329 separate outages reported around Seattle, Olympia and Tacoma.

Winds and power outages weren’t the only thing the storm brought.

The National Weather Service reported at least 36 river gauges in Oregon and Washington were at flood stage, and flood warnings remained in effect for northwest Oregon and southwest Washington. There were multiple media reports of flooded roadways, mudslides and sinkholes.

The Oregon Department of Transportation reported a mudslide closed a portion of U.S. Route 30 near a bridge in Portland and a sinkhole closed state Route 22 in Yamhill County, closer to the Pacific Ocean. The police department of Gresham, a Portland suburb, posted multiple photos on social media that showed a gaping sinkhole opened underneath a road there.

Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services said the heavy rainfalls caused sewage systems to overflow into the Willamette River and Columbia Slough on Monday morning. The bureau is continuing to ask the public to avoid the waters there “because of increased bacteria” presence.

The National Weather Service reported the storm also dropped some snow in higher elevations.

The Weather Channel reported that two more storms are expected to hit the Pacific Northwest. One was forecast to hit the region Wednesday night, while the other was expected this weekend.

The National Weather Service has issued storm and gale warnings off the Oregon and Washington coasts.

Storms Bring 100 mph Winds to Pacific Northwest, More on the Way

A storm that hit the Pacific Northwest reportedly featured wind gusts that topped 100 mph.

The Weather Channel reported gusts of 107 mph in Squaw Peak, Oregon, and Mt. Lincoln, California, on Thursday. Sustained winds topped 70 mph in both locations, the report indicated.

There weren’t many reports of major damage, though The Weather Channel report indicated that the storm is believed to have caused a semi truck to flip over just outside of Reno, Nevada.

The Reno Gazette-Journal reported there were about 5,000 power outages during the high winds, though those numbers were reportedly down to fewer than 200 two hours later.

KIRO, a television station in Washington, reported a few scattered power outages but added the local power company said fewer than 800 customers were affected by Thursday night.

The storm came ahead of another that’s expected to dump rain and snow on the region this weekend. The National Weather Service has issued storm warnings in areas off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and northern California, and the storm is expected to continue east.

The Weather Channel forecasts have the heaviest rainfall along the coast of Washington and northern Oregon. It also said that snow is possible in those regions with higher elevations.

The incoming storm is just one of several currently lined up in the northern Pacific, according to AccuWeather forecasts. They indicate a new storm is expected to make landfall every 1-3 days through the middle of the month, though they will all vary in strength and exact trajectory.

The AccuWeather models indicate that two feet of rain could fall on parts of Washington’s coastline through early next week, but most places are not expected to see nearly that amount.

A meteorologist told AccuWeather that the pattern of storms looks to be the work of El Nino, a weather pattern that is marked by part of the Pacific Ocean being warmer than usual. The change has a far-reaching ripple effect that brings atypical weather throughout the world.

A United Nations group has warned this year’s El Nino is looking to be one of the three strongest in the past 65 years and may interact with climate change to create unprecedented effects.