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Health & Fitness

Lorton Precipitation Amounts Feb 25 - Mar 3, 2013; Last Year's Billion Dollar Weather Disasters

Daily rainfall totals for previous 24 hours measured at 6am from my rain gauge in Lorton.

A significant snowstorm (or will it just be rain) threatens mid-week, but I’m not going to try to make a forecast for it.  Instead, let’s review the recently updated list of Billion-Dollar U.S. Weather/Climate Disasters 1980-2012 kept by the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, NC  I’ll review some of the more recent ones that affected our area.

The U.S. has sustained 144 weather/climate disasters since 1980 in which overall
damages/costs reached or exceeded $1 billion (2012 Consumer Price Index (CPI) cost adjusted value.)

2012

  • U.S. Drought/Heatwave.  Though it was hot here, the economic impact was much greater elsewhere.
  • Hurricane Sandy - October 2012.  We got wet, but nothing like New York.
  • Plains/East/Northeast Severe Weather - June 29-July 2 2012: Sustained outbreak of thunderstorms / high winds from a strong derecho event over the central, eastern, and northeastern states (IL, IN, KY, OH, WV, SC, NC, VA, MD, DC, NJ). Total Estimated Costs: -- Billion; 28 Deaths.  This one was a solid hit on us!

My rain gauge in Lorton recorded the following precipitation at 6am on the day indicated for the previous 24 hours:

Date Precip Snowfall Mon 02/25/2013   0.00” 0.0” Tue 02/26/2013   0.00” 0.0” Wed 02/27/2013   0.83” 0.0” Thu 02/28/2013   N/A N/A Fri 03/01/2013   0.02” (two day total) 0.0” Sat 03/02/2013   0.00” 0.0” Sun 03/03/2013   T T Totals : 0.85” 0.0”

So what do we want this week? Rain or snow???

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