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???