Wichita Eagle Phil Ruffin is the epitome of the American Dream.  As a native Wichitan who splits his time between Vegas and Wichita, the Wichita Eagle  has a fascinating interview with Phil. You will find it here .  Phil Ruffin is President Donald Trump's best friend. They've had a close relationship for years.  I especially found Phil's concerns about the middle class important and worthy of serious consideration. We conservatives need to stop the crony capitalism, the fraud, and the waste and get back to fixing The American Dream.  In addition to owning the Wichita Hyatt Regency and Wichita Marriott Hotels, he is far better known for owning Circus Circus in Vegas and half of the Trump Hotel in Vegas as well as numerous other investments high profile investments. Phil is the epitome of the "self made man." Phil visiting with my bosses Barry (left) and Joel Myers during the AccuWeather Enterprise Solutions' open house when we moved to a much larger facility in...

David's description is literally correct.  More than 1,000  private jets carried people to the event last year. 

I believe a lot of people have an unrealistic view of what needs to be done to recover from a major ice storm. Comments like these are common on social media today. Unfortunately, this comment reveals a lack of understanding as to what has to happen to get power back up and running. If media reports are correct, more than 200 power poles in Nashville were snapped. It takes a considerable amount of time to get each of them replaced. There is also damage to the high voltage transmission lines. Can you imagine having a job where you have to sit on the skid of a helicopter in freezing weather to make repairs?! The linemen are heroes!! Given that hundreds  of extra crews and utility trucks were brought in ahead of the storm (based on the weather forecasts of a major ice storm), I'm not sure what Robby would have done differently. Which brings us to personal responsibility.  Starting the morning of the 22nd, and continuing through the weekend, you saw this and ever more dire warning...

If it were me, I'd have a winter storm watch in effect in North Carolina, southern Virginia, southern West Virginia, eastern Tennessee and adjacent parts of Kentucky, South Carolina and Georgia.  As to the weekend storm... Here is the statistical presentation of the chances of 4" or more of snow this weekend:  Please note the relatively probabilities over North Carolina and nearby areas.  It is hard to see but there is a small 70% area in eastern Massachusetts. 

Please let me add my thanks for all of the people who have worked tirelessly -- including meteorologists -- to forecast and recover from the just-ended storm. News reports say 30 people have been killed. While that is a terrible tragedy to their friends and loved ones, storms of this nature used to kill as many as 500 . Timely, accurate forecasts make a huge difference.  Associated Press photo of ice storm damage in Nashville  Consider how linemen from around the nation were pre-positioned to quickly restore power in the areas that have been devastated by the ice storm. Even with that head start, there are, nationally, still about 1,200,000 people without power. The worst-off states are below. Northern Mississippi looks like a war zone. That is where the greatest amount of freezing rain fell. The extreme problems extend from there northeast to Nashville. Below is the current headline from the Nashville newspaper. Please note the comment about carbon monoxide. The 230,000 = cus...

Big Climate sent out press releases last week about how Spain -- in nice weather -- managed to run their electric grid with wind, solar and batteries for seven hours. Unfortunately, people need electricity 24/7/365. Above is what happens when a storm rolls through. If Texas used a greater percentage of wind and solar (with solar panels covered by snow and ice in places), it would have been a disaster.  And, in New York and New England...

Both the media and social media today are talking about a "blizzard" on the East Coast this weekend.  This is speculation! The more accurate models (ECMWF and UKMET) do not  show a blizzard. Even if they did, we are five days out from the event which is too far to have any real confidence in a forecast.  I do agree that temperatures will continue below to well below average for the next 5 to 10 days east of the Rockies and, especially, east of the Mississippi River.   Just like with the just-departed storm, I'll begin forecasting in a day or two when we can have some confidence in the forecast.  One note: I agree with those saying that it will be Wednesday or Thursday before the airline system running normally. 

Addition at 11:15am Monday. This is the NWS's product which shows the total amount of ice. The white star in northern Mississippi is where the greatest amount of ice accumulated, 1.24" just east of Oxford, Mississippi. Compare to the map below which was ice effect's forecasts five days  in advance. Note: the ice from Virginia to New Jersey fell in the time interval beyond the range of the forecast below.  While this forecast wasn't perfect (West Virginia's ice would be forecast in later versions of the forecast), it provides lots of time for utilities to bring in crews from around the nation to speed the recovery.  -------- original post -------- This is the forecast on this blog Wednesday . It is from the NWS and where they expected the worst effects of the pending ice storm. This, via AccuWeather is where the power outages are the worst at this time (Sunday afternoon). At first glance they don't look the same because they are different base maps. But if you c...

I am providing addition updates on Twitter/X   @usweatherexpert.  6 to 8 inches of snow is forecast by 8pm in the outlined area.  Here is the forecast of additional  snow from now to 10am Monday.  This will be the last forecast update on this storm.  Most every airport has major flight cancellations. Reagan and LaGuardia are closed. Check Amtrak before headed to the station.  Speaking of the forecast, there were quite a few people on Twitter/X and elsewhere complaining that we had over-forecast the amount of snow. Some of them claimed only an inch or two was going to fall on Wichita. Similar comments were made about Kansas City. Wichita had 6.6" and southwest Kansas City had more than 5 inches. Looks like the forecast was correct, after all. Generally, it is better to wait until the storm is over before criticizing the forecast.  Then again, we do not excel at spelling. This is for the American Meteorological Society's Annual Meeting in Houston th...

Heavy  freezing rain (ice storm conditions!) is forecast to move across the red area between now and 6pm Eastern time. Get off the roads and prepare for power outages.  Related: all flights canceled at LaGuardia and Reagan Airports. Please  check with the airline before you head out regardless of where you live in the nation as these issues spread. 

The ice storm, unfortunately, continues as forecast. Roughly 2.5 million people are without power. Those numbers will continue to rise. In Nashville, 91% of the homes and businesses are without power. 

Severe thunderstorm watches are already in effect. Please monitor the weather in this area. 

The area in brown has a significant risk of tornadoes later today. Please keep up on the latest weather information. 

8pm CST Radar  Power Outages as of 8pm These are "customers," individual homes or businesses. The total number of customers out due to the ice storm is around 126,000 =  313,000 people.  National Weather Service Winter Storm Messages, 8pm A new ice storm warning has been issued in central Texas and the winter storm warning has been extended in Maine.  Violet = ice storm warning  Pink = winter storm warning  Purple = winter weather advisory Dark blue (Maine and LA-MS border) = winter storm watch Bright blue and Very Dark Blue = cold weather warnings  I just saw a great tip posted by an electrical lineman deployed to work this storm: If your power goes out, turn on your porch light when it comes back on. That lets crews know which areas have power restored and speeds up the recovery process.  The snow in the Great Plains is, so far, less than forecast. There are two issues: the Gulf moisture is not coming into the storm as fast as originally forecas...

....this cold wave and winter storm is absolutely not "caused" by climate change!

As if there isn't enough weather to concern people, there is a risk of tornadoes in the South  Sunday. The area in brown has a significant risk of tornadoes Sunday. This forecast may be revised between now and then, so please check back Sunday morning. 

Radar Image and Commentary as of 10pm (This is the last of the hourly updates for this evening.) Radar image from 10pm. Note the explosion of pink/salmon color from southeast Oklahoma across southern Arkansas. The following (blue) was written at 9p: I am increasingly concerned about more freezing rain over the southeast half of Arkansas than is currently being forecast. If you live in southeast Arkansas, I recommend making ice storm preparations now.  Radar, plus ground truth data from Arkansas weather stations, show the icing concern is well-founded. There will be icing during the night in at least part of this area. 10:20pm Note: Some of the weather station's wind measuring instruments have already glazed over in southern Arkansas.  Thunderstorms with snow/sleet/freezing rain may occur in OK, AR, TX south of I-40. Ice Storm Warnings in Violet  Violet = ice storm warning (rare) Pink = winter storm warning  Purple = winter weather advisory  Dark Turquoise = wint...