Screen capture from AccuWeather. You may recall seeing this forecast posted on the blog ten days ago. Added to the ice storm warning was a notification that power failures would likely occur and to prepare. As Jim Cantore posted this morning, parts of Michigan are still without power!  Temperatures are well below normal -- in the teens or even colder -- in some locations. Of course, there were major winds and tornadoes on March 30 in Lower Michigan (below). Red = tornado. Black = wind gust ≥ 75 mph. Blue = wind gust 58-74 mph . That storm would have strained the ability of the state to repair the grid. That said, it is surprising it is taking this long.  Has America's ability to recover from natural disasters waned? I don't know. This is why we -- desperately -- need a National Disaster Review Board modeled after the hugely successful National Transportation Safety Board. 

6:45pm: Evidently, one or two new fires have broken out this evening. High winds continue. --- original posting as of 2pm PST --- Here is the wildfire weather forecast for Thursday as of 2pm PST: While still "critical" (red), conditions for wildfires are not expected to be as bad tomorrow (Thursday) as today or yesterday.  As of 6:45pm, Southern California Edison's primary reporting system has stopped working. We do not now how many are without power at this point.  Power is out, mostly cut proactively, to more than 1.5 homes and businesses which equates to about 4.5 million people!  Here's the Los Angeles Times'  fire map as of 2:55pm: ----- original posting ---- Power has been proactively cut in parts of Southern California to help prevent additional fires. This is as of 8am. Please keep in mind the 300K number refers to homes and businesses which equals about 1 million people. [update 8:02a] Another 40K lost power in the past two minutes (note shown). Scroll do...

Southern Illinois and western Kentucky both have about 2,500, each. The numbers in this four state area are growing at a moderate rate and correspond well to the areas in which the heavier freezing rain was forecast.  Reminder: If you have a generator, never  use it indoors or within 30' or so from an air intake into your home. 

1550Z is 11:50am Eastern Daylight Time. What all of this means is that there is another major  failure of National Weather Service (NWS) communications and data processing capabilities. These have become far too common.  The southern Appalachian region is suffering through the worst natural disaster -- by far -- in its known history due to the flooding from Helene -- which the NWS was slow to warn of .  There are quality people in the NWS desperately trying to do the right things but I fear the lack of resources and autonomy (NOAA is the worst thing to ever happen to the NWS) has them hamstrung.  The United States, for this and many other reasons, desperately needs a National Disaster Review Board modeled after the National Transportation Safety Board.  The size of this disaster is overwhelming (see map below) and the media's coverage -- so far -- has been woefully inadequate. We need a National Weather Service that is the best in the world. Only an independent ...