Heat and Fire Weather Concerns in the West

Heat will build over the Intermountain West and the Southwest the next couple of days. Lightning from dry thunderstorms can create new fire starts and combined with gusty winds may cause a fire to rapidly grow in Oregon and northern California. Elevated fire weather conditions are also expected in the Great Basin. Flash flooding will be possible in Arizona and west Texas, especially in burn scars. Read More >

Winter 2021-2022 can be described as cool and snowy for most places. December was above normal temperature-wise with the mid-December “megastorm” bringing the warmest temperatures of the winter for Duluth and Ashland. With that warm weather, snowfall flatlined and became below average at Duluth and International Falls, but a pattern shift just after Christmas brought much colder and active weather that persisted through January and February. A cold northwesterly flow regime dominated with plenty of cold air outbreaks and light snow events from Alberta clipper systems. A few larger systems were sprinkled in as well, including several large lake-enhanced systems that brought impressive snowfall amounts to the South Shore. We also experienced a rare snow squall event on February 18, which started in our region and spread across the northeastern US.