US STORM FOR 2,100 MILES FROM DALLAS TO CHICAGO AND BEYOND

Blizzard, Ice Storm, Nasty Cold All Aiming for Midwest
Alex Sosnowski
By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist
Feb 1, 2011; 6:25 AM ET

Both a major blizzard and an ice storm will unfold across a large portion of the central Plains and Midwest today and tonight. Arctic air will charge in during the storm in some areas and after the storm in others, leading to additional concerns.

For some locations, the storm may be a two-day event or much longer than a typical winter storm. It could even end up being one of Chicago's biggest snowstorms in history.

An area of snow and ice that developed on Monday evening across the southern Plains, even with embedded lightning and thunder, forewarns a dire situation for millions of people.

Immobilizing Blizzard

Blizzard conditions will target areas from Wichita Falls to Oklahoma City, Wichita, Kansas City and Chicago today and tonight with blinding snow and extensive blowing and drifting. The snow could fall fast enough to strand motorists on roadways.

CHICAGO - This Afternoon: Snow and widespread blowing snow. High near 26. Windy, with a northeast wind between 25 and 30 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. Total daytime snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.

Tonight: Snow and widespread blowing snow. The snow could be heavy at times. Some thunder is also possible. Low around 19. Very windy, with a northeast wind between 30 and 35 mph, with gusts as high as 55 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 10 to 16 inches possible.

Wednesday: Snow and widespread blowing snow before 3pm, then areas of blowing snow and a chance of snow after 3pm. High near 24. Windy, with a north northwest wind between 20 and 30 mph, with gusts as high as 55 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches possible.

DALLAS - An Arctic cold front is blowing through North Texas bringing sleet, freezing rain and snow before sending temperatures plunging into the teens.

The storm has also left thousands without power, closed DFW Airport and Love Field and suspended DART rail service. By 8 a.m. Tuesday, more than 800 schools and businesses have reported closings or delays (See the list of school and business closings.)

Temperatures are expected to drop into the teens Tuesday afternoon and the National Weather Service has posted a Wind Chill Advisory through 6 a.m. Wednesday.

"Sleet may accumulate to an inch or more by the time the morning commute gets under way," said NBC DFW Meteorologist Jennifer Lopez. "The sleet will gradually change over to snow. Expect total accumularions of ice and snow of about 3" in NW Tarrant County, and about 1" in SE Dallas County. The snow should end by noon.

CANBERRA — A powerful cyclone bearing down on Australia was upgraded to a maximum-strength Category 5 storm, with the likelihood of serious damage and risk to life, officials said.

"Severe tropical cyclone Yasi is a large and very powerful tropical cyclone that poses an extremely serious threat to life and property. This impact is likely to be more life threatening than any experienced during recent generations," Queensland disaster officials said in an updated cyclone warning.

Cyclone Yasi is expected to make landfall overnight on the Queensland coast between Cairns and Innisfail.

Australia is evacuating thousands of people from its northeast coast, with officials saying it could even threaten areas deep inland that were ruined by floods last month.

Forecasters expect the storm to generate winds greater than 175 mph and bring up to three feet of rain when it hits the northern coast of tropical Queensland state, making it even stronger than Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.

Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said sea levels would rise significantly as Yasi crossed the coast.

With a strong monsoon feeding Yasi's 400-mile wide front, the storm was also expected to maintain its intensity long after smashing into the coast and could sweep inland as far as the outback mining city of Mt. Isa, 600 miles inland.

"This storm is huge and it is life-threatening," Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said. "I know many of us will feel that Queensland has already borne about as much as we can bear when it comes to disasters and storms, but more is being asked of us."

More than 9,000 people in low-lying and coastal parts of Cairns have been ordered to evacuate their homes as the sea is expected to surge at least 6.5 feet and flood significant parts of the city.

Bligh said the military would airlift 250 patients from the waterfront Cairns Base and Cairns Private hospitals to Brisbane, the state capital. Elderly care homes were also being evacuated.

Many people were deciding on their own to leave, said Ian Stewart, the state's disaster coordinator. "In reality, we would like people to get as far south as possible, as quickly as possible, without of course breaking the rules," he told reporters.

'Now is the time to act'
Mines, rail lines and coal ports were closed in Queensland state as Yasi headed towards the coast. Up to a third of Australia's sugar crop was also under threat, officials said.

More than 400,000 people live in the cyclone's expected path, which includes the cities of Cairns, Townsville and Mackay, which are also main tourist areas and take in Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

The military was evacuating nearly 40,000 people from low-lying coastal areas, officials said.

The Queensland floods killed 35 people since November, damaged or destroyed 30,000 homes and businesses and left Brisbane, Australia's third-largest city, under water for days.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41363738/ns/weather/

CAIRNS, Australia (AP) -- Tens of thousands of people fled the path of a monster storm bearing down on northeastern Australia as officials warned that the life-threatening cyclone had increased in strength overnight.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh urged residents of low-lying areas to evacuate quickly as gusts up to 174 mph (280 kph) were expected ahead of Cyclone Yasi, forecast to hit Cairns late Wednesday.

"We are facing a storm of catastrophic proportions in a highly populated area," Bligh told reporters. "What it all adds up to is a very frightening time. We're looking at 24 hours of quite terrifying winds, torrential rain, likely loss of electricity and mobile phones. People really need to be prepaing them mentally if nothing else."

Hospitals in the tourist gateway of Cairns emptied as military evacuation flights ferried the ill and elderly to safety far south from a long stretch of Queensland state's tropical coast that are in the path of Cyclone Yasi. Residents packed onto extra commercial flights added to allow them to leave.

The Cairns airport was scheduled to close Wednesday as Cyclone Yasi approaches.

"We're in the process of packing up boxes ... the dogs and the pet snake and getting out of here," Cairns resident Melissa Lovejoy told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. She said the family decided to leave their home near the coast for a friend's place that was sturdier and further inland after getting phone call and a text message warning residents to evacuate by Tuesday night.

Cyclone Yasi was forecast to hit the coast late Wednesday or early Thursday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Carla Jenkins, a 23-year-old Cairns resident and flight attendant, was feeling jittery as her plane coasted to a halt at the Cairns airport Tuesday night. Jenkins lived through Cyclone Larry, which slammed into the region in 2006, and feared Yasi would be even more brutal.

"One of the scariest things I remember (from Larry) was on the radio, they said, 'Fear for your life,'" said Jenkins, who was planning to ride out the storm in her house. "I've got a feeling this is going to be worse. So I'm just a bit freaked out."

Forecasters said up to three feet (one meter) of rain could fall on some coastal communities. Many parts of Queensland state are already saturated from months of flooding, though the worst floods hit areas hundreds of miles (kilometers) farther south of the towns in the immediate path of Yasi. Still, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said residents up and down the coast needed to prepare.

"It's such a big storm - it's a monster, killer storm - that it's not just about where this crosses the coast that is at risk," Bligh said.

"I know many of us will feel that Queensland has already borne about as much as we can bear when it comes to disasters and storms," she said. "But more is being asked of us."

Cairns, a city of some 164,000 people and a gateway for visitors to the Great Barrier Reef, was in the path to bear the brunt of the storm. But wind warnings of various degrees of strength were issued for a stretch of coast some 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) long, from the remote community Cape Melville to the port city of Gladstone.

In Cairns, more than 9,000 people in low-lying and coastal parts were ordered to evacuate their homes as the sea is expected to surge at least 6.5 feet (two meters) and flood significant parts of the city.

The military was airlifting 250 patients from the waterfront Cairns Base and Cairns Private hospitals to Brisbane, the state capital about 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers) south. Elderly care homes were also being evacuated.

"In reality, we would like people to get as far south as possible, as quickly as possible, without of course breaking the rules," said Ian Stewart, the state's disaster coordinator, told reporters.

Airlines were arranging extra flights Tuesday night. Tourists who had been evacuated from beach resorts - ranging from backpacker hostels to exclusive clubs sometimes frequented by Hollywood stars, and once by a vacationing President Bill Clinton - were flying out.

Another storm, Cyclone Anthony, hit Queensland early Monday but quickly weakened and did little more than uproot some trees and damage power lines. Forecasters said Yasi had a storm front more than 310 miles (500 kilometers) wide and was far larger and more powerful than the earlier storm, so it could reach far inland before it significantly loses power.

read more at http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AUSTRALIA_STORM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-02-01-16-13-48

Event into space - Other

Event summary

EDIS Number CO-20110201-29395-OTH
Event type: Event into space Date / time [UTC]: 01/02/2011 - 19:12:23
Country: Other Area: Orbital track
County / State: Outer space City: -
Cause of event: Missing military satellite (Geo-IK-2) Log date [UTC]: 01/02/2011 - 19:12:23
Damage level: Time left: -
Latitude: 31° 3.176 Longitude: 35° 51.562
Dead person(s): N/A Injured person(s): N/A
Missing person(s): N/A Infected person(s): N/A
Evacuated person(s): N/A Affected person(s): N/A

Ahhh...

Russia's top military and space official launched a search Tuesday for a missing military satellite that apparently was put into the wrong orbit shortly after its launch. The Russian defence ministry confirmed that it had lost sight of the craft -- a dual-use vessel that can draw a three-dimensional map of the Earth and locate the precise positions of various targets. The incident came just a month after President Dmitry Medvedev sacked two top space officials for a similar setback and delivered another humiliating blow to Russia's much-maligned space industry. The seriousness of the situation was underscored late Tuesday by reports that the defence ministry had set up an urgent joint task force with the Russia's space agency to look for the missing craft. The Geo-IK-2 satellite was created in Russia to help the military survey land and create a detailed three-dimensional map of the Earth. It was designed to spin in a circular orbit 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) above ground. But news reports said that the satellite had been put in an an elliptical orbit whose lowest point brought it to within 330 kilometres of Earth. "We have still not been able to establish contact with the craft, and it looks like most likely, it will be declared lost," a Russian space source said. "The spacecraft will not be able to perform its intended functions at these orbit characteristics," another space official told the news agency. Reports pointed the initial blame for the failure on the satellite's Briz-KM upper stage rocket. The satellite's launch had already been delayed from December because of technical malfunctions that were detected at its northern Russian launch site in Plesetsk. Tuesday's malfunction came less than five weeks after Medvedev fired two top space officials and reprimanded the space agency chief for a launch failure caused Russia to delay the deployment of its own navigation system. Russia's Proton-M rocket had on that occasion proven too heavy to reach its initial orbit and had been forced to dump its three high-tech Glonass-M satellites near the Hawaii Islands. Investigators said that accident was caused by a basic fuel miscalculation that made the craft too heavy to reach its required height. The three Glonass satellites would have completed a system whose research had been started by the Soviet Union in 1976.

hmmm, dumped in the water near here. Well that's just ducky because I can easily see the US navy out there scouting around looking for it which wouldn't be too difficult given all the telescopes that are on top of Mauna Kea.