What happens when a “Pineapple Express,” an “Arctic Express,” and system from the Gulf of Mexico all meet? We may soon find out.
“Don’t sound the alarm,” weather service meteorologist Johnny Burg said. “But tell everybody to just pay attention to future forecasts.”
The three storms are likely to meet in the nation’s midsection and cause even more problems, sparing only areas east of the Appalachian Mountains. Property damage and a few deaths are likely, forecasters said.
“You’re talking a two- or three-times-a-century type of thing,” said prediction-center senior meteorologist James Wagner, who has been forecasting storms since 1965. “It’s a pattern that has a little bit of everything.”
. . .
The same scenario played out in 1937, when there was record flooding in the Ohio River Valley, said Wagner, of the prediction center.
He was worried about the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys as the places where the three nasty storm systems could meet, probably with snow, thunderstorms, severe ice storms and flooding. Some of those areas already are flooded.
I don’t put much stock in long-range weather forecasts (or short-range ones for that matter), but this is something to keep an eye on.