Major ice storms in the United States, 1949–2000

Abstract Freezing precipitation is a persistent winter weather problem that costs the United States millions of dollars annually. Costs and infrastructure disruption may be greatly reduced by ice-storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service (NWS), and by the development of climatologies that allow improved design of infrastructure elements. However, neither the NWS nor developers of climatologies have had direct measurements of ice-storm accumulations as a basis for issuing warnings and developing storm design standards. This paper describes the development of an aviation routine/special weather report (METAR/SPECI) remark that will report quantitative ice thickness at over 650 locations during ice storms using new algorithms developed for the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS). Characteristics of the ASOS icing sensor, a field program to develop the algorithms, tests of accuracy, application of the algorithms, and sources of error are described, as is the implementation of an ice-thickness METAR/SPECI remark. The algorithms will potentially allow freezing precipitation events to be tracked with regard to ice accumulation in near–real time as they progress across the United States.

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Major ice storms in the United States, 1949–2000

Environmental Hazards ◽

10.3763/ehaz.2002.0412 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 105-111 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stanley A. Changnon ◽

Joyce M. Changnon

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

The United States ◽

Ice Storms

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Carbon monoxide poisoning from devices used in disaster recovery

Journal of Emergency Management ◽

10.5055/jem.2007.0005 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 5 (3) ◽

pp. 25

Author(s):

Rosalyn Lemak, MPH

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Carbon Monoxide ◽

Natural Disasters ◽

Disaster Recovery ◽

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning ◽

The United States ◽

Recovery Phase ◽

Co Poisoning ◽

Power Outages ◽

Ice Storms

Carbon monoxide (CO) is responsible for more fatalities in the United States each year than any other toxicant. While CO exposure is a year-round problem, fatal and nonfatal CO exposures occurred more often during the fall and winter months, and the majority of nonfatal CO exposures were reported to occur in the home. Postdisaster CO poisoning is an emerging hazard. Unintentional CO poisonings have been documented after natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, ice storms, and power outages. Overwhelmingly, CO exposure results from common sources such as portable generators, gas grills, kerosene and propane heaters, pressure washers, and charcoal briquettes. Although disaster events are thought to create victims immediately and in great numbers during the initial impact, some disasters are more deadly to people during the recovery phase, when people are thinking the disaster is over. More are injured during the cleanup phase than from the storm itself.

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SLEET AND ICE STORMS IN THE UNITED STATES

Monthly Weather Review ◽

10.1175/1520-0493(1915)43<608a:masatp>2.0.co;2 ◽

1915 ◽

Vol 43 (12) ◽

pp. 608-608 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

H. C. FRANKENFIELD

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

The United States ◽

Ice Storms

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Monitoring and Understanding Trends in Extreme Storms: State of Knowledge

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society ◽

10.1175/bams-d-11-00262.1 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 94 (4) ◽

pp. 499-514 ◽

Cited By ~ 294

Author(s):

Kenneth E. Kunkel ◽

Thomas R. Karl ◽

Harold Brooks ◽

James Kossin ◽

Jay H. Lawrimore ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Internal Variability ◽

The United States ◽

Climate Forcing ◽

Robust Detection ◽

Convective Storms ◽

Ice Storms ◽

Severe Thunderstorms ◽

Specific Subset ◽

Data Heterogeneity

The state of knowledge regarding trends and an understanding of their causes is presented for a specific subset of extreme weather and climate types. For severe convective storms (tornadoes, hailstorms, and severe thunderstorms), differences in time and space of practices of collecting reports of events make using the reporting database to detect trends extremely difficult. Overall, changes in the frequency of environments favorable for severe thunderstorms have not been statistically significant. For extreme precipitation, there is strong evidence for a nationally averaged upward trend in the frequency and intensity of events. The causes of the observed trends have not been determined with certainty, although there is evidence that increasing atmospheric water vapor may be one factor. For hurricanes and typhoons, robust detection of trends in Atlantic and western North Pacific tropical cyclone (TC) activity is significantly constrained by data heterogeneity and deficient quantification of internal variability. Attribution of past TC changes is further challenged by a lack of consensus on the physical link- ages between climate forcing and TC activity. As a result, attribution of trends to anthropogenic forcing remains controversial. For severe snowstorms and ice storms, the number of severe regional snowstorms that occurred since 1960 was more than twice that of the preceding 60 years. There are no significant multidecadal trends in the areal percentage of the contiguous United States impacted by extreme seasonal snowfall amounts since 1900. There is no distinguishable trend in the frequency of ice storms for the United States as a whole since 1950.

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Nursing home evacuations due to disasters in the United States over 22.5 years from 1995 to 2017

American Journal of Disaster Medicine ◽

10.5055/ajdm.2021.0393 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 105-121

Author(s):

Aishwarya Sharma, DO ◽

Sharon E. Mace, MD, FACEP, FAAP

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

New York ◽

Nursing Home ◽

Nursing Homes ◽

Natural Disasters ◽

Nursing Home Residents ◽

The United States ◽

Total N ◽

Nursing Home Administrators ◽

Ice Storms

A large and growing segment of the United States population resides in nursing homes. Many nursing home residents have multiple comorbidities, are unable to perform activities of daily living, and need assistance for their daily functioning. They are some of the most fragile and vulnerable members of the population. Disasters are increasing in frequency and severity. This makes it likely that disasters will strike nursing homes and affect their residents. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of disasters in the United States that resulted in nursing home evacuations. There were 51 reported nursing home evacuations due to a disaster over 22.5 years between 1995 and 2017. Natural disasters were responsible for the majority of evacuations (58.8 percent) followed by man-made unintentional disasters (37.3 percent) and man-made intentional (arson) (3.9 percent). The single most common reason for evacuation was hurricanes (23.5 percent, N = 12) and internal fires (23.5 percent, N = 12). Water-related disasters accounted for nearly three-fourths of the natural disasters (hurricanes 40 percent, N = 12; floods, 33.3 percent, N = 10; total 73.3 percent, N = 22), then snow/ice storms (13.3 percent, N = 4). Of man-made disasters, over two-thirds (66.7 percent) were due to internal fires (internal fires, n = 12, 57.1 percent and arson n = 2, 9.5 percent; total N = 14, 66.7 percent). The highest number of evacuations occurred in Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, New York, and Pennsylvania. This knowledge should enable nursing home administrators, disaster planners, public health officials, and others to improve preparedness for disasters that lead to nursing home evacuations.

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