The First WxOrNotBG Weather Events of the Year Poll

I know for a fact that many of you share in my love for College Football. I love college football. It is awesome, relatively unpredictable and just fun to watch. College football (in my opinion) is light years better than the NFL, and is just more pleasant to watch and be around. Over the past few years, College Football has made a move towards a playoff. Every week in the latter portion of the season, a College Football Playoff poll is released.

Each year, there are 10 significant weather events that occur locally and across the nation. This is the first ever “WxOrNotBG Weather Events of the Year” poll! We will have 5 national events, and 5 local events, and they will all face off for a chance to win the coveted “Cumulonimbus Trophy” at the end of the year.


Locally

5. The Cold Month of May

This data just gives us a sense of how cool the first 2/3rds of this month were. h/t KY Mesonet
This data just gives us a sense of how cool the first 2/3rds of this month were. h/t KY Mesonet

May was very cool, and fairly rainy, as the pattern was largely dominated by unseasonably strong troughs, and the occasional cutoff low. This allowed for the month of May to be highly anomalous in the grand scheme of things, and allowed it to make our list.

4. The Valentine’s Day Winter Storm

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The NWS Snowfall map for the Valentine’s day storm. h/t NWS Louisville

This one was a bit of a surprise that landed right in our laps. The days preceding this allowed for us to anticipate a winter weather event, but the event itself way over-performed expectations.  The amounts that were anticipated beforehand were maybe 3″ maximum; but the totals ended up between 5″ and 7″! It closed WKU that Monday, which was really nice for me.

3. An Insane Set of Days in July

h/t NWS Louisville
h/t NWS Louisville

July was a very odd month, but featured weather event after weather event after weather event. Unlike out current pattern, it was actually pretty interesting! Either way, the flash flooding that occurred across the western 2/3rds of the state was terrible, and occurred very, very quickly. July closed the month in Bowling Green well above average for rainfall.

2. The May 10th Tornado Outbreak

The storm circled in red is the initial supercell that produced the EF-3 in western KY. h/t GRLevel3 and NWS Archive Radar Data
The storm circled in red is the initial supercell that produced the EF-3 in western KY. h/t GRLevel3 and NWS Archive Radar Data

These top two events are gonna be tough to beat. The May 10th event is one of my favorite severe weather events that I have ever experienced, as the development of the day was absolutely incredible and weird. There wasn’t a significant signal that this day was gonna occur, but it did. And it was cool.

1. The Late January Snowstorm

h/t NWS Jackson
h/t NWS Jackson

Considering this was one of the single greatest winter storms in the past 20 years across the state, this one will likely not be beat. But who knows! This event was absolutely incredible, and should be appreciated as such. The snowfall total in Bowling Green was 12.2″, which was one of the larger events in the weather records here!


Nationally

5. The Late January Snowstorm

The snowfall and associated ratings with the late January snowstorm. h/t NWS
The snowfall and associated ratings with the late January snowstorm. h/t NWS

Yes, the same event that impacted our weather in very significant fashion also impacted much of the eastern United States! It was one of the more historical winter events to occur since 2010. This event dropped over 2 feet of snow from DC through the New York region. This was a Category 4 event on the scale used to rank winter storms, called the NESIS Scale.

4. October Oregon Tornadoes

The track of an EF-2 tornado in Oregon. h/t @NWSPortland
The track of an EF-2 tornado in Oregon. h/t @NWSPortland

While this wouldn’t make the list if it was in Oklahoma or Kansas, but in Oregon? This makes the list. Oregon saw one of its biggest tornado days in history, seeing two significant tornadoes (the first muli-tornado day since 1991). For an even crazier stat: NWS Portland had only issued 13 tornado warnings between 1986 and 2015. They issued 10 in ONE DAY on October 14th. This was a ridiculously anomalous event.

3. August 24th tornado outbreak

One of the wildest days of the year by far, and one of the more impressive events of the year. This was far and away the worst forecast of all of these events, and it was largely overlooked because of a stupid invest in the tropical Atlantic. This event produced 21 tornadoes across central and Northern Indiana, and northwestern Ohio. It produced 2 EF-3 tornadoes and 3 EF-2 tornadoes, which is quite the anomaly for late August. The event will be remembered in my mind as one of the most poorly forecast events that I can remember, especially with the amount of model data that actually pointed to it ahead of time.

2. Hurricane Hermine

Tropical Storm Hermine's satellite loop today. h/t NHC
Tropical Storm Hermine’s satellite loop today. h/t NHC

Hurricane Hermine was quite a journey. Hermine began her life as an invest in the central Atlantic Ocean, known as Invest 99L. 99L occurred the same time that the August 24th outbreak did, and one could potentially attribute the unexpected nature of 8/24 to unnecessary focus on 99L. 99L became very Twitter famous after a model run of the Euro model bombed the Gulf Coast with a major hurricane. Long story short, that didn’t happen. However, Hermine did end up making landfall as a Category 1 Hurricane, breaking the Florida Hurricane landfall streak, and the US landfall streak.

1. Hurricane Matthew

Major Hurricane Matthew as it approached the Florida coast had a partner in crime to its east as Nicole became a hurricane. h/t @islivingston
Major Hurricane Matthew as it approached the Florida coast had a partner in crime to its east as Nicole became a hurricane. h/t @islivingston

We can dilly dally with polls and rankings all we want but this event is basically the Alabama of this year so far. This event takes 1st place overall by a lot. Matthew was the 1st Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic since 2007, and skirted the eastern shore of Florida. He missed hitting Florida’s east coast by mere miles, and thus spared the US from wild damage. However, Matthew still produced obscene amounts of flooding in the Carolinas, and produced major storm surge along the east coast from Florida through North Carolina.


You Decide

Best National Event

Hurricane Matthew
Hurricane Hermine
August 24 Tornado Outbreak
Oregon Tornadoes
January Snowstorm

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Best Local Event

January Snowstorm
May 10th Tornado Outbreak
Insane July Days
Valentine’s Day Winter Storm
The Cold Month of May

Poll Maker