Friday Fun: Obama's peace prize means bad winter ahead

Stock-up on anti-freeze and road salt, and ensue you have lots of wood for your wood stove. Barrack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize win today means it will be a long, cold winter:

AccuWeather.com meteorologists have discovered an interesting weather correlation in light of the recent announcement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The committee announced Friday that President Barack Obama is the 2009 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, making him the the third sitting president and fourth overall to win the award.

Interestingly enough, severe winter weather followed each of the previous three presidents' awards, which raises questions if this year will follow the same pattern.

Theodore Roosevelt won the award in 1906 during his tenure as president. The winter of 1906-07 saw a severe February 4-6 nor'easter that produced up to 10 inches of snow from Washington to Boston, according to Paul Kocin and Louis Uccellini, authors of "Northeast Snowstorms."

Woodrow Wilson won the award in 1919 while in office, and following winter saw several severe storms. A late January storm dumped ice, sleet and snow across the Northeast.

This storm was immediately followed with a slow-moving February 4-7 storm that left heavy amounts of snowfall from Maine to northern Virginia. According to Kocin and Uccellini, this February storm brought what at the time was considered "some of the harshest winter conditions ever experienced."

More recently, Jimmy Carter received the award in 2002. The North American blizzard of 2003, which lasted from Feb. 14-19, dumped between 15-30 inches of snow in the major Northeast cities. Boston had a total of 27.6 inches, 23.6 inches on February 17 alone.

AccuWeather.com will release the winter forecast on Wednesday, but preliminary reports predict a cold and snowy winter for the Northeast.

Be sure to check the AccuWeather.com winter forecast this Wednesday to see if the 2009-10 winter will follow this "presidential" trend.

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Severe weather + mounds of rotting garbage = fun!

I'm a big fan of extreme weather. Particularly when I don't have to venture outside but can just watch it from the comfort of my home or office. So this advisory for Toronto this afternoon is interesting:

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH: City of Toronto Issued at 11:04 AM EDT THURSDAY 25 JUNE 2009

LOCALIZED SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED THIS AFTERNOON WITH LARGE HAIL, DAMAGING WINDS, TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS, AND FREQUENT CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING. THIS IS AN ALERT TO THE POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS..LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS. IF THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES TAKE IMMEDIATE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS.
SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO AFFECT PORTIONS OF THE ABOVE REGIONS. SOME OF THESE STORMS WILL CONTAIN LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. TORRENTIAL RAIN OF 50 MILLIMETRES WITHIN AN HOUR AND INTENSE FREQUENT LIGHTNING WILL ALSO ACCOMPANY THE STORMS.

And add extreme wind, rain, thunder and hail to mounds of smelly rotting garbage dotting the city on day 4 of a city workers strike, and its a recipe for much interesting developments to be sure.

Have a fun afternoon, Mayor Miller.

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