*Thousands of people remain stranded by some of the worst flooding eastern Australia has seen in 20 years. *

Parts of the country's most populous state, New South Wales, have been cut off by heavy rain and have been declared natural disaster zones. There are similar problems further north in Queensland, which has also been battered by wild conditions. The floods are easing now but officials have warned that many communities could be isolated for several days.
BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Australia floods strand thousands (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7174377.stm)

A nice 21 deg
Very slight breeze from the North
Blue sky

:icon_bigg

I surveyed the California and Nevada stations that are active on USA Weather Finder, and, across the board, this West Coast storm has raised every station's hits today well above their averages.

SLOweather's have skyrocketed. My USA WF average is 471 hits per day. Today we have 1262.

At 7PM PST, my StatCounter stats are 6330 page loads, 2240 unique visitors. Those are new records. 3 days ago, we had 1830 page loads, and 520 unique visitors.

Ain't nuttin' like bad weather to increase a weather site's activity.

And, the local PG&E (electric company) meteorologist just mentioned SLOweather during his call-in on the local AM talk show again. I need to get that guy on my payroll. ;)

The North American ice storm of 1998 was a massive ice storm that struck a relatively narrow swath of land from Eastern Ontario to southern Quebec to Nova Scotia in Canada, and bordering areas from Northern New York to Southeast Maine in the United States, in January 1998. It caused massive damage to trees and electrical infrastructure all over the area, leading to widespread long term power outages. Millions were left in the dark for periods varying from days to weeks, leading to more than 30 fatalities, a shut down of activities in large cities like Montreal and Ottawa and an unprecedented effort in reconstruction of the power grid.

There's some interesting reading on the storms background and description here. Thanks to wikipedia North American ice storm of 1998 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_ice_storm_of_1998)

* Volcano erupts in Chile; about 700 flee *

27 minutes ago

SANTIAGO, Chile - About 700 people were evacuated as a volcano erupted Wednesday in southern Chile, rocking the area with explosions and spewing lava and ash.

But the Llaima volcano's eruptions were slowing by Wednesday afternoon, so a larger evacuation did not appear necessary.

The evacuees included about 200 tourists, National Forest Service employees and others in the surrounding Conguillio National Park, about 400 miles south of Santiago.

Hundreds spent the night outside or in shelters in Melipeuco, a town of 5,000 near the Llaima volcano. Others fled to communities farther away, but most were returning Wednesday.

Chile's Emergency Bureau director, Carmen Fernandez, said a larger evacuation wasn't necessary despite television images showing thick smoke and lava flowing from the crater.

"There are no signs yet of an increased risk," Fernandez said. "There is some flow of lava, but not in a continued manner yet."

The bureau said the eruption was decreasing Wednesday and explosions were less frequent and milder, even as Argentina reported a heavy presence of gas and ash across the border.

The 9,400-foot high Llaima, one of the most active among some 60 active volcanos in Chile, has not had a major blast since 1994.

Volcano erupts in Chile; about 700 flee - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/chile_volcano;_ylt=Ast2_uMsCqoJicLRDwhVcyPq18...)

The models and the prognosticators have been and are still predicting a significant rain event for California starting Thursday. Here at SLOweather, it's supposed to start Thursday evening. The local nuclear power plant meteorologist says that, between the first 3 storms Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, we could see 4+ inches of rain, with another potential storm next Tuesday. Considering that in our entire last rainy season we only saw a little over 9 inches, this really could be "significant".

It's unusual that the models and forecasters seem to have been in agreement for so many days. We'll see if it falls apart tomorrow.

Satellite Pictures (http://home.hawaii.rr.com/wi000/wsatpic.html)

its rather interesting internationally

*DENVER — More than 2,000 travelers were stranded at Red Cross shelters in the Colorado high country Monday as a threat of avalanches closed a stretch of Interstate 70 west of Denver.*
Deep snow drifted into more than two dozen narrow ravines in the mountainsides — known as avalanche chutes — raising the danger of potentially deadly snow slides cascading onto I-70.
High winds and blowing snow forced the state to close the highway overnight. There was no word on when the busy thoroughfare through the mountains would reopen.
"I can't even venture a guess right now," Rod Mead, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said Monday.
Crews planned to use low-power explosives Monday morning trying to bring the snow down while the highway was closed, Mead said.

FOXNews.com - Threat of Avalanches Strands Thousands of Travelers - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319262,00.html)