Saturday, December 24, 2011
 

Homeland Security Threat Level: YELLOW (ELEVATED)

Significant National Weather:

West:
High pressure over the Great Basin will remain in place through Christmas morning bringing clear skies and cold temperatures to much of the West from the West Coast to the Rockies.
This weather pattern will give way to a wetter, more active storm system between Christmas and New Years.
Windy conditions are expected across much of Hawaii through tonight. Winds will be strongest over and down slope of the mountains.
Midwest:
Expect dry weather for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day across much of the Midwest. Scattered light snow and lake effect snow is forecast over portions of the Upper Great Lakes. Temperatures will remain above average in the North Central U.S. into early next week.
Northeast:
High pressure will build over the region today before moving offshore Sunday. Skies will become sunny today with seasonable temperatures. A cold front will move across the region Sunday night bringing a chance of snow showers to northern New England. Expect cold temperatures for northern New England today with some warmer temperatures for Christmas.
South:
Light rain can be expected over Southern Texas expanding eastward across the Western and Central Gulf Coast by Christmas. The rain may become light to moderate over Eastern Texas tonight. Moderate to heavy rain expected to spread eastward into Louisiana and Mississippi on Christmas Day.
Elsewhere most of the South can expect sunny skies today with seasonal temperatures. Clouds will return to much of the South on Christmas Day as a low pressure system in Texas moves east.
NORAD Preparing to Track Santa:

Once again, NORAD is preparing to track Santa as he leaves the North Pole on Christmas Eve. For more than 55 years, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) has continued the tradition of tracking Santa Claus’ annual flight across the globe on Christmas Eve.
The tradition began in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief’s operations "hotline." The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born. Santa’s flight plan usually starts at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean and travels west, meaning Santa visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia. After that, he flies north to Japan, over to Asia, across to Africa, then onto Western Europe, Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central and South America.
Throughout its history, the “NORAD Tracks Santa” program, as it is officially called, has relied completely on volunteers and corporate sponsorship, stressing that no government or taxpayer funds are used. At its peak, each volunteer handles about 40 telephone calls per hour. Each year, the volunteer team typically handles more than 12,000 e-mails and more than 70,000 telephone calls from more than 200 countries and territories. Most of these contacts happen during the twenty-five hours from 2 a.m. on December 24 until 3 a.m. Mountain Standard Time on December 25. (NORAD, noradsanta.org, Wikipedia)
To track Santa, go to: www.noradsanta.org or www.facebook.com/noradsanta
Space Weather:

No space weather storms were observed during the past 24 hours and no space weather storms are predicted for the next 24 hours.Â*
Tropical Weather Outlook

No new activity (FEMA HQ)
Earthquake Activity

No new activity (FEMA HQ)
Disaster Declaration Activity

No new activity (FEMA HQ)


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