Global weather activity of 2007 profiles the major worldwide weather events, including blizzards, ice storms, tornadoes, tropical cyclones, and other weather events from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007. Winter storms are events in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are formed during cold temperatures; they include snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are cold enough to allow ice, including freezing rain, to form. They may be marked by strong wind, thunderstorms (thunder and lightning), heavy precipitation, including ice storm, wind transporting some substance through the atmosphere, including dust storms, snowstorms, and hail storms. Other major non winter events such as large dust storms, hurricanes, cyclones, tornados, gales, flooding, and rainstorms are also caused by such phenomena. Very rarely, these weather events may form in summer, though it would have to be an abnormally cold summer, such as the summer of 1816 in the Northeast United States. In most locations in the Northern Hemisphere, the most powerful winter storms occur in March and in regions where temperatures are cold enough, as late as April.
2007 events
January
January 9–12 Prior of hitting the Prairies, the system brought another windstorm to western British Columbia, with gusts exceeding 60 mph (97 km/h). Additional trees at Stanley Park in Vancouver were uprooted. It also hindered efforts from workers who were trying to repair the inflatable roof of BC Place Stadium (home to the Canadian Football League's BC Lions), which was damaged by winds from a previous storm a few days earlier. A secondary wave following the main storm dumped over 4 inches of snow (10 cm) in the Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle areas with heavier snow in the mountains. Over 115,000 homes were without power during the storm in B.C. The storm would later drop some locally heavy amount of snows in parts of northern Ontario and central Quebec with 8 inches (20 cm) reported in Saguenay.
January 12–24
Following a prolonged period of mild weather, a series of winter storms produced several waves of damaging freezing rain across the Midwest of the United States and central Canada from the 12th to the 16th causing the deaths of 85 people as of January 20. Several thousands of customers from Texas to New England lost power, some for several days. Some areas received as much as 4 inches of ice (100 mm). Oklahoma and Missouri were declared disaster areas as they were the most hard hit states from the storms. Areas from Utah to New Brunswick received heavy amounts of snow from the 13th to the 16th. The storm was followed by an intense period of cold across most of the continent from California to Newfoundland and Labrador. Additional waves of precipitation have affected the south half of the United States from the 16th to 18th from Texas to North Carolina, while another winter storm, called a weather bomb affected portions of New Brunswick, Quebec and Maine on the 19th and 20th with near blizzard conditions. Portions of eastern Quebec received as much as 32 inches of snow (80 cm) in just over 12 hours A total of 85 deaths across 12 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces, and caused hundreds of thousands of residents across the U.S. and Canada to lose electric power. Winter storms contributed to deaths in traffic collisions: 14 in Missouri, 8 in Iowa, 12 in Texas, 2 in Minnesota, 4 in New York, 1 in Maine, 1 in Indiana, 4 in Michigan, 3 in Arkansas, 1 in Quebec, 1 in Ontario, 1 in Nova Scotia, 2 in North Carolina, 2 in Kansas, 4 in Nebraska and 25 in Oklahoma. A crash near Elk City, Oklahoma, killed 7 occupants who were inside a minivan when it collided with a tractor-trailer during the storm.
Another winter storm affected the central and southern Plains from the 19th to the 21st bringing snow and ice for most of the area with accumulations that topped off at about 4 to 10 inches of snow (10–25 cm). It also brought a light wintry mix across the Ohio Valley and the mid-Atlantic states on the 21st with little accumulation. Newfoundland and Labrador was the last region affected by the series of storms on the 23rd and 24th.
January 14
Per was the name of a powerful storm with hurricane winds which hit the west coast of Sweden and Norway on the morning of January 14, 2007. In Sweden six people died from the storm and approx. 300,000 households were left without electricity.
January 15–19
A major European windstorm gave heavy amounts of snow across portions of Scotland. Most areas of western Europe from Great Britain to the Czech Republic have experienced damaging winds. Wind gusts have reached 90 mph (140 km/h) in the plain and up to 140 mph (230 km/h) in the mountain area. Boat, rail and air traffic have been heavily affected, while several hundreds of flights from London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Vienna, Prague and Paris have been delayed or canceled. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shortened her European trip due to the strong winds. Millions of residents were without power including 1 million in the Czech Republic. As of 9:00 pm GMT on January 21, Kyrill had caused 47 fatalities. They were- 13 in Germany, 11 in United Kingdom, 7 in Ireland, 6 in The Netherlands, 4 in Poland, 3 in the Czech Republic 3, 1 in France, 1in Belgium and 1 in Austria. Germany had 3 tornadoes on February 22.
January 23–27 A snowstorm affected a large area of western and central Europe, including France, Great Britain, Austria and Germany bringing locally heavy snow accumulations and ice which disrupted air and train travel in Berlin, Stuttgart and London. Some areas in the Alps region received as much as 1 meter of snow (40 inches). Three people were killed in Germany due to accidents caused by the storm. Over 5,000 motorists were stranded in a highway in eastern France due to the heavy snow amounts. Scattered power outages were reported with central France being affected the most with nearly 85,000 homes without power. On the 27th about 40,000 people had been affected by flooding in Bolivia and Peru
February
February 1–2 A winter storm crossed through the southern United States, with a mix of winter weather. Several inches of snow fell across parts of Arkansas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee with scattered sleet and freezing rain farther south. Anywhere from 1–4 inches of snow fell across Tennessee and Arkansas, with lighter amounts in the Carolinas.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
