WXnation Wire: Weather Blog, WX & Space News
                               SINCE FEB. 2003
WX -- Telegraph abbreviation for weather often used with Morse code
The Wire (wīr') -- Name once given to the telegraph

Dave’s back tonight, on two networks: Classic Letterman returns to cable channel TRIO at 10p/1a ET, and new Letterman airs on CBS tonight. Nice to see Dave back on TV! TRIO plans to air a Dave marathon on his birthday, Apr. 12.

Snow caused power outages and school closings in North Carolina and Virginia. More details. Snow also continued to fall in northern and eastern New England. More details from USA Today and Weather.com.

Here’s a story on Tuesday’s forecast in the U.S. Meanwhile, it is dry and getting warmer in Iraq. More details and links on both stories are in entries from the last two days below…

Weather window in Iraq closing fast?

Well, the Major League Baseball season kicked off Sunday night in Anaheim, CA, and being from Dallas/Fort Worth, I was happy to see the Texas Rangers win. Since I’m in a happy mood, here’s a link to a Tampa-St. Pete site that is currently stuck on an image from earlier this month. Fortunately, as of early Monday, it’s stuck on a nice daytime shot of exhibition baseball.

There was some sad sports news for many in Dallas/Fort Worth Sunday night, as Scott Murray hosted his last “Sports Extra” on NBC 5.

Wintry weather returns to the Northeast today with snow (more than 6 inches in places) and a chilly bite! It even dipped to the freezing mark here in Fort Worth and Dallas overnight. Check out the snowfall forecast map, watches and warnings map and your city to see where the flakes could fall.

SpaceImaging.com has a good satellite photo of bomb damage in Basra, Iraq. Get the latest Iraq forecast in this article, and get complete Iraqi war coverage in entries below, and in the National Weather & Webcams page.

Severe thunderstorms could crop up this afternoon from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. This USAToday.com article has more info. Your city’s weather & webcams page will help keep you updated, along with the EarthWatch current watch/warning map and Weather.com thunderstorm forecast.

On to Iraq, where a NOAA satellite has captured “hot spots” near Baghdad: Image and story.

You’ve been waiting for it, and here it is: a 15-day Baghdad forecast! Actually, it’s been around for awhile, thanks to AccuWeather.com. Another cool page features a map of sand/dust storm potential over the next eight days. A quick check will show that in Baghdad, temperatures will dip into the 30s, but things could heat up quickly with highs reaching into the upper 80s by next week.

Weather Underground has a good Baghdad weather conditions page. Check out Iraq’s average highs and lows for this time of year, and look for many Middle East weather links in the WXnation National page.

Three years ago today, a tornado tore through downtown Fort Worth. More details here.

Added: An interactive map of embedded journalists in Iraq.

Michigan’s upper peninsula will see 8 to 18 inches of snow, while Indiana and Michigan will see severe storms, Friday, according to the Weather.com thunderstorm forecast. Additional details here. Here’s the current watch/warning map … High winds will continue in the West. On Thursday, tornadoes hit the Miami-area, killing one man and cutting power to thousands, and high winds downed trees in L.A..

A report on war weblogs aired on NBC Nightly News this evening, and led off with a cyber-friend, David Ackerly (aka. Cyber Paperboy). It’s great to see (through TV cameras) more of his Troy, MI automotive garage than what was available through a picture or two on the Net. I have corresponded with Ackerly via e-mail since being introduced by former co-worker Mike Wendland (another long-time Internet reporter and blogger). It’s great to see Cyber Paperboy on national news, especially NBC’s (since I work for an NBC station).

Speaking of that job, co-worker Frank and I have spent the last couple of days working on a compilation of images and info on some of the many heroes involved in the war with Iraq: U.S. & British soldiers captured, missing, and killed (opens in new window). God bless our troops, friends, families…

Meteor Chunks Crash In South Chicago Suburb, Light Up Night Sky. Residents from four states report seeing the bright light, which a freelance photographer described as a bright flash that “turned midnight to noon” for several seconds. Additional information is in SpaceWeather.com’s homepage.

Denver’s blizzard comes at high price. TheDenverChannel reports the foothills may see up to 9 inches of snow in this latest round. Much more on a new Denver snowstorm in yesterday’s entry below…

Just added: Mapping Baghdad and Iraq, plus a Strikes map from NBC 5 Iraq page. Also, Satellite imagery from Iraq and stream from BBC Internet (heavy traffic is making page unreachable at times).

Another round of snowfall (2-6 inches) is headed to Denver. Here’s a current Denver area radar loop, and get the latest forecast from TheDenverChannel.com … And rain is moving through some East Coast states. Here’s a national radar and current thunderstorm forecast.

Major League Baseball players aren’t the only ones in “spring training” this week: Tornado season training is underway in Iowa. To understand tornadoes better, one can turn to this handy page from USA Today.com, which also has: understanding thunderstorms, lightning, hurricanes, and more…

As for current Iraqi war coverage in the media, another source is CBC Newsworld, which some viewers in the U.S. may catch on satellites or digital cable systems. Its newscasts are available online, updated every hour. And Pulse 24 offers a 24/7 stream from Toronto. Many American news channel streams are located in WXnation’s National page. A country that neighbors Iraq has its own weather Web site: Islamic Republic Of Iran Meteorological Organization. Here’s a story on today’s sandstorms.

Thunderstorm watches were posted this evening in parts of Texas, Arkansas and Tennessee: Watch/warning map and radar loop. Much more in your city’s page.

Another aurora watch was posted today at SpaceWeather.com.

Here’s an ominous AP photo of black smoke filling the Baghdad sky, Monday.

These now in the newly updated & arranged National page: Weather Underground has a good Baghdad forecast page. Also, Weather.com has added more forecast images from the Middle East and a limited city list. An animated satellite view of the Middle East is at this Earth View page, with data from The Living Earth. It is not live or near-live, but a generated image. It does give a good idea of when day and night arrive in the region…

High quality streaming video of the Baghdad skyline is at CBSNews.com (link in top right-center column). Others: MSNBC.com stream, and CNN.com also has a video feed for subscribers… NOTE: Some of these video feeds may periodically go down… More are in the National page and Mar. 21 entry below.

You can follow other Iraqi news at FOX News, MSNBC, CyberPaperboy and Feedroom.

Other interesting sources: Iraq Blogger Where Is Raed?, and if you can get in (high traffic is giving a “page cannot be found”) Al-Jazeera has an English version of its site.

NOTE: All other Iraqi links can be found in the Mar. 21 and Mar. 19, 18 and 17 entries below…

On another topic, it’s finally Paul’s turn. Paul Shaffer hosts the Late Show With David Letterman tonight, according to its site. Bob Dole is the first guest, and a good one too!

Many in the Denver area are able to leave their neighborhoods for the first time in days following the worst snowstorm to hit that city in 90 years. More from CNN.com and TheDenverChannel.com. Thousands remained stranded in their homes, USAToday reported Saturday.

Spring Outlook: Floods could threaten parts of the South and East, The National Weather Service said. A drought may continue in the West as well.