📉A significant pattern change is expected across much of the country as an Arctic Outbreak is forecast to spread from the Northern Plains to the south and east, leading to exceptionally high probabilities of below-normal temperatures expected across much of the East.🧵

❗️The coldest air of the season to date and dangerous wind chills are likely across many areas of the Southeast. Below freezing temperatures are possible as far south as the Gulf Coast and much of the Florida Peninsula. Impacts to highly sensitive citrus crops are possible.

🚙Frozen precipitation is possible across the parts of the Southern Plains and Southeast with the potential for heavy snow extending northward to include much of Appalachians, Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes, and Northeast, potentially leading to significant travel disruptions. Before the cold arrives, there are a number of practical steps you can take right now to help you weather the cold - especially if there is a power loss. Here's how you can ready your home.

As bands from #Milton begin moving ashore, conditions will be favorable for tornado development across the central/southern Florida Peninsula, even far away from the expected landfall. Keep your alerts active on your phone and take immediate action if a warning is issued for your area.🧵
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Spanish: A medida que las bandas de #Milton vayan acercándose, las condiciones estarán favorables para el desarrollo de tornados a través de partes del centro y sur de la Penísula de Florida, incluso lejos de donde se espera que Milton toque tierra. Mantenga activas las alertas en su teléfono y tome medidas de inmediato si se emite un aviso para su área.
weather.gov The most important tornado safety action is to know where you are safe and where you are not safe. Here is guidance to help!

...MILTON RAPIDLY INTENSIFIES INTO A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE...

Data from both Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that Milton has strengthened to a category 4 hurricane. The maximum sustained winds are estimated to be 150 mph (240 km/h). Milton is a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. 🧵hurricanes.gov 1) Know your zone in Florida. Many people don’t need to evacuate during hurricanes. If you’re not in a zone that is prone to storm surge and coastal flooding, you can take precautions to ride out the storm. For those in evacuation zones, stay tuned in to what your local authorities are saying.

Follow their evacuation orders! floridadisaster.org/knowyourzone/

#Milton is now officially a hurricane. 🧵

A large amount of Florida is contained in the forecast cone issued by @NHC_Atlantic. The cone gives you the range of possibilities for where the storm's center will track. That's all that cone tells you. It tells you where the center of the storm will track. The wind, rain, and storm surge can extend well outside of the cone, and there is still a lot of uncertainty on the specifics. This is why you should not base your decisions on the exact storm track, small shifts in the track forecast don’t matter all that much at this point. Here’s what you can do to prepare:

As we begin a new decade, we wanted to take a look back at just a few of the ways in which our agency has evolved over the last 10 years, in a short thread.
#HappyNewYear to you all! Ten years ago, the “Super-Outbreak of 1974” was the undisputed peak of severe weather disasters in the U.S. Then, 2011 happened. Born out of tragedy, and a drive to ensure it never happens again, @NWS is building a #WeatherReadyNation. weather.gov/wrn

11pm #Dorian update:
Satellite imagery indicated that the cloud pattern associated with Dorian was a little better organized with a clear eye surrounded by a ring of very deep convection. Life-threatening storm surge and dangerous winds are expected along portions the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, and portions of southeast Virginia and the southern Chesapeake Bay, regardless of the exact track of Dorian's center.

(Thread) The official start of Spring - the Spring/Vernal Equinox - is today, at 5:58 PM EDT. This marks the time when the day-to-night line, called the terminator, is perfectly vertical from pole to pole. #SpringEquinox #FirstDayOfSpring The Vernal Equinox is also the day of the year when day and night are most nearly equal everywhere on earth.
There will be more daylight than nighttime each day now, until the Fall/Autumnal Equinox in September.