It was a below average year for global tropical cyclone activity, and the destructive power of these storms was close to the lowest levels observed since since reliable records began in the early 1980s. However, the the total number of global deaths from tropical cyclones was the highest since 1991, thanks to the estimated 140,000 people killed in Myanmar from Tropical Cyclone Nargis. The total number of storms world-wide was 90, slightly lower that the average from
Weather Underground Forecast for Saturday, January 10, 2009.
A cold front over the northwestern part of Europe will be the main weather story for the continent on Saturday. In Western Europe, the precipitation associated with the front will reach the British Isles sometime around noon and most of the precipitation will be rain. Most of Ireland and the northern half of the United Kingdom will see the bulk of the rain during the day. In addition, high winds will blow through the Isles on Saturday. Elsewhere in Western Europe, high pressure will keep skies from France up to Germany mostly clear during the day. Scattered rain and snow showers will also develop across Spain and Portugal.
In Central Europe, a band of heavy rain and snow will move over northern Norway and Sweden in the morning on Saturday. A second band of heavy precipitation will trek over the rest of Norway late in the day. Strong winds will rip through Scandinavia for the entire day on Saturday. The rest of Central Europe can expect mostly clear skies due to dominating high pressure, except for some possible scattered areas of precipitation across Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean countries.
In Eastern Europe, low pressure will bring snow and ice to northwestern Russia on Saturday, along with gusty winds during the day. High pressure will provide mostly clear skies to the rest of Eastern Europe on Saturday.
Two remarkable records came to a close on this date in history. First, the sky observation for Minneapolis, Minn. reported something other than completely cloudy for the first time in 350 hours (two weeks) in 1992. Second, Houghton, Mich. did not report any snow for this day to break a streak of 53 consecutive days with measurable snow in 2000.