December 2013 North American storm complex
The December 2013 North American storm complex was a significant storm complex that included many different types of severe weather, including a winter storm, a crippling ice storm and a tornado outbreak that impacted the central and eastern portions of Canada, parts of the Central Great Plains, the Southern United States, and the northeastern United States from 20 to 23 December 2013. Formed in the South Central United States, the storm headed across the Great Plains towards Canada into Atlantic Canada and northeastern United States where the storm dissipated on 23 December 2013. The storm produced freezing rain and snow to the affected areas which caused massive damage to electric power transmission and trees. The storm resulted in 29 deaths, loss of power to over a million residents and over $200 million in damages. The storm produced similar conditions to the ice storm of 1998 which affected similar areas. Meteorological history On 19 December, an area of low pressure that had formed over Texas traveled through the northwestern part of Arkansas, passing through Oklahoma overnight on 19 December, heading towards the Midwestern United States and the Great Plains where lower temperatures forecast ice accumulation. It entered Ontario, Canada, by 2:00 pm on 20 December, when a freezing rain warning was in place. The associated warm front, which ran from Texas, met a cold air mass in eastern Canada, where large amounts of snow fell. Near the front, precipitation was in the form of freezing rain and ice pellets. The front gradually extended toward Atlantic Canada during the night of 20–21 December, affecting extreme Southern Quebec and later the Maritimes. By mid-day on 21 December, an upper-level low had developed in central Texas, and this began to draw moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. While moving to the northeast, the storm dumped heavy snow and ice over parts of the Upper Midwest and Michigan Peninsula through 21 December. One specific part of the storm close to the upper-level low lingered near Kansas and produced snowfall rates of per hour, before eventually moving northwards and leaving behind snowfall totals of up to in some areas. On 22 December, the storm brought freezing rain to the state of Maine. The storm caused freezing rain to accumulate on tree branches, causing some to fall off and topple power lines. The storm complex continued to produce ice and snow in the northern parts of New England and Canada, before finally weakening and dissipating late on 23 December. The storm complex was also responsible for producing a small but damaging tornado outbreak that occurred from 20 to 21 December, most of which occurred on 21 December, due to the fact that supercell thunderstorms were able to pop up, and eventually coalesced into a squall line later the same day along the system's cold front, as it tracked towards the East Coast. It then began to linger over the Southeast before weakening as the initial area of low pressure tracked out of the country. Confirmed tornadoes December