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Storm Impacting the Northwest U.S.; Fire Weather Conditions in Southern California; Severe Weather in the South

A Pacific storm is bringing areas of low elevation rain, moderate to heavy mountain snow, and high winds to the Northwest. Strong Santa Ana winds and very dry conditions are producing elevated to critical fire weather conditions in southern California. Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms are possible through early Wednesday morning across parts of northeast Texas into western Tennessee. Read More >

A magnitude 7.9 earthquake occurred off the coast of Alaska early on Tuesday, January 23. Due to its location, damage in Alaska was minimized. However, the resulting underground movement was detected by seismometers far away. 

This seismograph is located near Mansfield, in Piatt County. Each of the lines represents a time frame, in 15 minute increments past the hour (black, :00 to :15, red, :15 to :30, blue, :30 to :45, and green :45 to :60).  Normally, they show very small oscillations. However, once the quake is detected, the oscillations change to a more sharp up-and-down register on the seismograph. While the quake occurred at 3:31 am CST, the underground movement took nearly 10 minutes to reach this far (around 3:40 am). 

 

Alaska earthquake 1/23/18