Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Day After (Inauguration)

"The temperature at Denver International Airport dropped to 18 below zero on Sunday, breaking the previous record of 14 below set in 1901. White Sulphur Springs, Mont., reported 29 below to the National Weather Service, breaking the record of 17 below set in 1922. Meanwhile, ice storms ravage the Northeast and the upper Midwest.

"This is not a local phenomenon. Hong Kong had the second-longest cold spell since 1885. Cold in northern Vietnam destroyed 40% of the rice crop and killed 33,000 head of livestock. The British Parliament debated climate change as London experienced the first October snow since 1934."

Full story here.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Bitterly cold air hits much of nation

Temperatures crashed to record lows well below zero Monday as a huge mass of arctic air blustered southward across the Midwest and West, keeping people indoors and leading some cities to open shelters.

Full story here.

Record low temperature set this morning

Think it was cold this morning?

Sometime before 4 a.m., the mercury at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport dipped to 19 degrees, besting the record low of 20 degrees set for this day 44 years ago.

And the cold isn't over yet.

Full story here.

New record low temperatures for Denver

From the National Weather Service.
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO
642 AM MST MON DEC 15 2008

...NEW RECORD LOW TEMPERATURES IN DENVER FOR DECEMBER 14TH
AND 15TH...

THE LOW TEMPERATURE AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT ON
DECEMBER 14TH DROPPED TO -18 AT 635 PM AND NEVER DROPPED
BELOW -18 PRIOR TO MIDNIGHT. SO THAT ESTABLISHES A NEW
RECORD LOW TEMPERATURE FOR DECEMBER 14TH BREAKING THE
OLD RECORD OF -14 DEGREES SET IN 1901.

THEN ON DECEMBER 15TH...THE TEMPERATURE BOTTOMED OUT AT
-19 DEGREE AT 231 AM. THIS IS A NEW RECORD LOW
TEMPERATURE FOR DECEMBER 15TH BREAKING THE OLD RECORD
OF -6 SET IN 1951.

BENTON

Cold weather sets records in several cities

"Several places in the state [Montana] have already shattered daily record lows, and more are expected to be broken as the sub-zero temperatures continue through Sunday night."

Full story here.

Earliest snowfall in Houston in 64 years

"Falling snowflakes glimmered in streetlights, so wide that they billowed to the ground like parachutes, and so tantalizing that even awestruck adults reached out their hands or stuck out their tongues to catch one."

Full story here.

Rare snow falls in south Louisiana, Miss., Alabama

Snow in Louisiana and Mississippi? Yep!

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A rare snowfall blanketed south Louisiana and parts of Mississippi on Thursday, closing schools, government offices and bridges, triggering crashes and leaving thousands without power.

Up to 8 inches of snow was reported in parts of Louisiana. Snow also covered a broad swath of Mississippi, including the Jackson area, and closed schools in more than a dozen districts.

A heavy band of snow coated windshields and grassy areas in New Orleans, where about an inch accumulated. A peak of 8 inches was reported in Amite, about 75 miles northwest of New Orleans, said meteorologist Danielle Manning of the National Weather Service in Slidell.

Full story here.

Asheville has coldest November in 11 years

You're right if you thought November had more than the usual nip in the air.

A sharp drop in temperatures after a mild start made November 2008 the coldest on average since 1997, according to the National Weather Service.

“It looks like it's the coldest November we've had for Asheville in the last 11 years,” said Harry Gerapetritis, meteorologist for the weather service office in Greer, S.C. The average temperature was 43 degrees at the Asheville Regional Airport.

“The next coldest we had was in 1997, when the temperature was 42.3 degrees,” Gerapetritis said.

Full story here.

Extreme Winter Pattern Setting Up

According to Accuweather meteorologist Brett Anderson Canada and the norther United States are in for some wild weather. He states,
The overall pattern setting up before our eyes throughout 2/3rds of Canada and the northern United States has mid-winter written all over it. Over the course of the next 7-10 days we are going to be dealing with several storms running up through the eastern U.S. and into Atlantic Canada, more widespread, heavy lake-effect snow, Alberta clippers, upslope snow in the eastern Canadian Rockies and to top it off.........some of the coldest air we have seen for December in many years, and not just one shot, but more likely two and three shots, with the core of the cold from the Canadian Prairies and down into the northern U.S. Plains, Midwest and Ontario, especially northwestern and central.
Full story here.


With arctic spigot open, it feels like February

Chicago residents are experiencing a very cold November. According to this story,
The chilly weather extends the colder-than-normal pattern that has dominated for nearly a month. Temperatures since Nov. 8 have averaged 4.5 degrees below the long-term average—the chilliest such period in eight years (since 2000). It ranks 21st coldest of the past 139 years placing it among the chilliest 15 percent on record.

WHITEOUT: ARCTIC CONDITIONS WILL GET WORSE

ARCTIC conditions caused havoc across Britain yesterday as experts predicted the country will be plunged into the coldest winter for 25 years.

Full story here.

November one of the coldest and wettest in Augusta history

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Heavy weekend rainfall across Georgia-Carolina has many thinking, 'what drought?'

This weekend's heavy rain combined with heavy rain about two weeks ago has made this November one of the wettest months of November ever recorded in Augusta.

But it wasn't just rain that made history this month. November 2008 will also go down in the record books as one of the coldest ever in Augusta.

See full story here.

October was colder than normal in U.S.

The nation was colder than normal in October, while much of the rest of the world was much warmer than normal, according to figures released by the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

See full story here.

It turns out, however, that the rest of the world was not warmer than usual as claimed by the National Climate Data Center. The temperature guru's at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies accidentally replicated the September temperatures for October for most of the stations in Russia, causing an enormous, but false jump in October temperatures. See the story here.