Chill in the air: record low temps in 10 states

As many readers know, we’ve had an earlier than normal start to fall weather in the USA, and the cold just keeps on coming. Here is a summary of record low temperatures seen recently, courtesy of this website called IceAgeNow.

Record Lows – 2008

Record low temperatures in the United States

click here to see 2003, 2002, 2001 and 2000

Click here to see 2005, 20042005, 2006, 2007

See a table of some October 2008 temps below:

Date

City

Degrees

Fahrenheit

Oct 24

Record low

Montague, CA

Traverse City, MI  Breaks old record of 24 set in 1976

Islip, NY  31 tie

Pocatello, ID  Ties previous record set in 1949

.

26

22

31 tie

18 tie

Oct 24

Record rainfall

Pensacola, FL—3.3”

Columbus, GA—2.00”

Macon, GA—2.51” Breaks old record of 2.00” set in 1919

Oct 23

Record low temperatures in 10 states!

Rome, OR  Breaks old record of 20 set in 1980

Caribou, ME   Breaks old record of 21 set in 1982

Winslow, AZ

Traverse City, MI  Breaks old record of 24 set in 1976

Grand Junction, CO  Breaks old record of 26 set in 1996

Hilo, HI

Childress, TX

Seattle, WA

Bountiful, UT

Burley, ID

Idaho Falls, ID  Breaks old record of 18 set in 1958

Challis, ID

Pendleton, OR

Union, OR  Breaks previous record of 20 set in 1980

Walla Walla, WA

Thanks to Chuck Clancy for this info

.

15

20

21 tie

22

23

64 tie

34 tie

39 tie

28 tie

21 tie

17

17 tie

29 tie

17

32 tie

Oct 23

Record snow

A record snowfall of trace was set at Dodge City, KS today. Ties old record set in 2002.

Oct 23

Wettest October on record in Dodge City, KS

4.97 inches of rain as of today, breaking the previous record of 4.94 inches set in 1997

Wettest October on record in Hastings, NE

6.16 inches of rain as of today, breaking the record of 5.82 inches set 111 years ago in 1897

Wettest October on record in Kearney, NE

9.21 inches or rain as of today, breaking the old record of 6.30 inches set in 1946

Kearney may be headed for the wettest year on record

Total precipitation in Kearny so far this year stands at 35.48 inches. With more than two months remaining in the year, this total accumulation already ranks 2008 as the 5th wettest year ever in Kearney, where the all-time record annual rainfall stands at 40.07 inches.

Oct 23

Record rainfall

Lincoln, NE— 2.01”

Oct 22

Record rainfall

Houston, TX—3/70”   Breaks old record of 2.40 inches set in 1920

Oct 23

First snow of the season in Colorado and Nebraska – A vigorous storm pushed southeast and out of the Rockies on Tuesday night, dumping around 20cm (8inches) of snow across parts of Colorado.

Yesterday the storm continued to bring a wintry mix of weather and strong winds across the Central Plains. In O’Neill, Nebraska, snow fell during most of the day.

On Wednesday, Ottawa also saw its first snow of the season. There were also reports of snow across many northeastern states, including parts of New York and Pennsylvania.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/news/23102008news.shtml

Oct 22

Record lows

Marquette, MI

Rome, OR

Traverse City, MI  Breaks old record of 26 set in 1955

Alpena, MI

Bryce Canyon, UT

Pocatello, ID

.

21 tie

23 tie

22

20 tie

14 tie

18 tie

Oct 21

Record lows

Hilo, HI

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deadwood
October 26, 2008 8:32 pm

In my line of work we look at 20+ years of record to discern a trend.
With the RSS data now entering its 30th year I think trends can be examined.
So what do we see? We have an approximate thirty year period of rising temperatures which seems to correspond to a positive PDO. Unfortunately we have only the surface record and shipping records of sea temperatures for the last negative PDO.
It looks like we might have to wait another 30 years for a full PDO cycle, but we can reasonably predict that the next approximately 30 years will see either dropping temperatures or at best a flat trend.
The nest US President will likely initiate some kind of cap and trade scheme regardless of who wins. How long it lasts will not depend on the CO2-Temperature curve. If will last only as long as the American people’s patience for poverty.

anna v
October 26, 2008 9:05 pm

Kohl Piersen (13:51:22) :
“I get a bit frustrated with all this “weather” talk!”
It is weather that we experience first hand, no?
“It has to be recognised that these things go up and down in the natural course of events – always have, always will.”

“In my opinion, relying on a few days, months, years to draw conclusions in relation to global warming trends is just silly. BUT it is just as silly to rely on similar time periods to draw conclusions in relation to global cooling.
So whether the weather goes up a bit or down a bit shouldn’t really decide anything – the causes of the late global warming and the present global cooling must continue to be investigated, we simply do not know ‘the answer’ at this point in time.”
The crux is on “decide anything”. Unfortunately a lot of decisions have been taken with this line of arguments and much worse ones are in the pipeline.
How can one stop with saying ” we do not know the answer” when the people with power to tax the globe into poverty say they do know?
Every little bit of cold weather helps, particularly if the Thames freezes over again :). That might wake people up.

Graeme Rodaughan
October 26, 2008 9:11 pm

I find the AGW Crowds rush to implement Carbon taxes and it’s crusade against Carbon to be both horrific and mesmerising.
Watching this is like watching a cruise liner collide at full speed with a dock full of unsuspecting people who are unaware of the impending mpact. The crowd are in fact largely cheering and waving as the cruise ship approaches.
I just hope that there is some due accountability taken after this mess becomes generally apparent.
I feel really sorry for all the people (especially the poor) – currently, apparently voiceless who will be crunched by the AGW agenda.

Patrick Henry
October 26, 2008 9:46 pm

I was at the beach in England during mid-July 2003. It was miserably cold, but the next week began a heat wave which lasted several weeks and became the European AGW poster child. The Met Office has been promising a repeat nearly every year since.
In the mind of the AGW Borg, short term “weather” patterns are only “climate” if they are hot. Otherwise they are irrelevant.

October 27, 2008 12:28 am

Graeme: I saw that movie – “Speed 2”?

Richard
October 27, 2008 1:34 am

Thinking about records it would be a record if records were not being broken.
The factors in a record are:
time:
any combination of hour/hours,day/days,week/weeks,month,season,year.
Weather type:
most rain,least rain,lowest temp,high temp,wind,snow,sunlight,storm.
area:
weather station,state/county/provence,country.
If you multiply all the factors invloved in a record together then there must be a huge number of potential records. Then consider that there are not many records much more than 100 years old and that anything in say the top or bottom 5% are good enough to get a mention then i would expect records to be broken.
Suppose whats important is not if records are being broken but in what direction they are. Since the “earth has a fever” we should be seeing a lot more warm records than one would expect so the fact that there are cold records says something.

John Finn
October 27, 2008 2:19 am

Temperature anomalies for the past 30 days are here
http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/map/images/rnl/sfctmpmer_30a.rnl.html
Note Russia, China, central Asia, large chunks of Canada and Australia (i.e. the big land masses) all much warmer than average. South America has also been warm but there appears to be an error with the Sth America image.

Terry Ward
October 27, 2008 3:14 am

Patrick Henry (21:46:57) :
Hadley’s CET record is littered with those type of events. Extremes butting up against their opposite.
Risking Leif telling me the Sun did not do it I must insist that the planets did indeed do it via their influence on the Sun. This is how ancient meteorologists worked out planetary influence on weather/climate.
They would label planets as “warm”, “wet”, “cold”, etc to describe the individual and combined effect of their conjunctions, syzygies and oppositions on our growing seasons (primarily). They risked being killed for getting it wrong. Talk about incentive. Enough were successful and helped their communities to get through the lean periods for the “science” to endure, some of it to the modern era, albeit encapsulated in anecdotes and “old wives tales” (yes Leif, also astrology. There, I said it.)

Mary Hinge
October 27, 2008 3:18 am

Frank. Lansner (12:34:34) :
“The SOI index has been above 6 for 9 weeks! 8 weeks historically means LA NINA! And the SOI index in the last weeks has even been increasing, no signs of last minute change now.”
Frank, you are commiting the same basic error that many of the posters on this blog are guilty of, you are only looking at something in only one dimension. To determine if a La Nina is likely you must also look at the SST. Take a look at the SST anomilies for this time last year http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/data/anomnight.10.25.2007.gif
You will see the very cold surface waters up the western coast of South America feeding into the equatorial waters of the Pacific. Compare that with the current SST: http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/data/anomnight.10.23.2008.gif
You will see this supply of cold surface water is not there. The equatorial waters will only receive cold surface water from the mid Pacific this year. This is one instance when the correlation between the Southern Oscillation Index and sea surface temperatures is out of synch. If you look at the SST you will see that there is a small possibility of a weak El Nino developing in December/January, the probability remains, as I stated in August, that a neutral ENSO will be in place for the northern hemisphere winter.
For the rest of your post, I hope you had your party hat on!
The Arctic Ocean is showing reduced salinity which off course means the water will freeze at higher temperatures. Looking at the Arctic in three dimensions thn this summer had a record melt and was the first time the sea ice was completely surrouded by clear water, surely more of a newsworthy than the average ice extent for the time of year!

Magnus
October 27, 2008 4:01 am

Mary Hinge (11:31). Yes the cooling globally now and during the last year is due to natural causes; PDO. What a pity that climate models missed these natural causes, since this means they missed that the temperature isn’t rise.
The model and actual temperature as a blend of Hadley CRUT3 and UAH satellite data [1]:
http://climate-skeptic.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54eeb9dc18834010535b4046b970b-pi

[1] http://www.climate-skeptic.com/2008/07/why-does-nasa-o.html

danieloni
October 27, 2008 4:25 am

I don’ t think so, i believe that this winter will be mild as the latest two at least in Europe, briefly in the western side of continents(NAO and AO positive)
Maybe US are in for another harsh winter similar to the last one…

Frank. Lansner
October 27, 2008 4:37 am

Mary Hinge:
First of all thanks for writing, and funny with the hats and all 🙂
Mary, this is a neutral description of the dynamics concearning SOI, La Nina and El Nino:
http://www.weatherzone.com.au/climate/indicator_enso.jsp?c=soi&p=weekly
Its written by people that are not sceptics. People with experience and knowledge of the past.
We have indeed seen a 9 weeks periods of SOI over 6, actually much higher than 6 (!) so what puzzles me is, tha when this indicator CLEARLY says La Nina, you don’t want to trust it?
Interesting for me is that you even now predicts a El Nino en December???
While the SOI is in fact increasing??
?
Then you compare the La Nina oct 2007 with upstarting La Nina 2008…?!
Mary, of course its wrong to compare an ongoing La Nina 2007 with a just-starting La Nina 2008.
If you want to take a view at the 2007 La Nina in its opstarting face, do so!
The similar view of an upstarting 2007 La Nina is here, FEBRUARY 2007:
http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/data/anomnight.2.20.2007.gif
Since then the La Nina was only getting stronger and stronger. And notice, you do NOT see any of those things you demand to see on the upstarting La Nina 2008.
No, Mary, stick to the only thing we have got, SOI. A VERY secure indicator. If you generally compare SOI with global temperatures, you will see that SOI precedes temperatures with 3-6 months with impressing accuracy. So even if La Nina very unexpectedly should not develop…
But Mar, what puzzles me the most: Of course you must know that you cannot compare SST between a ½ year old La Nina and an upstarting La Nina.
So why do you do that?
Is it because you think that La Ninas can only start in October ? Or?
Then you write. “Looking at the Arctic in three dimensions thn this summer had a record melt..”
Mary, Please look at it in three dimensions as you say: The ice was exceptionally thin…!
So the VOLUMEN of ice melted this year was much lower than 2007.
Come on Mary?!

Alan the Brit
October 27, 2008 4:49 am

deadwood/Terry Ward/Ed Scott:)
Remember it will soon turn into “Climate Chaos”, as the AGWers will have to keep re-inventing the problem to keep it the forefront of the minds of the populace. That’s how subversion works, constant steady reinforcement of the chant. The whole point of AGW is that it requires no proof whatsoever. Funny, they keep calling it “Climate Change”, yet insist that temperatures are on the up, than claim natural factors are masking the AGW signal! Can I please have my big fat cheque (check) from Exxon now as times are getting hard?
Then again, if we lower CO2 levels I won’t have to keep mowing the grass every blasted weekend! Hoorah!!! I read somewhere that 200ppm atmospheric CO2 crops start to fail regularly & plant growth diminishes. Can anyone confirm/deny that apparent fact?
I wonder why those primitive useless peoples of the past times bothered worshipping the Sun, it clearly has very little influence on our planet??? They new nothing!
I remember a German man staying with my parents in the 1970’s as part of their Church group. He claimed that Acid Rain was destroying forests in Germany, & this was evidenced by the tops of Fir trees drooping over slightly according to him. I have been observing this aspect for donkey’s years & it would appear that most Fir tree tops droop slightly in any case, so that theory was knocked on the head as far a I was concerned. He was not to my knowledge a scientist in that field.

Pierre Gosselin
October 27, 2008 4:57 am

As I write this, it’s 6°F at the Regina airport, just above the North Dakota border!
Yes it’s really cold out West – frost warning in central Texas! Low teens in Montana.
Someone tell Hansen these are yet more ominous signs of the coming ice age.
http://www.weatherbonk.com/weather/summary.jsp?where=%5B44.10829587357286%2C44.86949623772188%2C-73.70315551757811%2C-72.75558471679688%5D%3A10

Pierre Gosselin
October 27, 2008 5:05 am

Tom in Texas,
You’re right. Whether the record was set 99 years ago, or just yesterday, it’s the coldest (or hottest) in 100 years – no matter how you look at it. In fact late records would be indicative of cooling.
Still, much of the land surface in the world today are above “normal” temps.
Aside, the hurricane season really went out with a whimper.
Did something change in the tropics in September/October?

H
October 27, 2008 5:28 am

Everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.
Wooops…. Sorry that’s right…. Removing CO2 like we’re being told to will make it just right!

Fernando
October 27, 2008 5:56 am
Patrick Henry
October 27, 2008 6:14 am

Snow forecast across much of Spain – in October!
http://www.snow-forecast.com/maps/static/europe/next3days/snow

Basil
Editor
October 27, 2008 7:09 am

Tom in Florida (15:21:30) :
I think you missed a point I was trying to make. Your “normal” range is about the same as the range of extremes, and is quite a bit wider than the range of “normals.” For example, the normal low I quoted is 65, not the 45 you “guesstimated,” which is closer to the record low of 47 for that date.
New records, given how long a history we have now of temperature data, are going to be, by their nature, extremes that are outside any reasonable range of what’s considered “normal.” Of course, that’s just as true with any record highs we’ve had in recent years, as it is with any record lows we may be experiencing now. But the thing to keep in mind about extremes, is that they arenot indications of what is “normal,” unless they are part of a pattern of regime change in which they become part of the “normal” under the new regime. That’s rarely known until long after the fact.
The current wave of cold weather in the South is just following the jet stream. With the cool phase of the PDO the polar jet stream will bring more arctic air to the midwest and eastern US than we’ve been seeing in recent years.

Bill Marsh
October 27, 2008 9:51 am

Basil,
True. In DC the ‘normal’ range in October is 70 – 45 (weather.com)
We have been roughly 10 degrees below the high and 4-5 below the lows for the last week and the forecast through the end of the month is
Tue Oct 28 H 53° L 36°
Wed Oct 29 H 50° L 31°
Thu Oct 30 H 56° L 37°
Fri Oct 31 H 62° L 42°
As of the 26th ASU temps are .12C below October of 08 and Oct 08 was below Oct 07.

Bill Marsh
October 27, 2008 9:52 am

Oops. I meant Oct 07, not Oct 08. Need more Coffee

Harold Ambler
October 27, 2008 9:54 am

Mary: I wouldn’t write off a possible La Nina for this winter just yet. As for the “first time” that Arctic Ice was surrounded by water, that’s the kind of rhetoric favored by desperate AGWers to manipulate the ignorant. Nothing climatological that is happening on Earth at present is doing so for the first time, least of all Arctic melting.
John Finn: The anomalies you post for the past 30 days are incorrect for the Arctic. One clue to this is the seriously low anomaly over Alaska and the seriously high anomaly over the Beaufort Sea. Another clue: The dramatic refreeze of ice throughout the Arctic basin. Another clue: northernmost temperature stations don’t reflect anything other than cold for the past 30 days.

Brute
October 27, 2008 10:28 am

Anthony,
Haven’t written a paper; I’m an Engineer not a scientist. I probably could, but I’m certain that one of you smart guys could cook something up that would better convey what I’m trying to point out.
I simply used these two resources…….
Record Highest Temperatures by State:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001416.html
Record Lowest Temperature by State:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0113527.html
I discovered that 35 of 50 extreme high temperatures were recorded prior to 1950 (70%) when CO2 levels were lower.
Conversely, 26 of 50 extreme low temperatures were recorded prior to 1950, (52%), a pretty even split across the century.
My thinking is that over the course of 100 years, (1900 – 2000) the extreme high temperature records achieved should show up in the latter half of the 20th century when CO2 levels were higher, (if the CO2 = higher temperature theory were correct). You’d think that out of all 50 states that at least a slightly higher percentage of record highs would be broken after 1950. The chances are there are a higher number of monitoring stations nationwide than in the first half of the 20th century also increasing the odds of catching an extreme high spike.

gibsho
October 27, 2008 10:31 am

“deadwood
Global warming is no longer the issue.
Its Climate Change.
This allows the alarmists to smoothly transition between warming and cooling conditions without having to change their mantra.”
I believe that Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist, is credited with first using this term politically.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2003/mar/04/usnews.climatechange

Fernando
October 27, 2008 10:41 am

Evolution: ENSO: The latest weekly SST departures are: NOAA : 10/27/2008
Niño 4………… -0.1ºC
Niño 3.4……… -0.3ºC
Niño 3………… -0.1ºC
Niño 1+2……. -0.1ºC
well: (?????????)
PDO index: oct 2007….=…..-1.45
PDO index: sep 2008…=…..-1.55
very well:
FM