Can you imagine going out to this Stevenson Screen in Verkhojansk and taking a reading in – 60C cold? Let’s count our blessing here in the USA and Canada that we don’t have to deal with these kinds of temperatures, yet.
Stevenson Screen at Verhojansk Meteo Station looking ENE
www.rian.ru
Northeast Siberia braces for extreme cold of -60C
15/12/2008 12:45 YAKUTSK, December 15 (RIA Novosti) – Temperatures in the northeast Siberian republic of Yakutia could fall to minus 60 degrees Celsius (minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next few days, the local meteorological service said Monday.
With average low temperatures in Yakutia dropping below minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight, weather in the town of Verkhoyansk dropped overnight to minus 53 degrees Celsius (minus 63.4 degrees Fahrenheit), while in Oymyakon it reached minus 57 degrees Celsius (minus 70.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
“However, this is not the limit – in the next few days weather in the town of Krestyakh could drop below minus 58 degrees Celsius (minus 72.4 degrees Fahrenheit),” the meteorological service spokesman said.
The spokesman added that the current spell of extremely cold weather was due to an influx of cold polar air masses.
Yakutia has two places that contest the honor of being named the North Pole of cold, or the place where the lowest-ever temperature in the Northern hemisphere was recorded – Verkhoyansk with a record of minus 67.8 degrees Celsius (minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit) and Oymyakon with a minimum of minus 67.7 degrees Celsius (minus 89.9 degrees Fahrenheit).
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OT, there’s an interesting article at ScienceDaily about the ionosphere being much lower than expected to to the extreme solar minimum.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081215121601.htm
Snip:
“CINDI’s first discovery was, however, that the ionosphere was not where it had been expected to be. During the first months of CINDI operations the transition between the ionosphere and space was found to be at about 260 miles (420 km) altitude during the nighttime, barely rising above 500 miles (800 km) during the day. These altitudes were extraordinarily low compared with the more typical values of 400 miles (640 km) during the nighttime and 600 miles (960 km) during the day.
The height of the ionosphere/space transition is controlled in part by the amount of extreme ultraviolet energy emitted by the Sun and a somewhat contracted ionosphere could have been expected because C/NOFS was launched during a minimum in the 11-year cycle of solar activity. However, the size of the actual contraction caught investigators by surprise. In fact, when they looked back over records of solar activity, they found that C/NOFS had been launched during the quietest solar minimum since the space age began.”
Here in Port Angeles, WA the temp this morning is about 12 F. I don’t recall it being this cold since the late 70’s, although that is based on feeble human memory. It boggles my mind that the Arctic is churning out such a mass of frigid air in North America, Europe and Russia.
For a quick, albeit not exact, conversion of C to F, double the C and add 30.
I’ve been a lurker for a number of months and I just want to congratulate you Anthony, on a superb website. Keep up the good work!!
If it gets any warmer, we’re all going to freeze to death….
Some explanations for this record cold:
Op-Ed: Look to patterns to grasp glacier growth By DENNIS T. AVERY for the Journal Star Posted Dec 14, 2008 @ur momisugly 12:01 AM
See full article
Could the following discovery have any bearing on this?
Scientists Discover Cloak of Plasma Around Earth
Is this correct?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1095325/Last-10-years-warmest-record-man-climate-change.html
Apparently the last 10 years have been the warmest on record.
Denver weather report:
# Today: Snow showers this morning becoming more scattered later. Cold. High 28F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 60%.
# Tonight: Partly cloudy skies. Low 13F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
Where did that -19 degrees come from?
Also, the snow in slovenia was 200 cm (about 6 feet) not 200 m (600feet), thats still a lot. Southern Austria (where I come from) has had a lot of snow
No sun spots.
The new ice age cometh.
Hmmm some interesting news…
This afternoon (12 gmt) an article was posted on yahoo news as a top headline ” 2 trillion xyz of ice melted since 2003″ (xyz = some unit, I can’t remember) but anyway this alarmist article was up as a headline for about two hours and has now vanished! It seems the alarmism was too much even for yahoo news so the article has been scrapped…
Ah my bad , it is 2 trillion tonnes, the article has been moved out of the spotlight and is now under the “science” section
Woodfortress(Paul Clark):
“Bill: Anthony has said before he reckons the one in the photo is a mockup for tourists. But you’d still think they’d want to leave it off – at those ambient temperatures the lamp is going to make it look a lot warmer than it really is.”
I do not see any cables for a power source for the light.
Is it possible that the light is the AF Illuminator light; (Auto Focusing Assist Light) from the camera he holding?
Taking a picture would be a whole lot quicker than recording the temp manually
with paper and pen.
REPLY: There’s a cable, look again at that photo and the ones in the original linked post – Anthony
Anthony,
Has there been any explanation for the sudden change in ice coverage reported by ASMRE http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/seaice/extent/AMSRE_Sea_Ice_Extent.png. Following this chart the Acrtic is melting at a prodigious rate in just the last week. NSIDC ice extent does not seem to be reflecting a huge melt off http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_timeseries.png. AMSRE really needs to address this, the chart they are putting out is starting to look downright silly.
REPLY: I have been waiting to see if they will correct it, as I suspect an error. – Anthony
jorge: your
I’ll gladly give you a quitclaim deed to any part of the Earth’s surface where I can convert from °C to °F in my head.
Welcome to Alberta. Its minus 40 deg C, here. Or, minus 40 deg F.
I wonder how many times the light has been left on in a Stevenson screen? Looks like a good place for some LED’s.
Noaa says that November was warmer than average for the U.S. The west was above “normal” while Florida, Georgia and So. Carolina had record cold.
If I measure my car’s radiator at 150 deg and my air-conditioner is putting out 50 deg air, does that mean the average temperature of my car is 100 deg?
Re: Stevenson screen temps.
When the door is opened you flip on the fan to ventilate and the light so you can see the thermometer, get your readings, turn the light and fan off, shut the door, repeat later. Very simple. You don’t stand there admiring the temperature while doing heavy breathing exercises.
SXUS71 KCAR 161430
RERBGR
RECORD EVENT REPORT…CORRECTED AWIPS ID
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CARIBOU ME
435 PM EST MON DEC 15 2008
…RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT BANGOR ME…
A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 52 DEGREES WAS SET AT BANGOR ME TODAY.
THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 51 SET IN 1975.
What isn’t mentioned in these record event reports is the fact that the prior record was not representative. Most December daily temperatures records for Bangor fall into the mid to upper 50’s with a scattering of 60’s. This is just smoothing out the bell curve. Oh, this will be repeated again for today since we were in the 50’s after midnight.
I concur with Pamela, I’m a native of NE Oregon.I either helped in or set up three
SWARS stations in the 1970’s in NE Oregon and SE Washington. La Grande hasn’t
been this cold for (forcast) this long since the 1970’s. I wonder if it isn’t heading for 1948-49-50 when my Pop couldn’t plant wheat-only barley, as that was the only thing that would mature in the short summers…
The FOX NEWS article – 2 Trillion Tons of Ice Have Melted Since 2003 – has an interesting conclusion.
The amounts of methane in the region could dramatically increase global
warming if they get released, he said.
That, Semiletov said, “should alarm people”.
Should alarm people??
Well that sums the whole article up in a nutshell.
I’m terrified, what should I do.
And speaking of ice…new announcement from NASA; ” Two TRILLION TONS of Ice gone since 2003:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28249708/
My favorite quote:
“It’s not getting better; it’s continuing to show strong signs of warming and amplification,” Zwally said. “There’s no reversal taking place.”
Anyone remember Bagdad Bob?
JimB
Perry Debell (06:03:27) :
Here’s a report from the reliable, non partisan BBC, about the thickness of Arctic ice. It’s getting thinner! Oh bugger, what shall we do?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7692963.stm
So what’s the problem?
Novoburgo (08:23:41) :
“Re: Stevenson screen temps.
…You don’t stand there admiring the temperature while doing heavy breathing exercises….”
Speak for yourself! 😉
Mercury freezes solid at -38.8 C. There is a thallium/mercury alloy that freezes at -61.1 C, but the range of a calibrated thermometer using this fluid only extends from -55 C up to about +5C. You would need to use a Pentane (-100C) or Toluene (-200C) thermometer, but these only extend up to +30C and have poor accuracy of 0.5 C.
Does anyone know what types of thermometers are used in Stevenson screens, either here in the US or in Siberia?
From wikipedia- “To avoid this (damage to the thermometer when the mercury freezes) some weather services require that all mercury thermometers be brought indoors when the temperature falls to -37 °C (-34.6 °F).”
Cold in Siberia/N America & melting Arctic ice is very simple to explain. If you look at the jet stream flow across the northern hemisphere, you see 2 big trofs (cold air) – centered on Siberia & N America and you see two big ridges (warm air) – centered over the N Pacific and N/E Atlantic & northern Europe. See: http://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/gmb/STATS/maps/opnl/latest/f12.gif
The trofs bring cold air south and the ridges bring warm air north. There is also a cut-off low over southern Europe bringing the snow to the Alps.
Just basic meteorology…
Reguards,
Jeff
Bill Marsh (07:47:51) :
Anthony,
Has there been any explanation for the sudden change in ice coverage reported by ASMRE http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/seaice/extent/AMSRE_Sea_Ice_Extent.png. Following this chart the Acrtic is melting at a prodigious rate in just the last week.
Something of an exaggeration, here’s the data:
12,08,2008,11448906
12,09,2008,11561250
12,10,2008,11650000
12,11,2008,11678594
12,12,2008,11681563
12,13,2008,11662813
12,14,2008,11640625
12,15,2008,11682813
So there was a reduction in extent for two days then a return to the previous value, hint, Ice moves!
Here’s a similar event in Jan 07:
01,08,2007,12631875
01,09,2007,12572656
01,10,2007,12504219
01,11,2007,12462656
01,12,2007,12530781
01,13,2007,12596094
01,14,2007,12700625
Why are you all so suprise about sudden stop in ice growth right now? You are paranoid, there is no error, ice just stopped growing. We need cold in Barents, Bering and Okhotsk sea. Since yesterday we had 40 000 km2 increase. Nothing unusal. Water there is just too warm, especially in Barents sea.
This just came in today…
The year 2008 is on track to be one of the 10 warmest years on record for the globe, based on the combined average of worldwide land and ocean surface temperatures, according to a preliminary analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. For November alone, the month is fourth warmest all-time globally, for the combined land and ocean surface temperature. The early assessment is based on records dating back to 1880.
According to the BBC, we’ve just had the coldest first half to any month in 30 years here in the U.K..