Tuesday, January 06, 2009
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How’s this for cold comfort? Sask-atoon’s deep freeze is likely the longest streak of low temperatures below -25 C that has numbed this city since record-keeping began in 1892.
The 24-day streak started cruelly Dec. 13 after relatively mild temperatures and continued at least through Monday, said David Phillips, Environment Canada’s senior climatologist.
“That’s the thing that’s brutal,” Phillips said from Toronto, where he was enjoying a temperature of -4. “We can all handle a few (cold) days. It’s the long haul that wears you down.
“It’s really a shocker, the duration of the cold.”
Phillips said he couldn’t find a longer cold snap in Saskatoon’s recorded weather history during a look through the records Monday. Even during the infamous January of 1950, when temperatures hit -46 and -45 (not counting any wind chill), the cold streak of -25 or lower lasted “only” 21 days.
The first two mild weeks of December kept the month from being Saskatoon’s coldest ever. It still averaged -20.6, the sixth-coldest December on record and the most frigid since 1983.
Prince Albert was slightly colder in December, with an average temperature of -21.4, while Regina registered -18. Neither of those burgs have suffered a -25 streak approaching Saskatoon’s, Phillips said.
The normal average temperature for Saskatoon in December is -14.3.
The historic streak could end today. Environment Canada was forecasting a low of -23 for today, before another drop Wednesday.
There’s no good news on the horizon.
January is expected to be colder than its normal mean temperature of -17, said Environment Canada meteorologist Bob Cormier. The three-month period of January through March is also expected to be colder than normal, he said.
The frigid temperatures and the bad timing of the New Year’s Eve snowstorm has left city snow crews well behind schedule.
As of Monday, snowplows still hadn’t touched almost one-third of the priority streets, which range from arteries such as Circle Drive and Eighth Street to bus routes and minor collector streets. The major arteries have been cleared once, but may need a second pass, said Gaston Gourdeau, manager of the city’s public works branch.
Ninety per cent of bus routes are cleared, but many minor collector streets still haven’t seen a snowplow.
“We’re looking forward to warmer temperatures,” Gourdeau said. “It’s been tough for everybody.”
The New Year’s Eve storm was a double-whammy for snowplow operators.
Many city staff were on holidays. Hydraulic parts of heavy equipment respond more slowly, like everything else, in the cold, forcing crews to get less done than they normally would.
Gourdeau predicts snow crews will be in some neighbourhoods clearing out trouble spots by the end of the week.
He said he decided against implementing a street parking ban to speed up snow clearing for two reasons.
The city hasn’t had the staff to guarantee cleanup within 72 hours until this week.
In frigid weather, it’s also difficult to ask residents to move cars off the street to spots where plug-ins may be unavailable, he said.
Heat wave up there today!
-6F (-21C).
Cryosphere seems to be experiencing real problems. The do not have any data up for Jan 2009 and they seem to have stopped us from using the URL trick. See for example:
http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/print.sh?fm=01&fd=05&fy=2008&sm=01&sd=05&sy=2009
Are they covering up something?
RE: Rhys Jaggar (07:56:43) :
Sea ice book cooking is rampant.
Though not directly related to the temp in Saskatoon, here is some interesting recent news of research by Woods Hole Oceanographic:
News Release : Surprising Return of North Atlantic Circulation Pump
Mike Bryant:
“The ice age is only “masking” Global Warming. In 11,000 years Global Warming will be back with a vengeance! :)”
Glacial periods last for 100,000+ years. The warmer interglacial periods last only around 10,000 to 15,000 years. The “normal” state for the past couple of million years is glacial condition.
Bill is right, all these reports of cold….just isolated areas. I expect .35C increase on RSS. The ice levels are down and the globe is warming.
Regarding Pine Beetles, The most often used phrase when commenting on the weather here in Edmonton, is “Well I hope that at least this cold snap kills those darn Pine Beetles”. We Western Canadians have to have something to feel positive about.
With regard to the AMSR-E ice plot. There have been challenges (canards?) the the people doing the plot ing have been manipulating the data. I for one would like to know why the chart shows a small bump of a few 100,000 s km of ice every June of every year and then it goes away a week or so later. Sun glint fooling the sensors?
Steven Hill,
Ice levels are not down. Global ice extent is about normal. Greenland has had a net increase in ice (that would be amount not extent).
By all accounts this article appears to be another anti-AGW propaganda piece. I’m in possession of the November 20th NOAA Winter (DJF) climate outlook and although it doesn’t cover Canada, there is no indication that there would be negative anomalies close to the US border. I strongly believe that the Canada met stations are poorly sited, probably far removed from sewage treatment plants, funeral homes, and other stabilizing influences.
If you check out the author of this piece you will most likely find an individual connected with the tar sands development projects and an unfriendly weather sensitive Canuck originally from South Ontario who had to move to Phoenix to get out of the cold.
Global cooling – my hindquarter!
Hey, Anthony, you do honour me with those personal answers. Sorry for the misspellings, next time we can talk french if you like. English must be stg like my 3d language so excuse me for the typos.
My remark on RSS data was about the UAH results, which were quite high for Nov, and on which you simply put one line or so and promised us to analyze this “later”. I do understand you’re not obliged to do anything – I’m very grateful for all the info you concentrate in here. But I found it somewhat biased that this topic was “forgotten” and followed by a long series of anecdotes on the cold winter in US. This is because I prefer climate to weather, probably. Don’t take it personnally. And once again, thanks for the great job.
REPLY: If you saw my travel and work load in December, you’d understand why I forgot to get back to it. When UAH comes out for Dec 08, I’ll cover November then. – Anthony
I have to Agree with Steve Hill.” The dispute, the second in three years, shows how Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are willing to use natural resources as a weapon to achieve political goals. European nations are burning more gas, the source of 24 percent of the world’s energy consumption last year, to reduce emissions linked to global warming”
The Russian are great at chess and they are playing a great chess game with the world. Using a natural resourse to gain an atvantage. When will the European Union realize that they need to wean them selves from anything Russian. Surely independence from Russian policies is more important than .001 degrees of warming
“Cryosphere seems to be experiencing real problems.”
They have a problem with their UI (user interface) in that when you attempt to do comparisons, 2009 (as we are in today) wraps around to 1979. Maybe they are trying to fix that. Also, the big story yesterday about ice being back to 1979 levels caused many sites to link to them and they appear to have been run over with traffic at times.
“I’d expect RSS to show a .2-.3C increase in Dec. I think Jan will be a different story tho.”
That increase in globals would probably be more due to Southern Hemisphere temperatures than Northern, I believe, considering some of the very cold temperatures across Siberia and Northern Canada in December.
Looks like another case for Mulder and Scully! Look’s like Jeez’s paranoia/conspirisis is catching…
But, but, but, but –
Pardon me if I sound like a motorboat.
Yes, the Arctic Ice is likely to recover substantially in the summer of 2009. The sad thing is that all the dire predictions will hinder environmental goals when the disasters fail to materialize. But Chicken Littles of all stripes, left and right, have been part of the human landscape since the beginning of time. If I’m not damned by global warming, then I am because of the person I live with. It would be nice if the folks waiting for Armageddon would leave the rest of us alone.
Richard North @ur momisugly 08:20:23 :
Saskatoon? Never ‘eard of it!
And where’s this Cananda yer on about?
It’s up North ‘ere, North 🙂
You, you, europhile you 🙂
Robert of Ottawa
A friend in Fairbanks says it is so cold his corn flakes frosted themselves. At least it’s dry, unlike Annapolis where the temp and humidity are far higher. 30 below in AK hurt less than 30 above here.
Going back to Colorado to warm up a bit.
Bill,
Your correct….I was being sarcastic. sorry
As for Russia, they are playing the old USSR game. As for Europe, they never learn anything. The US is greedy and uses anything to gain money.
So, there you have my opinion, you can’t believe anything anymore. I just go to church and praise God, his will be done in the end.
AGW?
Al Gore wishes?
All Guess work?
Australians gone wild (H/T to Flanagan)
anyone else?
Flanagan (07:55:16) :
Yeah, right, super-interesting. In Sydney today, it’s 32 C, or 6 C above average for this time of the year. I find it as interesting as a clod streak in a small Canadian village in the winter.
And an hour and a half or so later, the New South Wales government web site (http://www.nsw.gov.au/weather.asp) lists the current temperature in Sydney as 20.9 C.
That’s one hell of a temperature drop. Expecting any tornados?
Just checked my post time. Make that 2 hours later, and an 11.1 C drop.
Wow.
Ice extent is behaving as expected.
A large excess of Antarctic ice
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/s_plot.html
Arctic ice is close to normal.
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/icecover.uk.php
Anthony
The success of your site seems to attract those global warming cultists who apparently become threatened by scientific statements that somehow seem to erode their tenets thereby causing them unnecessary anxiety and a need to respond with demeaning comments.
Temperature of -10C recorded in Oxfordshire last night coldest night in England for over 10 year it’s said to be the longest cold snap in the UK for possibly 20 years.
The Russians cut the supply of gas by 20% today to “punish the Ukrainians” only it’s the UK who will probably suffer as we only have 12 days reserves unlike Germany and France who have 100 days +. So much for the UK’s energy policy :o(
And where’s this Cananda yer on about?
—————-
you mean Northern Montana? It hasn’t been called Canada for years.