Brutal cold has invaded the upper-Midwest. A record low at International Falls is not an easy thing to break. No problem today (01/21/11), as temps have fallen into the minus 40s F (or C, if you prefer). The cold air pushes eastward and reinforces during the next several days over New England. This is due to winter.
Anthony:
I repeat: Since mid December 2010 the satellite temperature site has been reporting no data due to “unresolved channel problems”. A few days ago they resumed reporting data at 14,000 feet, but all other channels still out. Isn’t there a story in here somewhere?
http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/
“This is due to winter.”
Sure! Stay in denial. Like winter has anything to do with temperatures. What’s next, the sun? It has already been established that CO2 is the cause of everything that happens with climate. Make believe consepts like “winter” has been debunked by thousands of scientists. 145% of scientists who are actively publishing on climate science agrees. There is a strong consensus that CO2 is in the driver’s seat and that the sky is falling by 2050.
Yes, I grew up in Minnesota, and learned to ski “up North” along Lake Superior, not far from the Lakes of the Boundary Waters area where International Falls sits.
Little did I know then that the “Ice Box of the Nation” title was disputed by tiny Fraser, Colorado – not far from better known resorts like Winter Park.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraser,_Colorado
Ryan – it might be worth revisiting the dispute, best covered by the Wall Street Journal in the 1990s; large royalty monies from auto battery makers was a stake. I recall they decided to diplomatically “split the difference” and agree to use different titles.
http://www.chacha.com/question/what-city-is-the-ice-box-of-the-nation
I found an update from last summer, showing that the dispute gets renewed when city funds to wage the dispute are available.
http://kstp.com/article/stories/S314676.shtml?cat=1
From the report, can anyone explain how mist is sustained at these low temperatures? This is genuine puzzlement, not scepticism.
Well, that explains the existance of “Minnesoteans for Global Warming”.
-7C here in sunny Lincolnshire & that’s chilly enough!
OK Break out the guys with the guitars and pink flamingo.
Gotta luv im.
Bastardi says next year we’re in for a spanking…
What – the record cold in the heart of winter is “due to winter”? Who would have thought?
It’s funny, I am yet to see an article or post that reports record warmth in the heart of summer and attributes it to summer.
Winter? Not Global warming?
The previous record has been well and truly broken.
I’m in Bemidji, which is 110 miles southwest of International Falls in north central MN. It’s -35˚F right now. If we reach -40˚F here, which is quite possible given that we still have 4 hours of darkness to go, it’ll be the first time since January 2005. What makes the difference in widespread deep cold like this is snow cover. There is a deep snow cover over all of Minnesota and much of the Dakotas as well. This keeps any moderated winds from non-snow covered ground from reaching us. On top of that, the depth of the snow, at least two feet across most of northern Minnesota, keeps any ground warmth from radiating out and warming the air. Temperatures plummet on clear, calm nights. On the same coin, a high pressure system with Pacific origins can see temperatures shoot into the 40s… and in winters like 1999/2000 with almost no snow and very warm… temperatures can easily get into the 50s. But I look at the past couple years as what we’re due for having a decade of snowless, warm winters that all but killed the winter tourism economy in northern Minnesota. And on top of that? The trend on summer temperatures since the early 70s has been down down down with the 2 coldest summers ever being 2004 and 2009. We haven’t had a good, old fashioned hot summer in northern Minnesota since 1988. Warmer winters, cooler summers… blech.. who wants that?
I live in south-west Minnesota and the temp has already reached –20F by 3:30 AM and rapidly falling. This is going to be an interesting day.
“This is due to winter.”
No, really? Cold due to winter? You don’t say?
Deadpan at its best.
Bastardi’s latest video is a little concerning…
http://www.accuweather.com/video.asp?channel=vbbastaj
“Claude Harvey says:
January 21, 2011 at 12:24 am”
Thats interesting. It reminds me of the satellite which was launched to find out “where all the CO2 goes” crashed. It seems like the decline is being hidden across the board.
Nice C = F joke in there.
I live in the UK West Country. Last night our local weatherman was reporting on the cold we are having (not as cold as it was before Christmas, but below freezing) and made a very deliberate and very pointed statement that, despite the cold, 2010 was the warmest year ever recorded, as confirmed by Met Office, NASA and (whatever the 3rd one is)!!! Sounds like propaganda being pumped out to me.
Glad you Minnesotans are doing your bit to counter the argument. That is cold!
NOAA is the 3rd one. Just read the press release in the thread below. That’s why the good ole BBC is pumping out the mantra.
Orr____ This station is not reporting
It’s frozen?
From Claude Harvey on January 21, 2011 at 12:24 am:
Not much of one. It was mentioned here on WUWT. This is the matching link from Dr. Roy Spencer’s site:
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2011/01/dec-2010-uah-global-temperature-update-0-18-deg-c/
Channel 5 (ch05 v2, 14,000 ft) comes off the AMSR-E on the AQUA satellite thus it’s still reporting just fine.
That’s a bit chilly.
I remember visiting Minneapolis on a business trip in January 2004. Temps were down to -40 then, too. It was so cold, they closed the Ice Festival.
It’s “only” -2F in Chicago at daybreak this morning.
Regarding the “warmest year ever”, Hadcrut (the UK’s temperature record) shows that 2010 ranks well behind 1998 as the warmest year. Of course, the BBC will pick and choose their sources to push their agenda.
Hell…….thats still T-shirt weather for us in the Midwest, or at least it is when I’ve got a pint of Maker’s Mark in me. 🙂
OT….as I drove to work this morning along the fallow fields of Central Illinois I wondered if anyone has every considered how the dramatic changes in agricultural practices over the last several decades may be affecting surface temperature records (an agricultural heat island?). Before you laugh me off this blog consider:
Up until the mid 1970s stardard practice was field rotation wherein a typical field would be planted to corn, the next year it would be left fallow to “rest”, the next year it would be planted to a legume (usually alfafa) to build up nitrogen reserves and feed the 80 or so head of cattle most farms had, then back to corn.
These practices ended abruptly in the 1970s when the modern era of row crop farming was ushered in. Today the old hedge rows and fallow/alfalfa fields are long gone and bare black dirt is exposed over enormous swaths of land from mid November until late May. Surely this has had some effect on the very few rural temperature stations remaining.
Look here, I don’t understand why it has been so cold lately. I drive an SUV and I’ve traded out all my mercury light bulbs for the old-fashioned incandescent varieties. Why isn’t the world warming??
Peter Plail:
It’s called ice fog.
I lived in Edmonton for eight years and this was a regular occurrence during the winter. The fog was kept in place by inversion layers and, at times, it was so thick that driving became hazardous.
Temprature is lower than the Dew Point. I’m sure it’s a suspended mist, not percipitation.
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From the report, can anyone explain how mist is sustained at these low temperatures? This is genuine puzzlement, not scepticism.