Extreme negative temperatures out-number extreme positive temperatures on the planet today, with a spread of over 100ºF. Eagle airport in upper Alaska on the Yukon River is one such example:
Source: http://w1.weather.gov/data/obhistory/PAEG.html
No word yet on whether this is a new record low temperature. And there’s more… From this list at CoolWx, which seems to be behind in reporting (h/t Ryan Maue):
0 stations reporting temperature -55°C or colder
0 stations reporting temperature -50°C to -54°C
2 stations reporting temperature -45°C to -49°C
- CYOC: Old Crow Airport, Canada [-45°C, -49.0°F]
CYOC 261900Z 00000KT 20SM IC PRFG FEW010 M45/M49 A3029 RMK ST1 FROIN VIS NE 5/8 SW 5/8 WND ESTD SLP314
- PAEG: Eagle, Eagle Airport, AK, United States [-45.°C, -49.0°F]
PAEG 261932Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM SCT026 M46/ A3018 RMK AO2 T1456 TSNO
14 stations reporting temperature -40°C to -44°C
- CWEU: Eureka, NT, Canada [-43°C, -45.4°F]
CWEU 261800Z 00000KT 15SM SKC M43/M45 A2974 RMK SLP074
- CYLK: Lutsel KE, NT, Canada [-40°C, -40.0°F]
CYLK 261600Z 07004KT 15SM VCFG FEW100 M40/M43 A3002 RMK AC1 SLP203
- CYUS: Shepherd Bay, NT, Canada [-40°C, -40.0°F]
CYUS 261900Z AUTO 17005KT CLR M40/ A2966 RMK SLP055
- CYVQ: Norman Wells, NT, Canada [-43°C, -45.4°F]
CYVQ 261700Z 00000KT 5SM IC BR FEW090 SCT270 M43/M47 A3028 RMK AC2CI1 SLP269
- PABI: Delta Junction/Ft Greely, Allen Army Airfield, AK, United States [-40°C, -40.0°F]
PABI 261708Z 00000KT 5SM BR CLR M40/M42 A2994 RMK AO2
- PABT: Bettles, Bettles Airport, AK, United States [-43°C, -45.4°F]
PABT 261925Z 00000KT 10SM FEW001 M43/ A3020 RMK AO2 PNO
- PAEI: Fairbanks, Eielson AFB, AK, United States [-42°C, -43.6°F]
PAEI 261713Z AUTO 16003KT 2 1/2SM R32/3500FT BR CLR M42/ A3004 RMK AO2 VIS 2 1/2V4 $
- PAGA: Galena, Edward G. Pitka Sr. Airport, AK, United States [-41.°C, -41.8°F]
PAGA 261858Z AUTO 00000KT 1 1/2SM BR CLR M42/ A3018 RMK AO2 SLP230 T1417 FZRANO PNO $
- PAML: Manley Hot Springs, Manly Hot Springs Airport, AK, United States [-44°C, -47.2°F]
PAML 261755Z 00000KT 5SM BR FEW000 M44/ A3013 RMK FEW000 NW-NE NOSPECI
- PANN: Nenana, Nenana Municipal Airport, AK, United States [-42.°C, -43.6°F]
PANN 261934Z AUTO 00000KT 3/4SM BR VV002 M43/ A3006 RMK AO2 T1428 TSNO
- PAOR: Northway, Northway Airport, AK, United States [-40.°C, -40.0°F]
PAOR 261553Z 00000KT 5SM BR BCFG BKN011 BKN065 M40/ A2991 RMK AO2 SLP256 T1400
- PARC: Arctic Village, Arctic Village Airport, United States [-41°C, -41.8°F]
PARC 261916Z AUTO 00000KT 2SM CLR M41/ A3003 RMK AO1
- PATA: Tanana, Calhoun Memorial Airport, AK, United States [-41.°C, -41.8°F]
PATA 261752Z 00000KT 10SM CLR M41/ A3015 RMK AO2 SLP225 T1411 11400 21417 53007
- PFYU: Fort Yukon, Fort Yukon Airport, AK, United States [-43°C, -45.4°F]
PFYU 261739Z 00000KT 3SM BR FEW002 SCT006 M43/ A3026
0 stations reporting temperature 55°C or warmer
0 stations reporting temperature 50°C to 54°C
0 stations reporting temperature 45°C to 49°C
3 stations reporting temperature 40°C to 44°C
- SARL: Paso De Los Libres Aerodrome, Argentina [40°C, 104.0°F]
SARL 261800Z 32010KT 9999 SCT030 FEW045CB 40/22 Q1007
- SBSM: Santa Maria Aero-Porto, Brazil [40°C, 104.0°F]
SBSM 261900Z 19006KT 9999 FEW040 40/14 Q1007
- SUSO: Salto, Uruguay [40°C, 104.0°F]
SUSO 261900Z 01010KT 9999 SCT030 40/18 Q1005
The rest of the world doesn’t do Fahrenheit anymore (although his workshop was in Amsterdam).
Technically speaking, is it cherrypicking when you pick our a single day when cold records are outstripping hot records, when you could instead use decades of hot records outstripping cold records by a significant margin?
climateace says:
December 26, 2013 at 4:47 pm
“Technically speaking, is it cherrypicking when you pick our a single day when cold records are outstripping hot records,”
No. Technically speaking, it is PAYBACK.
These cold temperatures are an example of weather. If we had record breaking warm temperatures for this time of the year, this would be an example of global warming, and weather would have nothing to do with it. Surely you must know the difference. (/sarc)
LKMiller says:
December 26, 2013 at 4:23 pm
“The metric system is based on an irrational unit,”
The meter was originally conceived to be a 1/10,000,000 of the distance between the equator and the pole. That’s very rational. And probably VERY old.
Understanding cold in Celsius and Fahrenheit:
0 C = 32 F
– 17 C = 0 F
– 40 C = – 40 F
Wouldn’t a 100 C spread be -60 C to 40 C?
REPLY: yes, and that was a typo, now fixed to show F rather than C Thanks for pointing it out – Anthony
JimS says:
December 26, 2013 at 5:05 pm
“Understanding cold in Celsius and Fahrenheit:”
Also, you can go to google and simply enter “40 degree Celsius in Fahrenheit” and google will convert it. Wolfram alpha will probably convert it and write a dissertation about it but I haven’t tried.
DirkH says: @ur momisugly December 26, 2013 at 4:53 pm
…..No. Technically speaking, it is PAYBACK.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
ROTFLMAO, I am just glad I don’t have to shovel it any more since I had the good sense to move south.
Max™ says: @ur momisugly December 26, 2013 at 5:08 pm
Wouldn’t a 100 C spread be -60 C to 40 C?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It is forecast to be 43C in Alice Springs on Sunday according to one forecast and 40C according to another.. link
Upon reading the update,,,,,,,,
I declare a “Gore Effect” moment in time.
“Oh the Pain!”
Insert video clip here 👀
“Extreme negative temperatures out-number extreme positive temperatures on the planet today, with a spread of over 100ºC”
Current data from the CoolWx site linked above:
Maximum:Past 24 Hours: 42°C (107.6°F) [YPLM:Learmonth Airport, Australia]Minimum:Past 24 Hours: -46°C (-50.8°F) [PFYU:Fort Yukon, Fort Yukon Airport, AK, United States]
Pardon my pendantry, but 42°C – (-46°C) = a mere 88°C
“REPLY: yes, and that was a typo, now fixed to show F rather than C Thanks for pointing it out – Anthony”
Well, in that case, how ’bout a spread of more than 150°F!!!
People, people, get a hold of yourselves.
Cold weather events are simply that, just weather. Such cold events have no bearing on Climate.
On the other hand hot weather events, forest fires, heatwaves, droughts are clear evidence that the earth is warming.
You will hear about them in your favorite media outlet this coming summer.
“These are the climate rules and you should follow them – thank you”.
By order the Anthropogenic Global Warming Consensus Team.
Gilbert Dupuis says: December 26, 2013 at 12:51 pm
@ur momisugly Richard Carroll
At -40°, both Celsius and Fahrenheit are the same.
AND
When you walk on it, the snow squeaks at a really high pitch
AND
The boogers freeze in your nose.
Until about a decade ago, the Fairbanks, AK area always got to about minus 50 each winter. Then there were some warm AK winters; the WSJ had an article about how farmers who raised cattle near Fairbanks (crazy, but apparently true) had to feed their cattle (indoors for the winter, obviously) considerably less hay one winter, because the temps just didn’t get down to near where they were supposed to go, and the cattle didn’t need the extra calories to beat the cold. One winter a decade ago or so, people in Anchorage were on the golf course at the end of February, and there was so little snow that they couldn’t mush dogs at that time.
So perhaps AK is reverting back to where it was 15 years or more ago?
Meanwhile the lamestream media is reporting that Southern California experienced a NEAR record high Christmas Day. One report stated that it was “baking “. Baking in the 80’s ? Oh Noes!
Will NOAA acknowledge any cold records? Or will they say record unconfirmed as our equipment is not accurate below -40?Chicken Alaska last year.
What is the accurate range of the electronic temperature sensing equipment?
I looked up the Environment Canada recommended sensor, range 40 C in the spec.
No response from EC, as to how and when the station is calibrated from winter 0 to-60C to summer 0 to 40C.
So as a serious question how does the electronic system stay accurate from -50 to 40C ranges?
Do the compensation circuits work properly below -30?
And is NOAA and EC equipment as installed up to the task?
I think the reason I never graduated from being an ignorant skeptic is because, unlike Al Gore and the gang, I have not yet learned how to believe “six impossible things before breakfast.” Perhaps with help, I can start with one impossible thing and work my way up.
Let’s start with this one. Can anyone explain to me how the Arctic could be experiencing unprecedented warming, at a rate 8 times that of the rest of this burning planet, and yet be able to cool down neighboring land masses to such low temperatures this early in the winter season? The Arctic must be a massive area if it can do that at the same time that it is struggling to produce a thin layer of brittle, first-year ice that will all be melted by summer.
Is this where believing the impossible comes in? CO2 molecules must be magical creatures that have evolved enough intelligence to selectively produce extreme weather without the need to warm the planet first. Maybe I just need to keep repeating the line, ‘cold temperatures are produced by “weather”; warm temperatures are produced by “climate.”‘ I might even begin to believe it before breakfast. However, once I get some food in me and my head clears, I will probably go back to being the same hopeless case I was before.
We are suffering severe gales here in NE England, I gather thanks to your extremely cold weather which has caused the Jet Stream to move directly above us with its speed up to 300mph, 6 Celsius at the moment with SW winds gusting up to 80mph. Fun, fun, fun!!
john robertson says:
December 26, 2013 at 9:34 pm
Will NOAA acknowledge any cold records? Or will they say record unconfirmed as our equipment is not accurate below -40?Chicken Alaska last year.
________________________________________________
NOAA will tow the party line ALWAYS! Check out their latest assessment of the Arctic. http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2013/20131212_arcticreportcard.html
So according to NOAA a year with Arctic warming and below normal sea ice reinforces the long term trend and has implications for the climate while a year of cooling with a near record growth in Arctic sea ice is just weather that does not effect the long term trend and has no implications for the climate.
Can’t help but notice though that the Polar Bear wasn’t mentioned. That bodes well I believe.
Here in Estonia it is unseasonally about 5C not even going negative overnight.
Usually when I visit my wife’s family here for Xmas it is -5C to -15C, with several feet of snow, but this year there is no ice or snow at all. Apparently quite unusual weather but not completely unprecedented.
I suspect it is the same across Scandinavia, and Finland too.
So DirkH using your two hands show me a meter in front of you on the ground.
Now, show me a yard on the ground in front of you
DirkH says:
December 26, 2013 at 4:55 pm
LKMiller says:
December 26, 2013 at 4:23 pm
“The metric system is based on an irrational unit,”
The meter was originally conceived to be a 1/10,000,000 of the distance between the equator and the pole. That’s very rational. And probably VERY old.
***********
However, from a rational conception sprang an irrational unit.
“…To establish a universally accepted foundation for the definition of the metre, more accurate measurements of this meridian would have to be made. The French Academy of Sciences commissioned an expedition led by Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre and Pierre Méchain, lasting from 1792 to 1799, which measured the distance between a belfry in Dunkerque and Montjuïc castle in Barcelona to estimate the length of the meridian arc through Dunkerque. This portion of the meridian, assumed to be the same length as the Paris meridian, was to serve as the basis for the length of the half meridian connecting the North Pole with the Equator.
The exact shape of the Earth is not a simple mathematical shape (sphere or oblate spheroid) at the level of precision required for defining a standard of length. The irregular and particular shape of the Earth (smoothed to sea level) is called a geoid, which means “Earth-shaped”. Despite this fact, and based on provisional results from the expedition, France adopted the metre as its official unit of length in 1793. Although it was later determined that the first prototype metre bar was short by a fifth of a millimetre because of miscalculation of the flattening of the Earth, this length became the standard…”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre
DirkH says:
December 26, 2013 at 4:55 pm
The meter was originally conceived to be a 1/10,000,000 of the distance between the equator and the pole. That’s very rational. And probably VERY old.
===============
Had they used a distance measured along the equator, such as the nautical mile, then distance and time would be directly related for navigation purposes. As it is. when you get a metric chart, the units are all but hopeless for navigation. You end up having to use the latitude scale, while converts degrees, minutes, seconds directly into nautical miles.