Polar vortex outbreak creates 90 degree difference from one end of Texas to the other
Look at the cold plunging from the latest polar vortex incursion:
Notice the difference between Houston and Dallas, or New Orleans and Wichita now take a look at this map. WeatherBell’s Ryan Maue reports that the coldest state in Lower 48 was Iowa, with an average of -1.0°F
Look at the gradient across the front in Texas, note how sharp it is; a 90 degree difference from the southern tip of Texas to the Texas panhandle.
Former AMS president Marshal Shepard remarks:
Marshall Shepherd @DrShepherd2013 2h
Even better depiction of temperature difference with this front..90 deg difference.. Wow via Jared rackley pic.twitter.com/FDRZZvEtGb
See the WUWT Polar Vortex page for more
UPDATE: Greg Carbin of NOAA produced the 24 hour animation of surface temps:
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Box of Rocks says:
March 2, 2014 at 6:56 pm
“So where do all this air come from to support such a movement of cold dense air across thousands of miles?”
Santa Claus! Earth has a really big fat waist where air warms and goes up. It has a small top – like the white ball of fluff on Santa’s hat — where a portion of that air comes down.
The up part is often called the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), and when functioning well will show on satellite view as a band of bright white clouds. Currently this is south of the Equator.
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/cgi-bin/latest.cgi?wv-moll
Much of that air comes down in areas pole-ward of the Tropics, and will be labeled as Sub-Tropical High Pressure (STHP). Some air continues pole-ward. Simple diagrams will also show a “Ferrel Cell.” The ‘web’ has simple cartoon-like drawings of all these parts, and more.
Everyone ought to have a real globe. Find one. Put you fist over the Polar Region: 1 fist = 90 to 60 degrees of Latitude. Now put your fist along the Equator repeatedly (about 30 degrees of Longitude each). That requires about 12 fists to go around. That’s a lot of air going up, and what goes up has to come down. It comes down in a smaller space. Fat waist. Tiny top.
Box of Rocks says:
March 3, 2014 at 9:38 am
Say…. Tom in Florida, didn’t Hooters come from your neck of the woods by chance?
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A little farther north in Tampa. Also famous for cigars and Mons Venus.
When will the USA do as the whole other world : warm up and give their temperature in Celcius degrees ?
Tom in Florida says:
March 2, 2014 at 6:01 pm
My weather calendar says in 1980 it was 32 in Miami on March 3.
A weather map from http://www.lib.noaa.gov/collections/imgdocmaps/daily_weather_maps.html
shows 0700 temps of 23F in Mobile AL, 36F in Brownsville, TX, and 18F in Washington DC.
Helped out with the Army Marathon Sunday morning. 6AM 67 degrees, 6:30 50 degrees, 7AM (RACE START) 40 degrees, 8AM 33 degrees. Hats off to all that ran in that temp with the strong wind.
fritz says:
March 3, 2014 at 10:24 am
When will the USA do as the whole other world : warm up and give their temperature in Celcius degrees ?
*******
Never.
The real question is when the rest of the world going to catch to the US and get rid of the metric system?
I, for one, am grateful for the wave of cold air that descended on my little part of South Central Pennsylvania. It kept most of the snow South and East of me. It had the beneficial side effect of increasing the snowfall in the D.C. region, therefore causing the shutdown of the Federal Government.
“New Orleans and Wichita”
Yeah, thanks for pointing that out Anthony….
But our Shocker basketball team is HOT!!
Ric Werme says:
March 3, 2014 at 10:47 am
Tom in Florida says:
March 2, 2014 at 6:01 pm
“Meanwhile, just another day in paradise. Warm with a clear blue sky, slight southerly breeze….”
My weather calendar says in 1980 it was 32 in Miami on March 3.
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Ah ha! Further proof of (choose one)
a. global warming
b. climate change
c. climate chaos
d. weather
e. a, b & c
f. all of the above except a, b, c and e.
Robert Bissett says:
March 2, 2014 at 6:05 pm
Yes, look at the New Scientist, Feb. 10th…”As a result of climate change 2014 is likely to be one of the hottest years on record. If El Niño does develop this year, it will make 2014 even hotter – maybe the hottest ever…” I told you so! (I wasn’t going to say that.)
I would not count on it. RSS for February just came in. It dropped to 0.162 from 0.262 in January. As a result, the average for these two months is 0.212. If it were to stay this way, 2014 would rank 11th. That is no way to set a record being in 11th place after two months. Furthermore, the ENSO meter now dropped to -0.6.
wbrozek on March 3, 2014 at 4:52 pm
Thanks for the update. Judging by the east Pacific subsurface temperatures we are shaping up for a big La Nina right now.
I’m replying to wws “Looks white like snow, but it is hard as a rock –” . I’ve seen freezing rain that becomes ice, sleet, fairy dust, grapple, and something that looks like well doggy waste. lived in NJ almost all my life. A few years ago we had something like that fall. I have no idea what that is, but it won’t go away either. It took a long time for it to melt. Even with temps in the 50’s and 60’s.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to discover that this whole AGW scare was nothing but the natural effects of the Polar Vortex.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/JFM_season_ao_index.shtml
It’s been colder, good people.
I’ve worked outdoors at about -45C (-49F). The snow makes a very high-pitched squeak when you walk on it, and the boogers freeze inside your nose. Believe me, warmer is better.
But I think Earth is entering a cooling period.
Regrets, Allan
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Canada’s coldest day ever: Snag, Yukon, hit -63 °C in 1947 — without wind chill
National Post Staff | February 3, 2014 5:53 PM ET
As Snag, Yukon, locals stepped outside, their breath hissed as it froze mid-air before falling to the ground as white dust. It was -62.8 C (-81.0 F) in the tiny village exactly 67 years ago today — the coldest day in Canadian history.
Frigid air from northeastern Siberia had blown, creating a deep freeze on Feb. 3, 1947.
“The boys are glad that we’ve got Snag on the map,” weather officer Gordon Toole told The Gazette in Montreal when a reporter called for comment. Decades later, the village is still on the map, so to speak. Monday, Google paid tribute to the town — and it’s very chilly day — in a doodle.
At that temperature, exposed skin would freeze in less than three minutes, drastically increasing the risk for frostbite, hypothermia and death.
The 16 men at weather station had other problems on their minds though. The nearest women were 465 kilometres away — in Whitehorse, Toole said.
Lighthearted as the response was, it was a difficult day for Snag.
“Residents seemed to move like zombies, afraid to work hard enough to breathe the frigid air too deeply into their lungs,” according to an excerpt from The Canadian Weather Trivia Calendar.
Adding to the strange day, locals discovered that sound can travel much farther in the cold, dense air.
__________
The 10 coldest places in Canada — ever
Or at least since they’ve been keeping weather records
• -62.8 C — Snag, Yukon — February 3, 1947
• -60.6 C — Fort Vermilion, Alberta — January 11, 1911
• -59.4 C — Old Crow, Yukon — January 5, 1975
• -58.9 C — Smith River, British Columbia — January 31, 1947
• -58.3 C — Iroquois Falls, Ontario — January 23, 1935
• -57.8 C — Shephard Bay, Nunavut — February 13, 1973
• -57.2 C — Fort Smith, Northwest Territories — December 26, 1917
• -56.7 C — Prince Albert, Saskatchewan — February 1, 1893
• -55.8 C — Dawson City, Yukon — February 11, 1979
• -55.6 C — Iroquois Falls, Ontario — February 9, 1934
Raleigh 64 °F???? That is a load of CRAP. It is currently 31.3 °F and I am south of Raleigh about 50 miles and currently 27 °F
Polar Vortex = Mobile Polar High?
(cf. Marcel Leroux, 1993, etc)
Thank you.
JAIA
Please note the map bears a date which appears to be 3-3-2014 00:00 UTC as seen in the upper right-hand top, making it sometime yesterday …
.
I don’t think so minus 40 F when freezing point is 32 F. I don’t know really anyone see my point. C is 0 freezing point. I don’t think many places would get that minus 40 C other than the arctic or antarctic. Never good at sums.
@ur momisugly bushbunny, Alberta can.So to Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the norther sections of Ontario and Quebec.
Hence the Rodeo songs universal appeal across Canada, with slight misunderstandings on the two southerly coastlines.
This cooling reminds me of the movie The Day After Tomorrow. You never know, maybe the Earth will correct itself!