From NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center: NASA snaps picture of Eastern US in a record-breaking ‘freezer’
NASA’s Terra satellite captured an image of the snow-covered eastern U.S. that looks like the states have been sitting in a freezer. In addition to the snow cover, Arctic and Siberian air masses have settled in over the Eastern U.S. triggering many record low temperatures in many states.
On Feb. 19 at 16:40 UTC (11:40 a.m. EST), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured a picture of the snowy landscape. The snow cover combined with the frosty air mass made the eastern U.S. feel like the inside of freezer. The MODIS image was created at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
On the morning of Feb. 20, NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center (WPC) noted, “There were widespread subzero overnight lows Thursday night (Feb. 19) extending from Illinois to western Virginia, and numerous record lows were set. Bitterly-cold arctic air is setting numerous temperature records across the eastern U.S. and will keep temperatures well below normal on Friday (Feb. 20).”
In Baltimore, Maryland, a low temperature of 1F broke the record low for coldest morning recorded at the Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington-International Airport.
In Louisville, Kentucky, temperatures dropped to -6F, breaking the old record low of 0F, according to meteorologist Brian Goode of WAVE-TV. Meanwhile, Richmond Kentucky bottomed out at a frigid -32F.
In North Carolina, a record low temperature was set at Charlotte where the overnight temperature bottomed out at 7F breaking the old record of 13F in 1896. In Asheville, temperatures dropped to just 4F breaking the old record of 10F in 1979. Temperature records for Asheville extend back to 1876.
Several records were also broken in Georgia, according to Matt Daniel, a meteorologist at WMAZ-TV, Macon Georgia, who cited data from the National Weather Service. Daniel said that Macon set a new record low when the temperature dropped to 18F, beating the previous record of 21F set in 1958. Athens broke a new record low, too dropping to 14F and beating the old record of 18F set in 1958/1928.
NOAA’s NPC noted that “Highs on Friday (Feb. 20) will struggle to get out of the teens from the Ohio Valley to the Mid-Atlantic region. After Friday, temperatures are forecast to moderate and get closer to February averages as a storm system approaches from the west.”
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“In Louisville, Kentucky, temperatures dropped to -6F, breaking the old record low of 0F, according to meteorologist Brian Goode of WAVE-TV. Meanwhile, Richmond Kentucky bottomed out at a frigid -32F.” I’m am HIGHLY skeptical that that can be true ~ Was -32 perhaps the ‘WINDCHILL’ ??? Be accurate and be ridiculed….
Extreme cold temps can vary quite a bit. Be skeptical, but a frost-hollow can be far colder than a very nearby higher elevation in clear, calm conditions. Frankfort, KY had -21F at an official station.
I live in southwest VA. This morning we just hit 33F which is the first time we’ve been above freezing in 8 days. We hit -4F 48 hours ago which was an all time record for Feb. In order to just keep the house at just 65F, we’re running the heat pump, 3 space heaters and 1 set of gas logs. My power bill will be well over $400.
Damn global warming… oh wait…
After making necessary and well-accepted adjustments, global warming zealots will find that this has been the second warmest winter on record.
I see references to freezing the balls off a brass monkey as related to triangular frames for holding pyramids of cannon balls on deck. I had a distant relative that was an officer on merchant marine vessels during WWII (captain after the war) who studied sailing in England before the war on old sailing vessels – this was part officers’ training. He told me that the “brass monkey” was the balancing mechanism for the “floating compass” to keep it horizontal. It consisted of bras arms radiating out with balls on the end – probably looking like a monkey.
2015 shaping up to be the hottest year ever….. Record snowfall and cold brought to you by CGW….Hockey stick burned for heat because of the extreme cold caused by Global warming which caused climate change which brought on climate disruption. (Future headline predictions leading up to the IPCC Paris Follies. When will We ever learn?
Google “Al Gore adductors release second chakra”
The Granite Tors, North of Fairbanks, AK, are proof that much of Central Alaska was never glaciated.
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/fairbanks-environs-granite-tors/105975526
Polar ice is already gone on the Sun, Mercury and Venus… it just stands to reason that the Earth is next.
Galveston Bay and Corpus froze over many times in the 1800s..
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/2421355/posts
http://www.texasreader.com/when-galveston-bay-froze-over.html
More Texas cold weather..
http://www.storm2k.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=79336
HEADLINE: Republicans To Investigate Climate Data Tampering By NASA
Are government climate agencies tampering with climate data to show warming? Some Republicans think so. California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher says to expect congressional hearings on climate data tampering.
Rohrabacher serves as the vice chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, which has jurisdiction over NASA and other agencies that monitor the Earth’s climate.
Rohrabacher has long been critical of the theory of man-made global warming. Lately, the California Republican has criticizing NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for allegedly tampering with temperature data to create an artificial warming trend. Such data is then used to justify regulations aimed at curbing fossil fuel use and other industrial activities.
Rohrabacher isn’t the only one to call for hearings on the science behind global warming. Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe has also promised to hold hearings on global warming data.
“We’re going to have a committee hearing on the science,” said Inhofe, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “People are going to hear the other side of the story.”
For years, those skeptical of man-made global warming have argued that government agencies are altering raw temperature data to create a warming trend. Allegations of tampering have increased as satellite temperature readings show much less warming than land and ocean-based weather stations show.
Science blogger Steven Goddard (a pseudonym) has been a major critic of NASA’s and NOAA’s temperature measurements. Goddard points out that NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center makes the present look warmer by artificially cooling past temperatures to show a warming trend.
“NCDC pulls every trick in the book to turn the US cooling trend into warming. The raw data shows cooling since the 1920s,” Goddard told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview last month.
“NCDC does a hockey stick of adjustments to reverse the trend,” Goddard said. “This includes cooling the past for ‘time of observation bias’ infilling missing rural data with urban temperatures, and doing almost nothing to compensate for urban heat island effects.”
NOAA does make temperature adjustments, but it argues such adjustments are necessary to remove “artificial biases” in surface temperature data. The biggest adjustment made by NCDC scientists is cooling past data to take into account the fact that there was a big shift from taking temperature readings in the afternoon to the morning.
“We get a lot of people questioning our data adjustments,” Thomas Peterson, NCDC’s principal scientist, told TheDCNF. There was an “artificial cool bias in the data,” Peterson said.
Switching the time of the day temperatures were taken from the afternoon, when temperatures are warmer, to the morning, when temperatures are cooler, caused a cooling bias in the data. Temperature data from nearby weather stations was used to help create a baseline temperature for different regions.
But there are some drawbacks in surface temperature readings from a few thousand weather stations, boats and buoys spread out across the world. Peterson said the weather station system is “only really good for the U.S.”
“The main problem is where there are a few stations in the middle of nowhere.” Peterson said, specifically referring to weather station data problems on St. Helena Island.
UK Telegraph writer Christopher Booker joined the fray recently, using work by Goddard and other bloggers to criticize climate agencies for data tampering.
“Of much more serious significance, however, is the way this wholesale manipulation of the official temperature record… has become the real elephant in the room of the greatest and most costly scare the world has known,” Booker wrote. “This really does begin to look like one of the greatest scientific scandals of all time.”
http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/20/republicans-to-investigate-climate-data-tampering-by-nasa/
“george e. smith February 21, 2015 at 5:56 pm
So how do you tell snow from cloud as seen from outer space. Can they look through clouds to see only the surface ??”
A new satellite that came online recently has that capability.
Suomi NPP satellite’s VIIRS Day/Night Band
http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news_archives/NESDISNews/images/day-night-VIIRS.jpg
Source:
http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news_archives/NESDISNews/NESDISNews_02_02_15.html
Very nice but I believe this was taken on January 8.
It would be quite interesting to have a current one. Do you know if such is available?
I was answering george e.smith’s question of whether satellites could tell snow from clouds.
Here is a more recent image, from Feb 20.
http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/images/sat_overlays/USA-VIIRS-Color_sm.png
Here you can find current images.
http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/imagery_data.html
You can also play with the data here.
http://www.nsof.class.noaa.gov/saa/products/welcome
I work on the DMSP satellite.
Same NOAA web site claiming 2014 was the warmest year ever recorded and other claims of the planet is burning. How insulting is that?
As a disclaimer, all replies here are mine and mine alone and do not reflect that of NOAA.
I’m not sure how they can say that with a straight face. All evidence to the contrary. It seems as though it is kind of hard to stop pushing a narrative once it gets ingrained.
The record cold temps from around the nation sure aren’t going to be helping them. Especially the ones that just beat out their over 100 year records. OUCH!
We’ll see how the “adjustments” play out. Can’t imagine why a precision instrument always needs adjusting upward, unless it is from the distant past (any year before this year), then it is adjusted lower. Must sustain that warming trend!!! 🙂
Thanks again.
Spectacular new picture of February 20.
Will follow at the sites you gave me.
I need a little help.
Again thank you for the update.
Now, I am looking at your updated picture and, say, just looking at the locations on the Northeast.
So at the north, say Boston area on the news, looking south.
I see everything white. OK. Snow.
However, obviously there was (still is) a lot more snow on the ground around Boston than further south or southwest.
Is it correct for me to conclude that the white areas are only “snow covered” areas irrelevant of how deep the snow is?
I would say yes, it is snow regardless of depth. I don’t work on that constellation. There is only one satellite at the moment, but they are launching another soon. I’m not sure what is the minimum depth. When you look at the difference between this picture and one from another constellation, it is easier to compare. The data from DMSP is no where near that good.
From – From NASA’s What’s the Difference Between Weather and Climate?
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/noaa-n/climate/climate_weather.html#.VOozwfnF_Z0
The difference between weather and climate is a measure of time. Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere “behaves” over relatively long periods of time.
When we talk about climate change, we talk about changes in long-term averages of daily weather. Today, children always hear stories from their parents and grandparents about how snow was always piled up to their waists as they trudged off to school. Children today in most areas of the country haven’t experienced those kinds of dreadful snow-packed winters, except for the Northeastern U.S. in January 2005. The change in recent winter snows indicate that the climate has changed since their parents were young.
Please!
I was 6 in 1945. Walking to school in the cold and snow, skating, skiing, coming back home for hot chocolate.
Then it was a little warmer.
My children walked to school from 1970.
Cold, snow, skating on the pound, sliding on hills, coming back home for hot chocolate. Darn, they learn snowboarding. I did not have this when I was a kid.
Then it was a little warmer.
Now it is a little colder, again (at least here from 2011). The visiting grandchildren are having a ball in the snow, skating on the pound, sliding on hills, coming back home for hot chocolate. You should see the snowboards!
Then it will get a little warmer. I have a new granddaughter. She may have to wait until she is 10 or 15 to enjoy the winter sports in a colder weather, but then it will get a little warmer again. I just don’t know what kind of stuff will be popular for her to play in the snow.
So, the climate has not changed. The USDA cultivating regions have not changed. This is “climate”.
Even in the British Isles, they were going to “update” the regions. They gave up in 2011. No need for this. Climate had not changed enough as clearly stated on their site. Why do all the updating work they said. Not needed!
So I don’t get very nervous about the “coldest” or “warmest” month or year when the change is + or – 0.02C.
So the climate has not change since 1945. Just a few very, very, slight warming periods and then cool or nothing.
Now think about it. Born and living in a different climate region, like Florida. Would you be thinking about walking to school in snow! I don’t think so. Go further. Is anybody living in the “global temperature region”? I don’t think so because such a zone does not exist. We are all living in regional zones and this, to me is “climate” we know and weather is changing within a climate zone.
So, weather is indeed short term but there is no such thing as a “global zone climate”, climate is simply determined by the weather (temperature, precipitation, etc.) variations within a geographical zone or region and following the seasons. The idea of “yearly global temperature average” is absurd and has absolutely no scientific meaning of any kind and of absolutely no consequence for human activities in the various regions on heart. And by activities I mean all of them. From walking to school to growing food.
rd50: I agree absolutely. I was born in England in 1948, and my ‘take’ on it all goes (in part) like this:
I’m wary of the significance accorded to fraction of a degree temperature changes. As an example, the average Central England Temperature (CET) record figure for for 2012 was 9.70C, but temperatures over 9C are nothing new in the record – go back to the late 1600s and there they are.
The average for 1686 was 10.13C, so it could have been claimed at that time that this was ‘the hottest year yet’ – but with no anthropogenic CO2 to blame!
There’s also the point to be made that average temperatures lose information about what actually goes on weather-wise.
If for example you have a look at the CET years 1659, 1754, 1902, 1956, and 2010, all have an average temperature for the year of 8.83 degrees C.
Robin Stirling in ‘The Weather of Britain’ (published 1997) tells us on p148 that after a mild January in 1956, ‘ the first day of February saw a severe blast of air of Siberian origin sweep across Britain, giving day maxima well below freezing in many parts of the south, as low as -6C at Ipswich. Even in the Scillies there were two days of continuous frost and gales’ and also ‘February 1956 will be remembered by arable farmers for the severe damage to winter wheat, since, except along the east coast, there was very little snow to protect the ground from hard frost.’
In 1963, the annual average was slightly lower at 8.47C, yet Stirling comments that ‘in 1963, there was probably the coldest January since 1814 over England’ and ‘the Thames was frozen over above Kingston power station, although not at Tower Bridge because of the warmth from industrial cooling water which pours into the river.’
The ‘take home’ message for me from all this is that minor temperature differences don’t define climate, and that we should beware of record temperatures.
‘Highest recorded’ looks like this using figures from the Central England Temperature record. The temperatures are in Celsius, and are averages for the years shown.
1659: first CET reading ever 8.83⁰C
1660: highest ever recorded 9.08
1686: highest ever recorded 10.13
1733: highest ever recorded 10.47
1959: highest ever recorded 10.48
1989: highest ever recorded 10.50
1990: highest ever recorded 10.63
2006: highest ever recorded 10.82
2014: highest ever recorded 10.93
Isn’t amazing that our huge planet can regulate temperature this well? It’s interesting to think that after all these years of ‘highest ever recorded’ we’re all still here and not being fried.
And – I’ll say it again for the warmists – in 1750, we’re told that CO2 was 280ppm, now it’s 400. That’s a 43% rise of this trace gas, which is now 0.04% of the atmosphere.
CO2 is measured in dry samples, so the concentration in atmospheric water vapour is even less. Clear and present danger, anyone? I think not.
Carbon500, you have stumbled onto the reason for many “trends” that inch their way this way or that in fractions. This likely has more to do with increasing precision due to measurement issues such as changes in number and (re)placement of sensors as well as number and placement of the decimal point followed by rounding over time. This is the only thing that can be hypothesized about such trends because the statistical margin of error is greater than the resulting measurement average.
RD50, I see a lot of thinking that is similar and clearly thought out. I have only lived in the Rockies and west. Most winters I spend skiing in the month of January because it is the off season and typically the coldest. Over many years one sees a great amount of variation in the temperatures and snow depth. It is just the normal process of how a chaotic the climate system which is driven by the various air masses that do battle when mixing. I think in the mid 70’s I recall skiing in January on a blend of snow, sand and gravel from Montana to Wyoming to Colorado to Utah and California. I ended up in Whistler only to be rained on. Other winters were superb skiing.
Too many listen to the deviation from what is referred to as “normal.” Then that deviation is turned into extreme. I doubt a lot of media types have ever done anything outside their little media bubble. There is no normal, I cringe when I see or here the term “normal” regarding the weather. There are averages from statistical data, but that is not and never will be reality.
Pilots learn (at least are supposed to learn) about weather. In doing so the books discuss the various air masses that cause weather. Dry continental air masses move south from Canada into the U.S. which meet up with oceanic air moist air masses from the Pacific, Gulf, and Atlantic. That’s not going to change. Same for subtropical and tropic regions. The north side of the mountain areas of the Hawaiian islands are going to get wet and stay wet, just like the coastal mountains along the Pacific coast of North America. The Great American desert is not going to change any more than the mid-west and so forth.
So, yes indeed, you have it figured out.
In ten years they won’t be records anymore.
(Yes, that can be taken two ways.)
Seems that some in here might actually be informed somewhat about what comes closest to an infinite chaos on our planet. It seems (I have read) that water vapor in the uppermost atmosphere is broken into its component oxygen and hydrogen by ultraviolet radiation, with some of the lighter hydrogen being lost to a wispy trail behind us in our path around the sun. Most of the heavier oxygen is retained in our atmosphere by gravity, providing a source of “new” oxygen. I was wondering what possible effects this phenomena might have on “climate maintenance,” that is: Does it increase as vapor increases when warming occurs? Is there a “latent heat” effect, and what would the significance of that be? There is necessarily an ensemble of mediating factors at work over the last 4 billion years of life since the sun has increased by 1/3 in its luminosity over the same period. One such factor is Greenland moving North, due to plate drift, and raised several hundreds of feet in the process, collecting ice and providing an increased albedo over these time spans. Any comments, scientists?
Here’s what the Cryosphere Today shows for Northern hemisphere snow cover and ice:
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/NEWIMAGES/arctic.seaice.color.000.png
Feb 19 of ’15 compared to 2006…
http://igloo.atmos.uiuc.edu/cgi-bin/test/testimage.2.sh?first=20060219.jpg&second=20150219.jpg
hard to see warming , much less catastrophic!
Thank you.
I love the phrase from “Carbon 500” at the above post:
“Isn’t amazing that our huge planet can regulate temperature this well? It’s interesting to think that after all these years of ‘highest ever recorded’ we’re all still here and not being fried.”
Rather look on sea ice concentration, 2015 is much more thicker ice and same with ice coverage in 2015 some grey thinner snow areas are missing. Overall 2015 looks much colder than 2006.
There is a big difference to what is happening in North America and what is happening for the globe generally . There is no “global wide” warming or record temperatures in 2014. only regional warming like the extra warming of North Pacific SST . 2014 was the only the 4th warmest with respect to global and Northern Hemisphere land areas . North America has been cooling for almost 2 decades. US was the 34 th warmest and Canada was the 25 th warmest on an annual basis. The Great Lakes and St . Lawrence Valley were 61 warmest or 7 th coldest in 67 years .
Based on winter basis the 2013/14 winter was the 24 the coldest in 67 years for Canada. Some regions like Northern Ontario and Quebec and Great Lakes and St Lawrence valley were 6th coldest and 8th coldest respectively in 67 years. For US, the 2013/14 winter was the 33 rd coldest in 119 years and 2 nd coldest in the last 17 years. US and Canadian annual and seasonal temperatures have been trending colder for 17 years now since 1998. Winters have been trending colder in Northern Hemisphere since 1995 or 20 years
There must be something happening. Maybe it is…..
I gave my personal experience in a post above that “global warming” is useless and has no scientific meaning, certainly not the first person to state this.
Nobody lives in the “global region”. All politics is local! All Climate is regional!
Then I see posted by Carbon 500 “Average temperatures loses information about what actually goes on weather-wise.” and other very sensible information.
And more of such from Carbon 500 again, Highflight 56433, Dawtgtomis, Peter, and Herkimer all posted recently.
Nice to see that some of us are reflecting on what our actual experiences are (also were) within the “climate region” we lived in or visited. Climate is indeed time dependent. We are told this again and again and again. The scientists telling us this are conveniently forgetting that climate is geographically (zone) dependent and season dependent and seasons dependent. MUCH MORE than “number time” dependent!
We, the above, know this because we experienced it. Remember empirical observations! Climate is not only time (years) dependent but geographical zones and seasons dependent.
So now for the “Maybe it is”
We in the USA, are experiencing the exact opposite of ‘global warming” or “global climate change” and it is pronounced enough that that the news media cannot avoid reporting such and indeed even better, asking why. CONTRASTING regions within the USA and asking WHY is it so cold, record cold and snow in one region and so warm in the other region, of the same country. Well, what do you know. Global warming now cannot be used for the entire USA. We cannot count of the USA to be GLOBAL! Darn it.
Now image this. Just a quick summary. Northeast USA about to set record temperature/climate A (cold). Southwest USA about to set record temperature/climate B (warm). We can’t ask for better: A is just the opposite of B.
Can we have a better empirical proof that the average: A+B divided by 2 is as worthless as worthless can be for ANY practical reason?
rd50: I’d like to carry on with the regional climate theme. I like to browse books on meteorology, and an item which drew my attention is the Kӧppen classification of climate, devised by German climatologist Wladimir Kӧppen (1846-1940). It has according to what I’ve read been the best known and most used climate classification system for decades (p430,’The Atmosphere’, Frederick K. Lutgens and Edward J Tarbuck, pub. Pearson Prentice Hall 2007).
Using this classification, the UK is described as having a humid middle latitude, mild winter or Marine West Coast (Cfb) type of climate. And so it remains, regardless of annual variations.
What the Cfb coding means is that the average temperature of the coldest month is under 18 degrees C and above -3 degrees C.
No month is above 22C, and at least four are over 10C.
So, a wide range of temperatures define the British climate.
Thus it was in 2014, and also in 1659 as seen in the Central England Temperature Record (CET).
All this has stayed the same regardless of the small increase in concentration of the trace gas over which so much fuss has been made.
Pamela Gray: I’d like to reply to your observation: ‘Carbon500, you have stumbled onto the reason for many “trends” that inch their way this way or that in fractions. This likely has more to do with increasing precision due to measurement issues such as changes in number and (re)placement of sensors as well as number and placement of the decimal point followed by rounding over time. This is the only thing that can be hypothesized about such trends because the statistical margin of error is greater than the resulting measurement average.’
Agreed entirely – and also of interest for me is Ian Plimer’s observation in his book ‘Heaven and Earth’ that the measurement of CO2 using the current method has never been compared or validated with the older so-called ‘wet methods’ of measurement.
I worked in a hospital laboratory for many years, and can only say that that I’m amazed that this validation appears not to have been done. Such comparisons are routine and vital in a working laboratory.
Even Dallas is iced over, 1000 flights canceled, car crashes everywhere cause they don’t know how to drive in it.
Cooler summer here, just waiting for lakes ice to melt.
* 250 Million Years Ago.
Tropical collapse caused by lethal heat: Extreme temperatures blamed for ‘dead zone’
Oct 18, 2012
phys.org/news/2012-10-tropical-collapse-lethal-extreme-temperatures.html
It has definitely been a crazy past few days. We haven’t seen this much snow and ice in quite a while. Thanks for sharing that awesome image! Is it spring yet?!