Record Cold

[Jeff Passner]

Not sure if anyone noticed but Maui set record lows on Aug 10... Probably dry air wrapping around the tropical system, but 61 degrees at 17N in August is amazing. Global cooling at its best.

 

[Jason Harris]

Ok, the NOAA report does state "0.8 degrees F below the 20th century average" but unfortunately the temps didn't go down in the areas where the glaciers are melting from WA to AK, as the report also notes:

Several western locations recorded their all-time warmest July. Seattle-Tacoma Airport had an average July temperature of 69.5 degrees F, which was 4.2 degrees F above average. Seattle’s high temperature of 103 degrees F on July 29 is an all-time record. Alaska posted its second warmest July, Arizona had its third warmest, while New Mexico and Washington had their ninth warmest.

and let's remember that exceptions are exceptions:

With some exceptions caused by unique or unusual local conditions - the glaciers on California's Mount Shasta, for example - more than 99 percent of the country's thousands of glaciers are shrinking, said Bruce Molnia, another USGS scientist.

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Known as "benchmark glaciers," the South Cascade Glacier in Washington state, the Wolverine Glacier on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula and the Gulkana Glacier in interior Alaska all have shown a "rapid and sustained" retreat, according to a report by the U.S. Geological Survey that was released Thursday.

"They are living on the edge," Ed Josberger, a USGS scientist based in Tacoma, Wash., said of the three glaciers. "We've crossed a threshold, and these glaciers along with those globally are shrinking."

For years, scientists have reported that glaciers around the world are melting, but the study offers some of the most definitive evidence to date. Because the three glaciers are in different climates and elevations, they can be used to help understand thousands of other North American glaciers.

http://www.kansascity.com/444/story/1368991.html

and for a little extra perspective, the USA temps are not "global" temps, check out global average water temps from June:

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The world’s ocean temperature in June rose to the warmest since 1880, breaking the previous record set in 2005, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

The ocean surface temperature was 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius), 1 degree Fahrenheit above the average for June since record keeping began, NOAA said today in a statement. The combined land and ocean surface temperature for June was 61 degrees, the second warmest after 2005.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601130&sid=aWiP3jI7Tw_U

Couldn't find July data yet for that but USA today had an article that summed it up pretty well it seems for the USA vs. world "July's climate: Chilly USA, torrid globe":

For the world as a whole, July was the 2nd-warmest ever recorded, the Southern Hemisphere had its 2nd-warmest month ever (compared to seasonal norms), and it was the 2nd-warmest month ever recorded in Antarctica (again compared to seasonal norms).


Gulp. But before y'all get your dander in an uproar, consider the source for the July heat data: Not some liberal hothouse like Greenpeace, but two of the most well-known and respected climate change semi-skeptics, John Christy and Roy Spencer.

According to Christy, the global average temperature jumped 0.41 Celcius from June to July, the largest one-month jump in the 31-year global temperature record. The global average went from normal in June to the second-hottest July on record.

"Part of that is an artificial artifact of where we put the calendar boundaries," Christy said in an e-mail. "Warmth from the new El Nino was not felt at all in June but really got going almost from the first day of July."

So while El Nino certainly contributed to the spike in global temperatures, no previous El Nino had ever warmed the Earth to that degree, indicating that some other forces are at play.

If you look at the world temperature map they provided (above), notice that of all the land areas on the planet Earth, the one spot that had the coldest July was the northern and central USA. Freakishly, and unfortunately for Al Gore, no other spot had as cold a July.

So while it may have been cold in your backyard in July, remember that the USA takes up just a small percentage of the Earth's surface.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2009-08-10-july-climate-report_N.htm

 

[Charles Kuster]

We have not had any record cold yet, but it has been quite cold for August even in Leadville. On August 9th, we had 26 degrees and we have now had 5 straight days in which the low has dipped below freezing. It looks like this weekend might bring more cold weather as well.

 

[Jason Harris]

NOAA's July data for ocean is in, and it was another record breaker for ocean temps:

The planet’s ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for July, breaking the previous high mark established in 1998 according to an analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The combined average global land and ocean surface temperature for July 2009 ranked fifth-warmest since world-wide records began in 1880.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090814_julyglobalstats.html

 

[jshields]

the numbers are in for the meteorological summer(june, july, and august) in eastern nebraska and western iowa. omaha had the 10th coldest summer on record, lincoln had the 15th and Norfolk had the 5th coldest summer on record. also of note was how dry it was, normally a cool summer means a wet one!

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=oax&storyid=30853&source=0

 

[Doren Berge]

Obviously the record Lows and Highs are driven by the position of the Jet, El Nino, etc. On any given year It's just "the weather, not the climate."

Atmosphere and wind patterns are influenced by solar energy, surface interaction and planetary rotation. Stating the obvious, this is a very fluid equation with numerous variables. However, if the Arctic Ice fields are receding – as evidence suggests – wouldn't that impact the equation? It seems possible that receding surface ice could influence the position of the Jet over time.

This may seem a naive question. I'm not a trained meteorologist and I have no interest in partisan squabbling either. I'm just curious why I haven't heard this mentioned.

-db

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

I have been hearing that you folks up north there had not had much of a summer.

The trough-east / ridge-west pattern is the culprit, indicative of El Nino.

This pattern is dreaded by chasers because ...

A: Storm chasing in Spring in the US stinks because of the persistant ridge (example: May 2009).

B: Hurricane (tropical) chasing is hosed because storms either are sheared apart before reaching the eastern US / Gulf (or turn away altogether) because of the trough there.

C: People up north have to deal with a wet and cooler-than-normal summer (the kids really "love" that, more so than storm chasers - No pool, no water park, and no tornado - Ugh).

 

[Jeff Duda]

On any given year It's just "the weather, not the climate."

Atmosphere and wind patterns are influenced by solar energy, surface interaction and planetary rotation. Stating the obvious, this is a very fluid equation with numerous variables. However, if the Arctic Ice fields are receding – as evidence suggests – wouldn't that impact the equation? It seems possible that receding surface ice could influence the position of the Jet over time.

Surely it could, and does. But as Jeff said in post #34, this is probably just a trough in the chaotic noise associated with the overall signal of gradual warming (averaged over all areas of the planet).

 

[Jeff Duda]

It's baaaaaaaaaaaaack...

I'm going to revive this thread since another record cold streak is currently impacting a large portion of the country.

For at least the last week or so, temperatures in the Great Lakes and west through the Northern Rockies region have been really damn cold for the time of year. I know record warmth has been occurring at the same time in the far southeast U.S., and maybe someone would like to comment on that.

Here in Iowa, we have yet to see a high temperature reach the average in any day of October. If you add in the last 3 days of September, that leaves 14 days in a row now of highs below average, sometimes significantly (on Saturday, the high in Ames was lower than the average low). This looks to be due to the strong polar vortex that has been sitting over Canada for awhile now. It is throwing out lobes of energy that bring in a fresh shot of cold air (and now snow) every other day or so. I was following an especially cold pool of -40 C at 500mb that oozed from Manitoba through northern Minnesota for a few days leading up to this past weekend. As far as I'm aware, even during the coldest of winter, the lowest 500 mb temps observed in this region are in the low to mid -40s C, so this is a truly arctic air mass. Soundings have been resembling winter ones, but the only reason areas in the Midwest and plains haven't seen even colder temps is because soil temperatures are high enough to keep us somewhat warm, and any snow that has fallen melts. However, in Ames, average 4" soil temperatures dropped about 10 F over the weekend, and we are currently seeing soil temperatures that have been observed as cold as they are on this date between 4% and 13% of the years prior. Model forecasts show we shouldn't expect to warm up much over the next few days.

Also, many early snow records were smashed from the winter storm over the weekend. In Iowa some places picked up a few inches, and this was very close to breaking the earliest snow on record. Out in Nebraska, places like North Platte picked up over a foot of snow! Although record first snowfalls in this area occurred in late September, this winter storm still smashed October daily snow records.

 

[Joel Wright]

Yeah the weather around here since about June has been very strange. Had a very cool and wet summer with very few 90 degree days. I think we had 5 or 6, which is well below normal.

To top it off we had our first snowfall on October 10th, which is almost a month early.

 

[Jason Foster]

Apparently too, some model run (GFS likely) put a few spots of snow around DC shortly...LOL. Man, talk about fantasy storm!

I'm impressed with the amount of cold air this early in the season. Of course it is too early to tell what that means for the Mid-Atlantic region, but we are SO OVERDUE for a good year. Last year we did have one cold spell of near zero degree temperatures, but in the past that was common three to five times per year.

Glad to see most of you have seen snow already out west. Hope it keeps up there and here.

 

[Stephen Levine]

Beginning this past Friday morning we skipped a season here in the DFW area. Temps dropped into the low 50's on Friday and stayed there under gray windy skies.. The chill factor was listed as 47 degrees on the NWS Site.. It was the first time I've worn gloves so early in the season since 1991 when I left New England.
Continued gray and cold Sat. with mid-50's highs . . normal for around Christmas. 59 degrees on Sunday was a record minimum high, again under gray skies.

 

[Jason Harris]

Finally going to get a cold front coming down to FL. From a high of 90 in Melbourne expected today to 80 tomorrow. Meanwhile, for perspective, globally this Sept. was the 2nd hottest on record:

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"The combined global land and ocean surface temperature for September 2009 was 0.62°C (1.12°F) above the 20th Century average of 15.0°C (59.0°F). This was the second warmest September on record, behind 2005, and the 33rd consecutive September with a global temperature above the 20th Century average."
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=global&year=2009&month=9&submitted=Get+Report

 

[MatthewCarman]

It has been very cold here and we already had snow in central Iowa a week or two ago. That does not happen often but we have had snow storms before with leaves still on the trees.

 

[John Farley]

The first half of October was the 3rd-coldest on record in St. Louis, according to one of our local TV stations. Nearly 6 inches of rain, too.