The big news today is the weather
It’s a relatively slow news day in the USA.
The big news is the midwest big chill. It’s really really really cold—although as a person who’s been in the midwest in winter for extended periods of time, I have to say that far-below-zero temperatures aren’t unusual there. But this is record-setting cold even for that region, and it extends over a large area:
Records are being shattered and communities are enduring the harshest cold in years as the polar vortex tightens its grip on the midwestern United States.
After the polar vortex plunged southward, temperatures plummeted under 20 below zero F from North Dakota to northern Illinois on Wednesday morning.
Biting winds made the extreme cold more life-threatening as AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures dropped under 50 below zero. Frostbite can occur in mere minutes on exposed skin in these conditions.
Not here in sunny New England. We’ve had what I consider a pretty mild winter so far.
How about you?
I’m in San Francisco. 60 degrees and blue skies all around. Also, bums and lefties. BIRM.
It’s a little chilly for margaritas by the pool so I’m having Irish coffee on the patio.
Very, very cold and snowy in Central NY. We had below-zero temperatures and a total of more than two feet of snow (not all at once) before Thanksgiving. Things warmed up for a while around Christmas but then we plunged back into winter. It was 10 below at my house this morning, and it looks like Siberia out there. Now, it’s true that I live at a high elevation and in a particularly chilly area of the state. But still!
NW Ohio, high today expected to be -6, record sub zero low tonight (was record low last night). Have about 4 inches snow on ground. Forecast high Tuesday to be 53!?! Oh well…
The low will be in the upper teens here in central NC tonight. This is cold for us! Guess I’d better go see if we’ve still got enough propane.
73 in Tucson but my nephew had to take his father to the ER today in Chicago.
My wife and I went for a long hike on Sunday. It was 70F and sunny on central coast CA. We have a number of seasonal weather patterns that usually show up on time, but not always. But a few really summery days in the 3rd or 4th week of Jan. always show up to break the monotony of the rain. Now a 4+ day streak of rain is coming.
I grew up in upstate NY, so sub-zero was standard. I recall waiting for the schoolbus at -20 a few times back in the latter half of the 20th century. The North Carolina mountains are home now. It was about +18 here this morning. It’s been much colder. This winter has been colder and wetter than the past 20 years or so around here. Still not much snow for us here. We’re sheltered so that a snowstorm has to come up from Atlanta or else the Smokey’s send it north of us.
We were in New Orleans last weekend, but it was only in the 50s. We were hoping for warmer weather. Fort Lauderdale this weekend, where it’s supposed to be mid-70s. That’s more like it. (Both trips are medical related, so it’s not all fun and games.)
My world-renowned Country Estate is about 50 miles north of Raleigh. Was 19 here last night, supposed to be 13 tonight. We’ve been having winds gusting to around 50mph all afternoon. When I went down to get the mail, I got to wear my combo neck gaiter and face mask, along with my flannel-lined wool felt fedora. The mask would fit better if I had a significantly smaller nose, but it did keep the wind off my elderly jowls. On the other hand, I’m from Boston and once worked the night shift, on the waterfront, coast of Maine in the wintertime. Now that was cold. But I was young then.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/01/its-too-cold-for-the-post-office.php
Global warming and polar vortexes — it has lots of pictures.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/01/30/this-is-why-global-warming-is-responsible-for-freezing-temperatures-across-the-usa/#f188a2ad8cf8
A simplified account of basically the same explanation, with the same pictures.
https://scijinks.gov/polar-vortex/
On the other hand,
https://www.aer.com/science-research/climate-weather/arctic-oscillation/
Arctic Oscillation and Polar Vortex Analysis and Forecasts
January 28, 2019
So — Climate Change: is there anything it doesn’t cause?
It’s been the usual mild winter here on the central east coast of Florida. But today is, for here… very cold. Usually, “winter” here means ‘not hot and muggy’ but today is warm overcoat, gloves and a head covering weather. It’s a semi-wet cold chilly wind day.
Obviously, this is due to global warming. Or are we, as some speculate, headed into another mild ice age? If so, I can hardly wait for the 180 the climate scam artists will pull. Remember, for the left… love is never having to say you’re sorry.
Sunny and nearly 50 in the Denver area.
It is almost always sunny here.
97% of scientists agree that when it gets colder, it’s weather, and when it gets warmer, it’s climate. Simple, no?
Breitbart has a news item stating that several small towns just north of the twin cities MN have experienced natural gas pressure failures. The utility is telling them to set their thermostats below 60F and use electric room heaters where possible.
It got down to -26, here in Baraboo, WI, LAST night, with wind chills in the -40’s. Tonight the Weather Service is saying -35, with -60 wind chill. Mid 40’s on Sunday.
MAGA MAKE AMERICA GLACIAL AGAIN!
Here in Central Florida today it was cloudy and in the mid/high 50s, with a brisk breeze. That feels freezing to many of us. But when the sun is out on a 50s day, it’s great.
Puget Sound is having a warmer and dryer winter than normal. Our local weather guy says it’s due to El Nino. In fact El Nino years are also colder than normal in the central U.S. So, it sounds about righto me.
Joe Bastardi at Weather Bell has does historical weather studies that show cyclical patterns that repeat over the years. All due to the El Nino, La Nina shift that occurs in the Pacific. When the climate experts find out why that shift occurs, (They have theories just as they have a theory of AGW, but they don’t actually KNOW.) they may be closer to actually understanding global climate change and its real causes.
St. Cloud, Minnesota. True minus 28 at 6 a.m. Wind 15 to 20. “Chill” has an entirely different meaning up here. We don’t have a homeless problem, though . . .
Pacific Northwest. The weather has been glorious for the last two days! Temps are crisp, but not too cold.
It’s a balmy 3 degrees here in Pittsburgh this evening (minus 4 earlier today). Similar temps tomorrow.
My employer (a university) closed today and Thursday due to the weather, so I can’t say I hate this vortex too much.
NW Louisiana is having an actual winter this year, as it has gotten down into the 20s a few times at night. Temperatures are on the rebound now, it seems.
Here, we have the coldest temperatures since 1996. The overnight low will be -25, wind chill today was -43. Last night the low was -34. Friends in northern Minnesota have been surviving just fine with wind chills in the -60s. This current polar blast is NBD. Come summer we are likely to have a few 100F days with 80+% humidity. Extremes are a part of living in flyover country. That is why Iowa has not been a destination of blue staters fleeing high taxes and the crazy politics of places like NY and CA.
Keep flying over please.
Well, Near Chicago (and In Chicago also, I understand) we are having a bit of a cold snap. Yesterday, today clear and sunny, no pesky clouds about to trap the heat which might otherwise cause an unwelcome warmth, perhaps driving up temps to as high as zero; but we also have a very attractive blanket of perhaps 6″ of snow in our neighborhood, so it’s all okay.
The high a mile or two NW of our house today was given as -13?, and last night’s low I think was about -24?. Tonight we’re supposed to go down to -32? at the airport, but tomorrow we’re to warm up, with the temp possibly as high as -5?.
Then CAGW will set in for a few days, with the temp predicted to be 49? by Monday … all accompanied by a bit of rain. Cooling off to something more acceptable for the next few days after that, and there the forecast runs out.
This sort of weather is uncommon, but not exactly new news even if we do break a record by a degree or two. Hereabouts it really has gotten a mite chilly from time to time in the past….
Yea, it’s freakin’ cold here in the Midwest. But honestly it’s not that bad where I’m located. Unless you work outside, wait for public transportation or are homeless, you’re either out in the unforgiving weather briefly when you step from your front door, to your car, and to the place of destination, and then back again. It’s absolutely doable.
The headlines today make if out to be as if there was a massacre from the cold (e.g., one headline implied five died last night by weather when in reality it was only two; the other three died by car crashes).
No Edit tonight. But all those ?s after the temperatures were supposed to be ? signs.
Huh! Maybe it has nothing to do with my keyboard. I know for certain that I pressed the right keys for the “degrees” circle, and that’s what showed up in the Comments box. So, somewhere between here and WordPress the transmission must have gone awry.
Julie,
It is the unusual never before experienced fact of scary climate change. We all have to move to Mars or perhaps Venus which is warmer than Algored’s farts. Or so I have been told by reliable sources.
parker,
I will never forget one year when I was at school in Chicago — maybe 1963? It was about halfway through February, and there came a day when the high was in the upper 50’s, and the next day it got clear up into the 60’s. When you’re the age I was then, it feels positively balmy. And for some reason I was really tired of winter that year (normally I love winter), and my heart was convinced that it was Spring for sure, and no backtalk from the Upper Quarters please.
Sigh … fond expectations. HQ sent down a notice next day, when we were back to the normal 30’s, that it had Told Me So and next time not to get so silly.
But it was a very nice non-AGW break in the cold, windy Chicago weather all the same. :>)
Julie,
I remember the winters of 1966-67, 1978-79, and 1996. Bitter cold, weeks of snow, and no electricity for many days. Thankfully we had a woodsrove, plenty of wood, and a gas stove and water heater. Soup, more soup, beans and cornbread. Winter and summer extremes make one tough and not a whiner. Lots of time to play euchre.
Not here in sunny New England. We’ve had what I consider a pretty mild winter so far.
Well, it’s supposed to be sunny here along the CT coast when the sun hauls itself out of bed at 7:05, and the temps are scheduled to rise all the way to 20F. It’s 4F as I type. It’s been a mild winter in regard to snowfall, but we’ve had some cold snaps too– though nothing like what’s afflicting the Midwest.
OTOH, only 11 days to go until Spring Training, and I wouldn’t mind stowing away on the Phillies team van as it heads toward Clearwater, FL.
We need at least one feel-good story this week.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/427784-good-samaritan-pays-for-hotel-rooms-for-70-homeless-in-chicago
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/320244/
JANUARY 30, 2019
SINCERE QUESTION: Sincere question: Did any of the experts who are now saying the “polar vortex” increasingly coming south is a result of climate change (in particular, polar ice melting due to warming) *predict* this would be a result of climate change before it happened? If so, it would give me much greater faith in their understanding of climate change. If not…
Posted by David Bernstein at 3:25 pm
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/320173/
JANUARY 30, 2019
TOM HARRIS AND DR. TIM BALL: Record Cold Forces Rethink on Global Warming. “The recent weather is a stark reminder that a colder world is a much greater threat than a warmer one. While governments plan for warming, all the indications are that the world is cooling. And, contrary to the proclamations of climate activists, every single year more people die from the cold than from the heat.”
You don’t want to live in a John Ringo novel, but you do want to read all of what Harris and Ball have to say.
FLASHBACK: Climate Change Made Simple.
Posted by Stephen Green at 10:54 am
It’s hard—incredibly hard—for me to admit this…but fair is fair:
There can be absolutely no doubt that Obama can claim victory for his extraordinarily prescient policy leading to the vanquishing of America’s GREATEST foe:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climate-obama/obama-tells-coast-guard-grads-climate-change-menaces-u-s-idUSKBN0O513H20150520
Another HUGE achievement. Another well-deserved notch in his designer belt. What foresight! What wisdom! What planning! What execution!!
And with our military currently on a roll, there’s no time to waste: it’s time to send crack units (Marines, 101st Airborne, Navy Seals—all of ’em!) to poor Oz, our suffering, beleaguered ally—overrun by odious Climate Change—to help them throw back the relentless enemy, this nefarious nemesis, this merciless killing machine.
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/australia-fries-as-the-heat-soars-higher
Australia has always stood by us. With us. Our GREAT country has the momentum. LET’S DO IT!!!
And let us not lose our nerve in this glorious and noble battle!
From the Halls of Montezuma,
To the Shores of Bondi Beach….
Here in the Adirondacks, we are used to this bitter cold in the winter. In my small village, what we fear the most is bitter cold without snow on the ground.
We need the insulating layer so that water pipes do not freeze underground. But we have, from the last two storms, roughly 35 inches on the ground (We got 23 inches on 1/19). So that’s good.
I have found the key to enjoying winter, and stopping my natural tendency to veer toward SAD, is finding outdoor activities to look forward to: snowshoe hiking and XC skiing are my favorites. No bugs, no crowds. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Even camping is fun if you are prepared. You haven’t lived until you’ve camped on a frozen lake with a campfire in front of you in a depression in the ice! If you know how to dress, weather is rarely a problem.
As the Norwegians say, “It’s not the weather, its the clothing.”
Should also note the existence of “cultural climate change”, a related phenomenon that is perhaps just as threatening.
Key graph:
“Maybe as the cultural climate changes I can try again…”
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/porn-star-ends-her-17-month-campaign-to-get-on-dem-ticket-for-2020-presidential-election
Weather is never caused by AGW. Until, of course, it can be used to advance the cause of scientific researchers everywhere … More Research Money!!!
“Breitbart has a news item stating that several small towns just north of the twin cities MN have experienced natural gas pressure failures.”
I remember the same thing happening in Albuquerque, NM one winter. It got down to -20F and the pressure in the natural gas pipelines dropped. Everybody lit their coal stoves or fireplaces. Back then lots of people still heated with wood or coal but now it’s outlawed because of pollution. In the winter an inversion layer would form over Albuquerque and trap the smoke. The entire city smelled like it was on fire.
Relatively warm here, in Moscow, for this time of the year, about 0 degree C. But unusually heavy snowfall, and snow cover is 3 times higher than usual. Also, this winter began much earlier, in mid November, which is a whole month earlier than expected.
Salt Lake City here. Typical winter — low of about 20 at night, highs in the mid-to-upper 30’s in the day.
We occasionally get cold snaps where it will drop into single digits, but the last one of those was in 2013.
The different valleys have different micro-climates around here though. The Tooele valley about 20 miles west of Salt Lake valley can get 3 feet of snow while SL valley is clear. Skull Valley (west of Tooele) can be below zero while it’s above freezing in both Salt Lake and Tooele.
I grew up in the Chicago suburbs — the temps there right now are certainly below normal, but not *that* much. I walked home from school in -10 (with wind chills far below that) many a time. I remember days of -28 and -32 also. The infamous “blizzard of ’79” was a magical wonderland to little of kindergartener me. My boy scout troop did an annual winter camp in February where we’d head up to southern Wisconsin and sleep cold. Most years it would be single digits at night and maybe into the 20’s during the day, though one year it was -4 at night and never got out of single digits during the day, nevermind the wind chill — that year we mostly just stood around the fire….