The fine line between intense and brutal
The last week of December and much of early January saw the arrival of some very cold Arctic air from the northern reaches of Canada and Alaska. The cold air persisted through the middle of January and then we were visited by a January thaw that allowed the ice and snow to melt away and the cold to retreat. Sometimes the thaw lasts just a day or two, other times it can hang around for a week or more. The exception was 1977, which saw no thaw and some of the coldest weather ever experienced in our area.
In comparison to other Arctic invasions, the recent one in my opinion, was on the mild side. Listening to the news reports of the Arctic cold, you may have thought the world was about to come to a frozen end. Brutal, bone-chilling and dangerous wind chill were some of the descriptions, and not to down play the situation, cold can be dangerous, especially if you are caught outside and unprepared. We live in a time when every winter storm has a name and every snowflake is caught on camera and it seems like adding a bit of hype makes a better story. I can remember when we just called it winter.
Wind chill temperatures are important to the equation and should be a part of the forecast; however, we have one major channel using wind chill instead of actual air temperatures and I feel this is not entirely accurate. It is interesting to note that an actual air temperature of 35 with a wind of 20 mph will produce a wind chill of 20 degrees. Increase the wind speed to 40 mph with that same temperature of 35 and you get a wind chill of zero. In both examples, water still will not freeze even with the wind chills well below freezing or close to zero. Perhaps the word intense would be more appropriate than the word brutal to describe our recent cold air events.
We mentioned 1977 as month with no January thaw. The thermometer went below freezing on December 26 and stayed below freezing until January 27, a period of 33 days.
Also during this month, we experience below zero weather for a period of 50 hours from 10 p.m. on Jan. 16 until 12 p.m. on Jan. 18.
The coldest temperature during this period was 17 below zero. The entire month saw an average temperature of just 11.4 degrees, which was 6 degrees colder than the previous coldest month of January in 1940. The average temperature is 26.1 degrees. I remember all of the rivers in Western Pennsylvania covered with ice to the point that fuel shipments were disrupted. Along with the cold came the snow, 40 inches for the month.
The worst recorded cold ever in the area was January 1994. This time it was 52 hours of continuous below zero temperatures from Jan. 18-20.
The lowest was 22 below zero, which is our coldest recorded temperature. The afternoon temperature failed to get above 3 below zero and we had our coldest day ever with a mean temperature of just 13 below zero.
Minimum temperatures in the area average 5 days below zero each winter.
Maximum temperatures are zero or lower about once every 10 years or a 9 percent chance in a year.
Minimum temperatures are below -10 about once every five years or 18 percent chance a year.
On a warmer note, it was 79 degrees on January 25, 1950.