Where has the winter cold gone?
Where has the cold gone?
Weather in past winters has almost always included a visit from the Polar Vortex.
The vortex results from a build-up of frigid artic air that amasses into an ever-increasing mound of cold air on the long, dark days of the frozen arctic. If the jet stream winds are favorable, they pick up portions of this cold air mound and push it southward, bringing us howling winds and below zero temperatures, along with frequent lake effect snow falls.
In recent years, we have had only a few visits of the Vortex and the result has been a series of mild winters across our region. Weather scientists this year have been keeping their eye on the cold dark arctic regions, but, so far, we have been favored with just chilly air and some snow, but no frigid below zero weather.
Europe and much of Russia have not had it so mild. Heavy snows and very cold temperatures have plagued Europe this winter and just a few days ago the Siberian Times reported a low temperature on Jan. 18 of 73 degrees below zero at a place called Yakutsk. The afternoon high was 69 below. Temperatures in mid-December dropped to 40 degrees below zero and have not risen above that level.
This is the coldest and most severe visit from the Polar Vortex in the past 14 years. Yakutsk is the coldest inhabited place on the planet. In 1933, a record of minus-90 was recorded and has not been seen since. The region is part of large rural geographical region that has been part of modern Russia since the 16th century.
The coldest low for the USA is 80 degrees below zero at a place called Prospect Creek, Alaska, and occurred on Jan. 23, 1973. The two weather observers who made the recording threw a dish of water high into the air and before it hit the ground it made a hissing sound and fell to the ground as pellets of ice. Metal snapped like ice, and rubber was as hard as cement. The world蘑菇视频 record for cold is 129 degrees below zero at the scientific base in Vostox, Antarctica.
In 1899, a Polar Vortex made its way from the Arctic all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. New Orleans reported three inches of snow and snow squalls were reported from ships out in the Gulf of Mexico. Tallahassee, Fla., recorded snow and Florida蘑菇视频 all-time record low of 2 below zero. This same Vortex dropped temperature to minus-61 in Montana and 59 below in Minnesota. The Minnesota record stood until Feb. 1, 1996, when the village of Tower, Minn., established the new state record of minus-60.
Closer to home, Smethport, Pa., reported minus-42 on Jan. 5, 1904. Ohio has seen minus-39 and West Virginia 37 degrees below zero. The record for Uniontown was minus-22 and in our nearby mountains, Elliotsville recorded a low of minus-34.
Looking ahead, even with climate change, we can occasionally expect visits from the Polar Vortex. The outlook for the next several weeks calls for temperatures to be a bit below normal, and rain and snow to average a little above for the first week and a little below for the second week.