Minus-56 degrees and more: Brutal cold-air outbreak is smashing records in the Midwest; here are some reports:
Temperatures dove more than 30 degrees below zero Thursday morning in the Midwest in this polar vortex outbreak’s last gasp, driving wind chills to dangerous levels and clobbering long-standing records.
Conditions in northern Minnesota took a nosedive in the early morning hours. The unincorporated community of Cotton measured an actual temperature — not wind chill — of minus-56 degrees. It was four degrees short of Minnesota’s all-time lowest temperature.
Central Pennsylvania weather: Record cold, wind chills from -10 to 5:
SUSQUEHANNA VALLEY, Pa. —
Sunshine is expected in central Pennsylvania's Susquehanna Valley this afternoon, but it's still bitterly cold.
A record cold high temperature could be set this afternoon. The record of 20 degrees was set in 1966, and the WGAL Storm Team is forecasting 16.
https://www.wgal.com/article/central-pennsylvania-weather-record-cold-today/26096618
Ann Arbor breaks 108-year-old cold temperature record:
A century-old record was broken in Ann Arbor on Wednesday.
As a polar vortex drove Arctic air into the Midwest, temperatures plummeted to a record daily low of 13 degrees below zero, and still dropping, by 7 p.m. on Jan. 30 in Ann Arbor, according to the National Weather Service.
The previous daily record, 11 degrees below zero, was set in 1911, according to University of Michigan records.
Madison sets record cold high temperature Wednesday:
While everyone knows we keep records for high and low temperatures, we also keep record for other extremes. One of those is record cold high temperatures in which Madison set a new one on Wednesday. The high temperature only made it to minus 10 degrees and that broke the old record cold high of minus 1 degree set back in 1951!
Record cold stresses furnaces into breakdowns:
INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) – As temperatures plunged below zero outside, some people found the temperature in their homes dropping as well. The dangerous cold puts your furnace under a stress test.
Even with a gas fireplace running and four dogs with fur coats, the Underwoods felt a little chilly Wednesday morning in their home in Sycamore Springs on the northeast side of Indianapolis.
https://www.wthr.com/article/record-cold-stresses-furnaces-breakdowns
Homeless Face Record-Breaking Cold In Parts Of The Nation:
Rachel Martin talks to Debra Gonzalez, founder of the nonprofit organization in Wisconsin, Feeding His Flock Street Ministry, about searching the streets to find homeless people in need of shelter.
Chicago Weather Forecast: More Record-Setting Cold Ahead Of Snow Thursday Night
CHICAGO (CBS) — It’s another day of record-setting cold for Chicago, as Thursday immediately started as the coldest Jan. 31 ever at O’Hare, and kept getting colder.
The temperature was already -18°F when Thursday started, and by shortly before 4 a.m., it was down to -21°F, the coldest it’s ever been on this date. The previous record was -12°F on Jan. 31, 1985.
Thursday also has tied for 10th coldest ever in Chicago, following a day that tied for 5th coldest ever, when temperatures hit -23° on Wednesday.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday February 01 2019, @06:27PM (4 children)
I only got a fairly mild dose here in northern Ohio: we were down to -5F or so at night, +10F during the day or so. This wasn't even the worst one in recent years - a few years back it was at something like -15F.
But no, this didn't used to be normal, and in fact is exactly what was predicted by those egghead climatologists, and is the real-world idea that was Hollywoodized stupidly in The Day After Tomorrow. In short, as air pockets warm up that didn't used to warm up, the barriers that were preventing air movement between the arctic and the tropics are going away, which means all of a sudden Michigan might feel like Alaska, and in the summer all of a sudden the Yukon might feel like Minnesota.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @07:16PM (2 children)
Source?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday February 01 2019, @08:52PM (1 child)
I don't know the GP's source, but I got the same info from the Scientific American. Only a couple of years ago, but they weren't reporting on new research, but telling people about old established results.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @08:55PM
Can you find it online?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @10:55PM
Didn't used to be normal? How long back are you considering "normal" to be? Back in the 1990s and 1980s, most of Ohio had winter days down to the -20s. I looked it up really quick to verify dates, but I knew it happened because I remember it -- I was there at the time.
This is not unusual. It doesn't happen every winter, but it happens plenty of winters during a human lifetime. If you honestly think this is out of the ordinary, perhaps you haven't lived long enough (in the same place) yet.