beavis1729

Of course (unfortunately) it’s hard to argue with what you’re saying, based on how our country is currently structured ..but my view all along is that the pandemic is exposing the toxic “every man for themselves” culture in the US, where people are pitted against each other for the sake of “the economy”, against the greater good. Sure, it leads to a greater GDP and a lot of wealth...but people and small community/local businesses shouldn’t need to make the difficult decision to risk getting sick for the sake of the economy. We must have something good come out of this pandemic, for the cohesiveness of our society and so people look out for each other and look out for the greater good. For example, paid sick leave, better value health care, paid paternal and maternal leave, etc. We must stop fighting ruthlessly against each other, and stop the idea that we must out do someone else in order to better ourselves. The American individualist ideal is tiresome and, combined with the toxicity of technology and social media, has led us to where we are today.

I can definitely vouch for this airmass, even on the far west end of the arctic lobe here in the NW suburbs of Chicago. Temps were only in the low 40s yesterday afternoon with nearly full sunshine. Didn’t quite set a record low max, but it’s nearly impossible to be that cold in peak heating around here on May 8th unless complete cloud cover and/or heavy rain is occurring. Temps that low with an early August sun angle speaks to the insanely cold airmass for the time of year. Normal high is 68. A few spots in N IL dropped to the mid 20s this morning, probably close to all time late season cold...but there aren’t many long lasting PORs besides ORD and RFD, which only dropped to 31 and 29 respectively due to UHI influences.

Part of the balance that needs to be considered is that, while people can reasonably debate whether the government should have mandated business closing and other actions as much as they did, it's unacceptable (to me) that the government didn't provide more reassurance and income for people while this is occurring. For example, just say "we will give you 75% of your annual 2019 W-2/1099 income every month until the end of 2020, up to a cap of X...with no questions asked". This would have been much more efficient than all of the complicated first-come first-served PPP/loan programs/stimulus checks that are happening now, and most importantly, it would've given people reassurance. Also, it would stop pitting people against each other. When a country has a crisis, people need to come together, not be arguing. Capitalism doesn't work well during a crisis, as the inherent desire to be competitive with other people is a very bad thing during a crisis. This is a horrendous faliure in leadership from this administration. Sure, there would probably be inflation and other unintended economic issues down the road as a result of this...but what is the alternative? People would have much more incentive to care about public health and social distance if they didn't need to worry about their paycheck and survival. This is what's causing all of the problems, imo.

Looks hot in Las Vegas early next week. It could be the first time in recorded history to hit 100 in April.

Bingo - I hear you. And, I think it’s precisely this uncertainty that is driving the overwhelming government response. Not saying it’s right or wrong... To me, the only solution is to enable widespread testing with almost immediate results...so that people can self-isolate as needed, and everyone else can get back to relative normal, even if masks are still required out of an abundance of caution.

It’s due to increased testing. There could be some other ancillary reasons, but increased testing is the simplest explanation. Occam’s Razor.

Unfortunately, pretty much all sporting events, concerts, etc. are doing this...whether it’s StubHub or Ticketmaster or the venues themselves. It’s extremely annoying, even if there may be reasons for it. Just issue the refunds for all events, if they didn’t occur on the scheduled date. Doesn’t matter if the event has not technically been canceled. Same issue with airline ticket refunds. I have 8 tickets around the US that were previously booked for my family and I for this spring and summer. I canceled all of them, and we can use the money as a credit for future flights by YE 2021...but I would rather have the money back as a refund so that I can make the decision. This is especially frustrating because airlines took a lot of the government stimulus money. Just do what’s best for the customer, and be done with it. Very simple.

This is the main point. Buckeye - I (and many others, I'm sure) do understand where you are coming from...but what does it say about us as a country/society/culture when there are so many deaths that occur for every 1pp increase in the unemployment rate? That is the issue. It's not about hard-core idealistic socialism...but we really need to stop with this "every man for himself" attitude in this country, and create communities where we all do what's best for the greater good, not competing viciously against one another for every nickle and dime of income so that we can barely survive until the next paycheck. What kind of a life is that? Why is our health care tied to employment in the first place? Why don't we have paid sick leave like other countries have? What do we value?? Sure, these policies would mean a higher cost of goods and services...but isn't that a reasonable price to pay for security in health and wellness? COVID-19 is exposing so many of these underlying issues in our culture. Of course an individual's own business that they spent blood, sweat, and tears on is important and valuable and should be protected as much as possible. But in a country as wealthy as we are, why can't we pull out all the economic stops to help every single person in this country...knowing that it's an emergency that will better position us for the long-term. Basically, what Powerball referenced. When 40% of people live paycheck to paycheck, $1,200 doesn't help much. Yes, these emergency measures may mean higher taxes or other challenges down the road...but it's an emergency. Why don't we all work with each other and collectively sacrifice for the greater good? We need to stop the "you vs. me" attitude that is toxic to this country.

I think that's right, along with (2) more testing and (3) health-care professionals still needing to work and then unfortunately spreading the virus back into the community or their families due to lack of PPE. Just my thoughts...not saying they are 100% validated and tested.

Not sure if this perspective has been discussed much on here...but if you can get past his angry and egotistical style of writing, it's an interesting hypothesis. Most importantly - if this hypothesis is really true, what is the best solution going forward? https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=238738

Agree. And, there are income limits. https://www.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-checks-direct-deposits-coming-105454070.html

Per NWS Anchorage, I think the official site (Ted Stevens airport) hit 90. Previous all time record high was 85...and, on average, Anchorage only hits 80 once every 4 years. This is crazy.

Not sure if this is the appropriate thread...but the dewpoint at Barrow (Utqiagvik) AK hit 58 yesterday. That is shocking to me...at 71.3N, right on the Arctic Ocean.

Good catch on ND. I updated the list (and OH too, per the other post). Christmas Eve 1983 must have been a great night for the good folks of Williston to sit in front of the fireplace and enjoy the holiday spirit. Those are some good old-fashioned winter conditions...wow.

Yeah, I was 9 years old for the December 1983 arctic outbreak, living in the Chicago suburbs. It’s my first weather memory.

Good catch...the -52 seems legitimate. I updated the list (1st post of the thread). Same with your comments upthread for HI, OR, WA, MA.

Nice. That is an insane airmass...-23 in Akron OH with a 21 mph wind out of the SW. Wow...

Very rarely in that part of the world. In fact, they hardly ever occur even in the Chicago area...where winter temps average about 6-8 degrees colder than northern KS. As an example...despite the fact that 1/6/2014 was a brutally cold and windy day in northern IL, wind chills "only" dropped to around -45.

Good find. In those hourlies, I see -21 with 16 mph wind, and -22 with 14 mph wind. Both result in a WC of -47. The intra-hour reading showed a 16 mph wind, but no temp to go along with it. Again, can't take it too seriously; part of the challenge and fun of science is putting the pieces together and finding/analyzing data. The planet has been around for a long time...I'm sure some of records will be broken in the next 50-100 years. Some of it depends on timing and having a better observation network now; we don't need to hope that the extreme events occur only at the major reporting stations. For example - if the record cold in Bartlesville, OK in Feb 2011 occurred a generation ago, we would have probably never known about it. Same with tropical storms in the middle of the Atlantic. Just part of the journey. I've updated the list in the first post of the thread; it's easier to keep track there.

Oops. I got it from this article...I guess they missed it. https://www.pressherald.com/2014/01/04/how_low_can_portland_temperatures_go__/

I poked around and looked for hourly temp/wind obs in Maine during late Feb 1943, but no luck so far. The -39 in Portland is even more shocking because, not only does it blow all other low temp readings out of the water in Portland...but it occurred relatively late in the season...on 2/26/1943. A cool 58 degrees below the 1981-2010 normal low of 19. Yikes.

Nice graphs...and for those interested in AK weather & climate, that Alaska-wx blog website is great. Wow, nearly every single day from Nov 2017 - Mar 2018 was above normal in Barrow (and these are recent normals, i.e. 1981-2010)...and many of those days were way way above normal. Perhaps it's not too surprising, as the persistently low amount of ice north of Barrow over the past 10-15 years significantly moderates the temps in Barrow due to E or NE flow...but still.

Ok, come on...this is not meant to be personal. All I'm trying to do is have a good list based on verifiable numbers. I'm a scientist, so it's important to have quality control of the data. It's not a personal vendetta. If others are estimated besides IN and KS, you're right that they shouldn't be on there either. It's a work in progress.

Ha...got to fill the summer downtime!!

These WC records are intended to be actual measured readings of temperature and sustained winds (even if intra-hour), not interpolated estimates based on winds at nearby areas, and not to fill in missing data.