BullCityWx Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 I was looking at monthly temperatures at KCLT and I noticed that 84-85 featured a very warm December(50.0 avg temp-5th warmest all time) only to be followed by a January that was very cold(35.6). In fact, that January is the coldest January we've had since 1977. Can anyone give me some information on that winter? la nina? el nino? what other factors were in play that made December so warm yet January so cold? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BullCityWx Posted December 10, 2011 Author Share Posted December 10, 2011 And I know about the arctic outbreak midmonth, I'm just trying to find out what caused the flip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Bob Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 And I know about the arctic outbreak midmonth, I'm just trying to find out what caused the flip. Arctic outbreak????? That is all you call it? I was a freshman in college with no met courses that year...I wish it had been a year or two later. I think you might do well with this one on the main forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BullCityWx Posted December 10, 2011 Author Share Posted December 10, 2011 Arctic outbreak????? That is all you call it? I was a freshman in college with no met courses that year...I wish it had been a year or two later. I think you might do well with this one on the main forum. yeah, lookout can feel free to move it over if he likes. I was looking at the daily obs and to be in the single digits in Charlotte in the afternoon is nothing short of amazing. Wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIG FROSTY Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 I remember going to work one night in Jan 1985 can't remember date but it was 5 below when I left @ 11pm to go to work!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 That was an amazing outbreak! Remember it well. We wound up with 7 inches of fluff from the arctic front and temps dropped unbelievably fast that night as they fell from a high of 34 that day to 11 below by midnight! The high the next day was 4 below zero with the low being -27. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southern Track Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 It's hard to forget that January! I remember I was helping my older sister move into an apartment and we were miserable being out in that cold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LithiaWx Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 1984-1985 looks like a weak la nina year. http://www.cpc.ncep....ensoyears.shtml Also looks like a +PDO AO I had a hard time finding actual values for the AMO, AO, PDO, PNA, NAO but they are out there somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnweathernut Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 I have been waiting for some time to see a thread on 84-85. I had even thought about starting the thread myself so thanks to Queencitywx for putting this out there. It appears as if that year was the benchmark for some areas of the southeast as there were SEVERAL snows in the south/midsouth that year, not to mention a once every 30-40 years arctic outbreak. Memphis was hit especially hard that year as was most of the state of Tennessee. Enjoy the following links to youtube videos, but be forewarned. It will set your inner weenie on fire! I'd like to think we are headed down a similar road late month and into our better months (January and February) Some of the videos are grainy, and it would appear this wouldn't have been a banner year for the carolinas, but for areas around memphis - they'd take a redux of 1985 and not bat an eyelash. I bet that year Memphians thought they were the new Buffalo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnweathernut Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 It's one thing to look at indexes and other values, but quite another to actually SEE what mother nature was throwing at the boys and girls back then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
it*has*an*i Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Was chilly all the way to Florida Tallahassee Fl had a low of 6 and a High of 28 on January 21, 1985 Jacksonville had a low of 7 and a high of 30 that same day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnweathernut Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 One more with old school Weather Channel graphics. Pretty cool stuff and it takes me back to my childhood too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bybksd9I2rQ&NR=1&feature=endscreen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
it*has*an*i Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 One more with old school Weather Channel graphics. Pretty cool stuff and it takes me back to my childhood too. Ha ha our cable system didn't even carry TWC in 1985 so we had to wait on the 6 o'clock local news to catch the local weather or watch CNN. I didn't even know such a channel existed. Its also weird how people recorded TWC back in the 80s. There was no internet to share the video on YouTube back then. Ronald Reagan's 2nd Inauguration took place on 1/21/85 and had to be moved indoors due to the sub-zero temps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carvers Gap Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 So, qcwx, are you thinking there might be some connection to this year or are you just remembering better times? I see the PDO/weak Nina correlation above. Past that, I am no expert on this time frame as far as data goes. I will say that I was under my house w/ my dad thawing out pipes - brutal work. Had to make sure the light was on in the well house. Spent several Saturdays in school to make-up for the cold/snow. It was -26F where I was in KTRI at the time. Probably my favorite winter of all time. Thing is, that is like the rubber band that broke climate speaking. After that, the winters became increasingly warmer until the 2000s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carvers Gap Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Here are some scanned historic weather observations from Kingsport for that winter: November 1984 December 1984 January 1985 February 1985 Notice the warmth mid-December and in November. The previous summer of that winter was not terribly bad. Here is a good article from the NWS in Newport/Morehead City w/ accompanying weather maps.... Hit it. Here is the AO value for 1984...See pg 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnweathernut Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Thanks for posting those reports. Looks like December was mild YET dry, which isn't the case so far this month as we are already over 2.5 inches for the month. Will be interesting to see if we can snap the rubber band as we head into winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnweathernut Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Here are some scanned historic weather observations from Kingsport for that winter: November 1984 December 1984 January 1985 February 1985 Notice the warmth mid-December and in November. The previous summer of that winter was not terribly bad. Here is a good article from the NWS in Newport/Morehead City w/ accompanying weather maps.... Hit it. You can see on the 500 charts the enormity of the polar vortex over the northeast and the disturbance in the flow that had no where to go but down the west coast, through the four corners and east into the southeast creating an "old school" snowstorm. I say old school because after the 80s, we really haven't seen very many like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carvers Gap Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Thanks for posting those reports. Looks like December was mild YET dry, which isn't the case so far this month as we are already over 2.5 inches for the month. Will be interesting to see if we can snap the rubber band as we head into winter. Exactly. Going to be tough to find an La Nina analog due to that. Like last winter broke the mold, the wet December is doing that this year. It's almost like we are in a climatic period that is writing its own modern-era analogs. I have a strong suspicion this has to do w/ solar factors that are well beyond our understanding, i.e. we can observe but just don't have the depth of time to understand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carvers Gap Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 Thanks for posting those reports. Looks like December was mild YET dry, which isn't the case so far this month as we are already over 2.5 inches for the month. Will be interesting to see if we can snap the rubber band as we head into winter. I almost feel that the warm winters in the late 90s were the rubber band that snapped us back to reasonable winter weather, though snowstorm speaking we have not returned. But, I think we are on our way on a macro scale to colder winters - even if this winter is mild. Evidence for this would be increased, regular snowfall events in the 2000s for KTRI. The fact that it is snowing again in December is reassuring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superjames1992 Posted December 11, 2011 Share Posted December 11, 2011 "The Coldest Day" occurred during that ridiculously cold January. That's crazy to see 95% of the state below zero for the overnight low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freeze Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 High of 5 degrees in Athens, Ga that day. I was going to school there and pipes were bursting all over the place. However, as cold as it was, we never had any snow that winter and If I remember correctly the cold spell didn't last that long either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCSNOW Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 In H.S. down east. If I remember correctly the Albermarle and Pamlico Sounds froze completely over. Not sure if or when thats happened before, last year there was some freezing but not shore to shore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoresman Posted December 20, 2011 Share Posted December 20, 2011 Was a kid in Memphis during that winter. Pretty sure we were wearing shorts in Dec...... That was the year the Memphis city schools delayed releasing the kids until we had over 6+ inches of snow on the ground. Some kids didnt get home until well after midnight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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