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Early January 2014 cold snaps - featuring the polar vortex of doom


Ian

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This is nothing run of the mill cold snap much ado about nothing .

Now this was cold I remember it well..

January-February, 1994 Cold and Ice: An unusual assault of snow, ice and cold struck. On January 2-4, 6 to 12 inches of snow fell across Washington and Allegany Counties with 12 to 15 inches in Garrett County. Areas to the east saw ice and slush. A small storm struck on the 12th dropping another 4 to 6 inches across the highlands. This was followed by an arctic blast that sent temperatures single digits and teens with wind chills down to 25 below zero on the 15th. Another snowstorm hit January 17-18 dropping 6 to 10 inches across Carroll and Frederick Couties and 10 to 18 inches across Washington, Allegany and Garrett Counties. Frostburg reported the most snow from the event with 20 inches, Hagerstown had 13 inches. Snow sleet and freezing rain fell across the Baltimore and Washington metro areas. Minimum temperatures plunged below zero on January 19-21. Emmitsburg and Hancock reached -27�F, Unionville -22�F, Frostburg -21�F, Catoctin Mountain Park -18�F, Cumberland and Martinsburg -15�F, Westminister and Finksburg -14�F, Manchester -13�F, Mount Airy and Laurel -12�F, Potomac and Cockeysville -9�F, Northwest DC -7�F, Chestertown and Princess Anne -6�F, Annapolis -4�F and Salisbury 0�F. Washington, DC set a new record for the coldest high temperature for any calendar day this century when it only reached 6.8�F. The previous record was 8�F set on January 8, 1912. The record for the previous century was 4�F on February 10, 1899. Wind chills on the night of the 18th into the 19th ranged from -28�F at Baltimore and Salisburg to -35� in Martinsburg WV and Washington DC to -56�F at McHenry (Garrett County). The arctic cold wave rocketed the use of electricity and natural gas for heating. The effect over such a large portion of the Eastern U.S. caused the power companies in some areas to go into rolling black outs so as not to lose the entire power grid.

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Yes-- the goal is definitely for DCA to be below tomorrow afternoon's high by midnight, and for that afternoon high to be <18 F. 

Yup. 2009 was nothing to sneeze at but given the 10 days of hype it would be nice to beat. Though, this will be my coldest in DC at least I suppose since I was not in town during 2009.

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Well Ian wrote an article about coldest weather in 20 years ;) So, it'd better be colder than a 14.5 F average day at DCA..... or better yet, to beat 2/96, better than a 13 F average. 

"among"

 

I've already verified. :P

 

But yeah.. I'd like to see it actually verify. At least it was the most read piece on the whole Post website for a good chunk of the day.

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Yup. 2009 was nothing to sneeze at but given the 10 days of hype it would be nice to beat. Though, this will be my coldest in DC at least I suppose since I was not in town during 2009.

Well, like the snow last Thursday night, I think you can safely say this will beat 1/09 for DC metro, including downtown DC. Even if DCA comes in at 30 F in five minutes, you know the rest of the city is in the mid-20's already.

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Been another hour, now 8.0 with a DP of -8.1. Wind W at 13/G19 for a WC of -8.

Another 3.5 degree drop.  That is a 5, 5, 3.5 and 3.5 last 4 hours.

Looks like the cold is going UP the Valley heading north???

Tomorrow morning you will be at least -12. What I wouldn't give for one good deep breath of -12 air, on a 35 mph wind gust

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Fire up the bus Randy, we're going to Buffalo!

...BLIZZARD WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM EST WEDNESDAY......WIND CHILL WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM EST TUESDAY...THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BUFFALO HAS ISSUED A BLIZZARDWARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM EST WEDNESDAY.* LOCATIONS...NORTHERN ERIE AND GENESEE COUNTIES...ESPECIALLY  SOUTH OF BUFFALO AND BATAVIA.* TIMING...THROUGH LATE TUESDAY NIGHT.* HAZARDS...BLIZZARD CONDITIONS FROM LAKE EFFECT SNOW AND BLOWING  SNOW.* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS...6 TO 12 INCHES TONIGHT...9 TO 17 INCHES  TUESDAY...AND 1 TO 3 INCHES TUESDAY NIGHT...LEADING TO STORM  TOTALS OF MORE THAN 3 FEET IN THE MOST PERSISTENT LAKE SNOWS.* WINDS...SOUTHWEST 20 TO 30 MPH...GUSTS TO 45 MPH.* VISIBILITIES...NEAR ZERO IN WHITEOUT CONDITIONS AT TIMES.* WIND CHILL VALUES...AS LOW AS 30 BELOW.
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