Record Breaking Cold January 3-4 & 7-8 Discussion & Observations

[pazzo83]

December 2010 was an awesome below avg. month, think NYC avg. around -4F departure. Media hypes everything these days. News, not just the weather. More views, more money, that's all they care about. When they hype weather and people realize it's not so bad, they give meteorology a bad a name.

It's really annoying.

[TWCCraig]

you are right... cnn headline "welcome to the polar vortex"  and on jet blues website "were watching a polar vortex wreak havoc"

 

That makes me laugh because it's completely wrong lol. 

 

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[pazzo83]

That makes me laugh because it's completely wrong lol. 

 

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Hilarious.  When we on here, who I would say have a greater than average understanding of meteorology at the least (and the degreed mets obvious way above average) see just how wrong the media is when they attempt to discuss weather/climate-related events, it makes you wonder just how wrong they are when reporting on other fields of science, policy, economics, etc.

[Chaser25973]

Ok, I'm just going to ask for kicks and giggles. What exactly IS the polar vortex?

[pazzo83]

Sorry this probably all belongs in the banter thread but it has really been grating on my nerves.

[pazzo83]

Ok, I'm just going to ask for kicks and giggles. What exactly IS the polar vortex?

 

[LnbWx]

The cold is not even as bad as in Midwest but the local media is over hyping it and people are going to just shrug the shoulders after the cold.

[tmagan]

The cold is not even as bad as in Midwest but the local media is over hyping it and people are going to just shrug the shoulders after the cold.

No, it is as bad, but the untold story is how infrequent this has become the past twenty years.

[LnbWx]

No, it is as bad, but the untold story is how infrequent this has become the past twenty years.

Sorry. Poor wording. What I meant was that it's not going to be as bad as Midwest here in NYC.

[pazzo83]

No, it is as bad, but the untold story is how infrequent this has become the past twenty years.

 

It's bad, but it's nothing like the outbreaks the country used to see even as late as the 90s.

[Chaser25973]

 

I thought this was completely wrong?

[TWCCraig]

 

 

I thought this was completely wrong?

 

 

Misunderstanding. I said what Saturn posted about the news corps saying "cnn headline "welcome to the polar vortex"  and on jet blues website "were watching a polar vortex wreak havoc"" was wrong. The news is wrong.

[rcad1]

Upton no longer believes that we will have a flash freeze tonight due to high winds and only slowly falling temps.. They say the only way parts of the area will see a flash freeze is if we get some snow showers with the artic frontal passage this evening. And that will be handled with a sps if necessary and I believe the chance of snow showers are slim especially east of NYC. Would be nice to get a couple of snow showers to coat the ground but oh well.....

[snywx]

Temp is down to 32 now...   

[Superstorm93]

Serious temperature drop once blue sky started showing up...

 

Wind Chills/850mb winds

 

[bluewave]

It's bad, but it's nothing like the outbreaks the country used to see even as late as the 90s.

 

Yeah, those 90's outbreaks were much more impressive. The 850 mb temps were closer to -42C in that February 1996 

Arctic outbreak compared to closer to -32C today. Both the 96 and 94 events were historic for the all time record lows 

and new state lows that they set.

 

 

[Dino]

Was sweating this morning in my jacket, now sitting at 39F. I'm heading to LGA tonight to fly to Toronto where they already have flash freeze warnings and have been experiencing freaking ice quakes this past week! Can't wait to feel -40F windchill .

Ice quakes.

Ice.

Quakes.

[pazzo83]

Yeah, those 90's outbreaks were much more impressive. The 850 mb temps were closer to -42C in that February 1996 

Arctic outbreak compared to closer to -32C today. Both the 96 and 94 events were historic for the all time record lows 

and new state lows that they set.

 

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nam_850_6h.gif

 

Yea in both 94 and 96 we got into the -10s to -20s down in Virginia.  Now THAT is cold.

[LongBeachSurfFreak]

The jet blue thing is so stupid in my opinion. If a good sound effect band develops tomorrow I'm gonna head out east such a rare event

[Superstorm93]

[SnowGoose69]

The jet blue thing is so stupid in my opinion. If a good sound effect band develops tomorrow I'm gonna head out east such a rare event

I'm fairly shocked they are making such a wild move like that because I know for a fact they have a staff meteorologist there or at least they did a year or two ago but who knows, sometimes those decisions are made from high ups who may not be the best qualified to make them

[uncle W]

it looks like a flurry heading towards Manhattan...Nice streamer on radar...

[peregrinator]

A little bit of flakeage right now in Queens, yep. And the temperature feels like it's gone down a few degrees in the last fifteen or so minutes.

[FreeRain]

December 2010 was an awesome below avg. month, think NYC avg. around -4F departure. Media hypes everything these days. News, not just the weather. More views, more money, that's all they care about. When they hype weather and people realize it's not so bad, they give meteorology a bad a name.

There are things going on in DC that the media should hype and it doesn't.

[earthlight]

The HRRR has wind chill values of -15 to -20 at 8am throughout the entire area. 

[snywx]

on and off flurries w/ a temp of 28

[Chris L]

The way the media is portraying this cold snap as biblical is getting annoying.  Got friends (seriously) comparing this to The Day After Tomorrow or calling it the worst cold snap in history.  As it stands now this isn't holding a candle to Feb 96 or Jan 94.  In fact, the upper plains had colder temps prior to our snowstorm on the 2nd/3rd.

LOL. you don't know what you are talking about. It will and already rivals January 1994 and beats it in come locations in the midwest. For example, Madison WI, saw a high temp of -9, something which hasn't been done since February 1996.

[nzucker]

Yeah, those 90's outbreaks were much more impressive. The 850 mb temps were closer to -42C in that February 1996 

Arctic outbreak compared to closer to -32C today. Both the 96 and 94 events were historic for the all time record lows 

and new state lows that they set.

 

96020200.jpg

 

nam_850_6h.gif

I agree that the '94 and '96 outbreaks were impressive but plenty of record lows have been set in the last few years since the PDO flip. Maine had its state record low at -50F in Big Black River on 1/16/09, and Oklahoma had its all-time low of -28F on February 10, 2011. December 2009 and December 2010 were both very cold months nationally as well...ditto March 2013 in the East.

[pazzo83]

LOL. you don't know what you are talking about. It will and already rivals January 1994 and beats it in come locations in the midwest. For example, Madison WI, saw a high temp of -9, something which hasn't been done since February 1996.

Let me know when we see -50s and -60s.

[pazzo83]

LOL. you don't know what you are talking about. It will and already rivals January 1994 and beats it in come locations in the midwest. For example, Madison WI, saw a high temp of -9, something which hasn't been done since February 1996.

In February 96 Madison saw a high of -14 and low of -27. In Jan 94, they had a high of -13 and low of -27. Jussst a bit stronger. Madison hasn't even broken -20 this go around, and the temp there right now is -13. They won't even beat their daily record of -24. Very very cold? Yes. Historic? Not really.