Jump to content
  • Member Statistics

    17,606
    Total Members
    7,904
    Most Online
    ArlyDude
    Newest Member
    ArlyDude
    Joined

Record Breaking Cold 2/19-2/20


Windman18

Recommended Posts

DC has a pretty legit shot at the Friday record min which is a really old one.. 8 in 1896.

 

DC does ok in an airmass situation, but in a clear snowcover driven radational situation UHI will hurt it...I spoke with OrhWxman about the -16/-18 at IAD in 1984...ORH under the same air mass had nothing close to that....IAD is in a perfect radiational bowl...which now has been mitigated by UHI...I have 4" on the ground, but the streets are plowed, the sidewalks are shoveled, and the sides of the buildings don't have snow on them...How the hell is UHI going to be offset by snow on the grass and piles of snow on the sides of the street...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 426
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I like looking at MRB because it has a fairly long period of record, 89 years, and hasn't been as impacted by UHI as the major airports. But it's not a good comp to DC and Baltimore, because it doesn't have records from the cold period of the late 1800's. Most of its weighting for daily record lows is skewed toward the 1960's for obvious reasons.

Looking at pre- and post 1970, which is roughly the mid-point of the 89 years, 135 record lows are from after 1970, while 231 are pre-1970.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

DC does ok in an airmass situation, but in a clear snowcover driven radational situation UHI will hurt it...I spoke with OrhWxman about the -16/-18 at IAD in 1984...ORH under the same air mass had nothing close to that....IAD is in a perfect radiational bowl...which now has been mitigated by UHI...I have 4" on the ground, but the streets are plowed, the sidewalks are shoveled, and the sides of the buildings don't have snow on them...How the hell is UHI going to be offset by snow on the grass and piles of snow on the sides of the street...

Yes that's all true. Tho the air mass is at least as good as the last if not a smidge colder it appears. Snow can't hurt. I think winds probably stay up thru Thursday night as well.. maybe not ripping but moving. MEX is 10... the raw numbers are probably too cold all close to 0 on either side.. def more possible west. I'd probably go about 7 for now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^lol

I do wonder on the old v new location I kinda doubt the old is much if any colder now. These issues are everywhere.

Yes, but one thing that seems puzzling is the recent shift toward a greater DCA/IAD daily temperature differential after a narrowing of that differential from the second decade to the fifth decade of IAD's existence.  Here is the average daily differential that DCA has been warmer than IAD, decade by decade:

 

1963-72: 3.6 degrees; 1973-82: 4.7 degrees; 1983-92: 3.5 degrees; 1993-2002: 3.4 degrees; 2003-12: 2.6 degrees

 

However, the daily temperature differential increased to 3.4 degrees in 2013 and to 5.4 degrees last year.  An aberration, or is there a logical reason for that increase? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I consider it to be factually impossible that with 95% snow coverage of everything-ground, lots, roofs, sidewalks; that with the Potomac and Chesapeake bay at 32, that an observation station located on a sliver of parkland, can run 5-10 degrees warmer that it's surrounds.

Now, put the measurement devices inside of a masonry compound on top of a roof(or in Times Square) and that might be a different matter, out on a solid frozen tarmack=IMPOSSIBLE.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I consider it to be factually impossible that with 95% snow coverage of everything-ground, lots, roofs, sidewalks; that with the Potomac and Chesapeake bay at 32, that an observation station located on a sliver of parkland, can run 5-10 degrees warmer that it's surrounds.

Now, put the measurement devices inside of a masonry compound on top of a roof(or in Times Square) and that might be a different matter, out on a solid frozen tarmack=IMPOSSIBLE.

 

we know you do...but you're wrong...not sure where you get 95% coverage anyway...I'm looking outside the window of my 14 story heated building and all the streets and sidewalks are clear...just piles on the sides......let us know when IAD hits -18 and -16 on back to back nights again...it will never ever happen...On a random radiational night in 1984, IAD gets colder than Boston has ever gotten on record dating back to 1872.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let's be a bit more realistic here... DCA typically runs 2-5 degrees warmer on a given night when there's discrepancies between it and nearby stations (I'm talking other "urban" sites in and around DC, no just comparing to IAD and BWI).

 

we've been down this road before...I'm not sure why I get baited lol...facts are absolutely irrelevant to Tenman...I have fact checked him and proven him wrong dozens of times and it doesn't matter to him...I know I am right though...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let's be a bit more realistic here... DCA typically runs 2-5 degrees warmer on a given night when there's discrepancies between it and nearby stations (I'm talking other "urban" sites in and around DC, no just comparing to IAD and BWI).

It usually seems in line more or less tho it is in about the worst spot possible. Some of the wxbugs in the city like Nats Park appear to run cool.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, this was the bay earlier today from Terrapin Park. Lots of ice from the bridge north.

15946392363_63cb4c8f80_z.jpg

Very nice. I'm planning on going there on Friday for sunset. I got some beautiful shots of the South River today at sunset. I'm thinking I'll be able to walk out onto the bay where the water is very shallow along the shore there.

*Disclaimer* do not walk on bay unless your sure the water is very shallow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have some good quality Taylor liquid bulbs.

Doing an experiment.

I have put the Taylor flush up against a single pane window in my basement. This is an old, wooden, double hung, single pane. Not energy efficient.  The window is located on the south side of the house so the bricks that surround the window do have a change to absorb any sun warmth that might occur.

At the 8:50ish obs DCA was 25, my heat induced Taylor liquid bulb 19.5.

DCA got more snow than me and still has it. The Potomac is all but frozen, and as usual Annapolis is not having the same issue. In my advancing age I am actually going back to being less trusting of government. People get in place, dont want to make any waves, or they have an agenda.

 

My other two Taylors properly located for accurate temperature measurements were reading 14 and 14.7 at 8;50

 

I am not going to talk about this for quite a while now. There is no more to be said. A fellow who I have no knowledge of but sure seemed like a statistical expert to me stated here a while back that DCA should not be used, and would not, in valid statistical work. He said, and I am paraphrasing, that it's numbers were not supportable by the other numbers of the other stations and the homogeny of those stations is valid and the stand alone of DCA is not. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have some good quality Taylor liquid bulbs.

Doing an experiment.

I have put the Taylor flush up against a single pane window in my basement. This is an old, wooden, double hung, single pane. Not energy efficient.  The window is located on the south side of the house so the bricks that surround the window do have a change to absorb any sun warmth that might occur.

At the 8:50ish obs DCA was 25, my heat induced Taylor liquid bulb 19.5.

DCA got more snow than me and still has it. The Potomac is all but frozen, and as usual Annapolis is not having the same issue. In my advancing age I am actually going back to being less trusting of government. People get in place, dont want to make any waves, or they have an agenda.

 

My other two Taylors properly located for accurate temperature measurements were reading 14 and 14.7 at 8;50

 

I am not going to talk about this for quite a while now. There is no more to be said. A fellow who I have no knowledge of but sure seemed like a statistical expert to me stated here a while back that DCA should not be used, and would not, in valid statistical work. He said, and I am paraphrasing, that it's numbers were not supportable by the other numbers of the other stations and the homogeny of those stations is valid and the stand alone of DCA is not. 

 

DCA is a bad place to record data...perhaps even a little wonky at times...but UHI is not going to be completely mitigated when the number one contributor to UHI - asphalt - is plowed....anyway...Annapolis is currently 20 and DCA is 22..not sure why you just make stuff up....it doesn't help you

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It usually seems in line more or less tho it is in about the worst spot possible. Some of the wxbugs in the city like Nats Park appear to run cool.

Yeah, the Nats stadium is sited at an elevated spot, but we have ways of calibrating sites to adjust to 2mt. Not perfect, but it's fine most of the time.

DCA can be in-line with other stations at any given time (like at this exact moment), but during periods where it should be colder, it's often an average of 3F warmer than the surrounding wxbug sites (like, all of them). It would be one thing if it was just compared to one or two sites that aren't cited right at 2m, but it's literally all of them. Take this morning's lows for example...

post-96-0-10038300-1424232128_thumb.png

As for official sites... you've got Andrews (KADW) running at 12 and College Park (KCGS) at 16 for the lows, while DCA was 17.

I've been casually observing this phenomenon on a semi-regular basis since late last summer, and it is a fairly consistent issue in the overnight hours when steady cooling is occurring in addition to the actual low. I'm not here to call DCA out and say it's measurements are wrong, but I did want to provide some objective data that shows that DCA does have a tendency to run warm in certain situations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, the Nats stadium is sited at an elevated spot, but we have ways of calibrating sites to adjust to 2mt. Not perfect, but it's fine most of the time.

DCA can be in-line with other stations at any given time (like at this exact moment), but during periods where it should be colder, it's often an average of 3F warmer than the surrounding wxbug sites (like, all of them). It would be one thing if it was just compared to one or two sites that aren't cited right at 2m, but it's literally all of them. Take this morning's lows for example...

attachicon.gif20150217_DClows.PNG

As for official sites... you've got Andrews (KADW) running at 12 and College Park (KCGS) at 16 for the lows, while DCA was 17.

I've been casually observing this phenomenon on a semi-regular basis since late last summer, and it is a fairly consistent issue in the overnight hours when steady cooling is occurring in addition to the actual low. I'm not here to call DCA out and say it's measurements are wrong, but I did want to provide some objective data that shows that DCA does have a tendency to run warm in certain situations.

 

not doubting you about DCA...it is a weird animal...but wxbugs in the city can tend to run too cold...I usually tack on a degree to pepco during a storm, because it clearly is too cold sometimes...last night when I gave my obs, I went a degree higher than pepco....the 12 at Children's hospital is cute....right now pepco is 25, and Andrews is 8 which is a huge outlier...I realize there are localized areas that radiate well so temps will be weird....the 25 at pepco actually makes sense to me...all the streets are plowed..other wxbugs are in the low 20s

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...