Central PA Winter 2024/2025

[Jns2183]

6z GFS greets February with this snow & ice potential this run.

God I hope so. My ten day forecast has been depressing in its dryness the last couple days. Would be great to get another storm before we get mild for a couple weeks. I do have a feeling our best chance for a big storm will be in March this year and that it will be a cold month.

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[Voyager]

-12 this morning in Tamaqua. 

[Mount Joy Snowman]

23 minutes ago, canderson said:

All the doors but two or three were frozen shut yesterday am ha 

Yes that's an Amtrak favorite ha.  Come to think, they only opened one door this morning, likely the same issue.

[Mount Joy Snowman]

I wonder if MDT can keep it close to the min max record of 14 for today?

Some PA sites won't be far off from the national low, which was -26 at Clayton Lake, ME.

Without doing the necessary research, I'm thinking these are the coldest temps at MDT since the 1994 outbreak.  Can anyone confirm? 

[Superstorm]

31 minutes ago, pawatch said:

❄️9 years ago today in 2016, a crippling and historic winter storm produced 1 to 3 feet over snow in south central PA. The 24hr total snowfall at Harrisburg of 26.4" ranks as the highest daily snowfall on record. https://www.weather.gov/ctp/01222016_blizzard 1/22/25@626am

-5 degrees this morning 

Man, that was a good storm.

[AccuChris]

His -9 here in Lebanon. Up to a balmy -6 now


.

[Bubbler86]

11 minutes ago, Mount Joy Snowman said:

I wonder if MDT can keep it close to the min max record of 14 for today?

Some PA sites won't be far off from the national low, which was -26 at Clayton Lake, ME.

Without doing the necessary research, I'm thinking these are the coldest temps at MDT since the 1994 outbreak.  Can anyone confirm? 

MDT Max Mins and Mins below.  For Max, looks like Jan 2014 had a colder day and 2018 and 2009 were within 1 degree.  Feb 2015 had a colder day as well.  Min wise this looks the coldest since 1994 as you suggested. 

   Max Mins                                          Mins

             

 

[Festus]

4 minutes ago, Mount Joy Snowman said:

I wonder if MDT can keep it close to the min max record of 14 for today?

Some PA sites won't be far off from the national low, which was -26 at Clayton Lake, ME.

Without doing the necessary research, I'm thinking these are the coldest temps at MDT since the 1994 outbreak.  Can anyone confirm? 

Looking at Millersville daily records, there's 2 days in 2014 and 1 day in 2018 with record lows just below zero.  The Millersville low maximum for today is 12.

So yes, at least in Millersville, this is the coldest outbreak since 1994.

[Superstorm]

2 minutes ago, Bubbler86 said:

MDT Max Mins and Mins below.  For Max, looks like in Jan 2014 had a colder day and 2018 and 2009 were within 1 degree.  Feb 2015 had a colder day as well.  Min wise this looks the coldest since 1994 as you suggested. 

   Max Mins                                          Mins

             

 

-1 for a maximum is no joke for any location in the coastal plain.

[Bubbler86]

7 minutes ago, Superstorm said:

-1 for a maximum is no joke for any location in the coastal plain.

All time record.  Here are the lowest max min's starting at that record down to this year as of now.   I thought I remembered a Christmas Day where it stayed near 0 but guess my memory is off. 

 

[MAG5035]

Meanwhile deep in Louisiana bayou country…

I also saw some temps as low as 10 in the Florida Panhandle and 15 all the way down in Gulf Shores, AL

[Superstorm]

Not sure if this will ever be beat in current climate regime:



For us oldheads, this was something else!


.

[Bubbler86]

If MDT does record a -8 for the low, here is where it will stand all time.   Note 1960's tying temp was in Dec! 

 

[Gordo74]

3 minutes ago, Superstorm said:

Not sure if this will ever be beat in current climate regime:



For us oldheads, this was something else!


.

Interesting that this is roughly the same date range of our current stretch.

[pasnownut]

2 hours ago, Festus said:

-6

First time I can remember my geothermal system had to kick into auxiliary mode. 

And it's 5 above in International Falls at this hour.  "Icebox of America" - not. 

I had -4 at home in Akron, and saw -11 as I headed backside of Rothsville towards Newport Rd.  Warmed towards 0 as I got closer to office.  My woodstove wasnt enough to keep heat from kicking on to "help" it.  Brr

 

[Superstorm]

Just now, pasnownut said:

I had -4 at home in Akron, and saw -11 as I headed backside of Rothsville towards Newport Rd.  Warmed towards 0 as I got closer to office.  My woodstove wasnt enough to keep heat from kicking on to "help" it.  Brr

 

Itstrainingtime....Did you turn the AC off last night?

[Yardstickgozinya]

-2°F last night in Fairview Township and -4°F in Lisburn. I had another amazing  walk  last night from around  3:00am untill 6:30am testing new cold gear. I saw several meteors and the lights of the  airports , Milltary Depot, Harrisburg, and surrounding towns  twinkled beautifully, and bright in the cold air atop Reesers Summit. I stopped at Rutters about 1.5 miles from my house and bought a chocolate milk and banana nut muffin. By the time I finished my walk home my chocolate milk was slush and the muffin was frozen solid.  I started my morning walk  by taking Ekho out for about 15 minutes. He loves the cold but hates wearing his jackets,  so unfortunately he has had to mostly stay home the last few walks. 

[Bubbler86]

5 minutes ago, Yardstickgozinya said:

-2°F last night in Fairview Township and -4°F in Lisburn. I had another amazing  walk  last night from around  3:00am untill 6:30am testing new cold gear. I saw several meteors and the lights of the  airports , Milltary Depot, Harrisburg, and surrounding towns  twinkled beautifully, and bright in the cold air atop Reesers Summit. I stopped at Rutters about 1.5 miles from my house and bought a chocolate milk and banana nut muffin. By the time I finished my walk home my chocolate milk was slush and the muffin was frozen solid.  I started my morning walk  by taking Ekho out for about 15 minutes. He loves the cold but hates wearing his jackets,  so unfortunately he has had to mostly stay home the last few walks. 

That is indeed a "take this off me" face.

[Itstrainingtime]

10 minutes ago, Superstorm said:

Itstrainingtime....Did you turn the AC off last night?

Ha! It was -5 when I went out this morning to start the car. No jacket. Sun was coming up and it honestly didn't feel bad at all.

"Dry cold" - very much Alaska-like. With no wind and as dry as it is it doesn't feel that cold to me.

[Summit Snow]

Got down to -7 on the hill here in Clarks Green but some of the temps in NEPA are crazy. 

Temperatures did drop even a
little lower than originally expected with numerous sites in CNY
and NE PA now as low as -5 to -15F...with some of the coldest
spots between -15 and -20F at this time! Still Water Dam in
Susquehanna county PA has reached -21F, Roxbury in Delaware
county also -21F and the Cornell site near Harford NY reach -22F...
these are the coldest readings so far, and temperatures may
drop another 1-2 degrees as we approach daybreak. Even the city
of Binghamton has dropped to -6F at this hour, Scranton/Wilkes-
Barre is between -6 to -9F in the valley

[CASH_COOP]

I hit -9 for a low at the house.   On the road this morn for a meeting in York county and lowest car temp I saw was -10 through the town of Railroad.   

[canderson]

Friend in Newport got -12. She’s in a real low spot down there. 
 

And like @Itstrainingtime said - it is very cold but honestly does not feel terrible since zero wind and it’s incredibly dry. This beats last week’s mid 20s with 30 mph constant winds. 

[canderson]

48 minutes ago, Superstorm said:

Not sure if this will ever be beat in current climate regime:



For us oldheads, this was something else!


.

Those are crazy diurnals the last two days. How did it almost change 40 degrees with that snow cover in one day?

[Albedoman]

1 hour ago, Mount Joy Snowman said:

I wonder if MDT can keep it close to the min max record of 14 for today?

Some PA sites won't be far off from the national low, which was -26 at Clayton Lake, ME.

Without doing the necessary research, I'm thinking these are the coldest temps at MDT since the 1994 outbreak.  Can anyone confirm? 

 

I posted this in the philly forum a few minutes ago with pics

 

last nights low was -10 at my house in Macungie. Many areas in the deeper valleys were colder than that along Rt 222. This is the coldest temps since the infamous winter of 1994 for me at the house. That was the year my digital thermometer locked up at -25 below zero and had to trash it. But I really remember the one thing in 1994 that I have not seen but one other time when it has been this cold here and because the Little Lehigh is in my backyard ---ICE FOG--. I hope Mike Gorse reads this. This is really a rare weather phenomena here and...

 

 

[ChescoWx]

This morning was one of Chester County's coldest mornings in the last 31 years dating back to January 19, 1994. There were 7 stations this morning that recorded below zero readings. This includes 9.1 below zero at Warwick Township (station record 14 years of data) this was the coldest station reading in Chester County since the 11 below zero reading at Coatesville 2W in 1994. That day the 19th was also the only day in County history a station failed to get above zero for a high temperature. West Bradford / Marshallton also set a station record of 4.7 below zero breaking the old station record of 3.8 degrees below back on January 14, 2014. If you think we have had a long stretch of below normal cold you would be correct! Since Thanksgiving Day, we have seen below normal temperatures on 70% of 39 of those 56 days. This includes 25 of the past 33 days. The good news is we should finally see a return to near normal average temperatures by Sunday into early next week. We also look to stay dry for most of the next week. Stay warm!

[Itstrainingtime]

13 minutes ago, canderson said:

Friend in Newport got -12. She’s in a real low spot down there. 
 

And like @Itstrainingtime said - it is very cold but honestly does not feel terrible since zero wind and it’s incredibly dry. This beats last week’s mid 20s with 30 mph constant winds. 

I'm honestly really glad that you said this. Not sure why, but I was almost afraid to share how I honestly felt. When I walked out this morning, my driveway is faces south. Even on windy mornings it's often "calm" in my driveway because my house shelters the wind. Regardless, with the sun rising and the complete lack of a breeze, if I didn't know what the actual temp was and what the temp was forecast to be, I would have assumed it was much warmer...maybe around 20 or so? It just did not feel that cold. 

If it was dark and the wind was blowing that would have changed the conversation completely. 

[Itstrainingtime]

1 hour ago, Mount Joy Snowman said:

I wonder if MDT can keep it close to the min max record of 14 for today?

Some PA sites won't be far off from the national low, which was -26 at Clayton Lake, ME.

Without doing the necessary research, I'm thinking these are the coldest temps at MDT since the 1994 outbreak.  Can anyone confirm? 

I can't but I don't recall MDT being this low since 1994.

At my house, my -5 reading this morning comes in 6th place since 1994. There were mornings over the past 20 years when with deep snow cover and calm winds I radiated out a little more than last night. I didn't join the radiational cooling party until 9pm, so I lost a few hours. My coldest reading since 1994 was a -10 back in 2010. 

[Bubbler86]

4 minutes ago, canderson said:

Those are crazy diurnals the last two days. How did it almost change 40 degrees with that snow cover in one day?

Today MDT went from -8 to 4 in an hour and 45 min.  A raise of about 7 degrees per hour.  This puts them up to the temps of other locales which did not radiationally cool as much last night.  When an extreme cold spell is starting to loosen its grip on an area you are going to get some 30-40 diurnal's with super cooled lows bumping against SW induced warming during the day.  

If THV gets to their forecast high of 16 they will have a 32 spread today and if MDT gets below 0 tonight they could have a 30-40 spread tomorrow. 

 

[Itstrainingtime]

1 minute ago, Bubbler86 said:

If THV gets to their forecast high of 16 they will have a 32 spread today and if MDT gets below 0 tonight they could have a 30-40 spread tomorrow.

Funny you mention this, the morning back in 2010 that I referenced above your post - I started the morning at -10 and got up to 36 that afternoon. Also, it was -10 at 6:45am. By 10am my temp was 27. 

[TheClimateChanger]

5 minutes ago, Bubbler86 said:

Today MDT went from -8 to 4 in an hour and 45 min.  A raise of about 7 degrees per hour.  This puts them up to the temps of other locales which did not radiationally cool as much last night.  When an extreme cold spell is starting to loosen its grip on an area you are going to get some 30-40 diurnal's with super cooled lows bumping against SW induced warming during the day.  

If THV gets to their forecast high of 16 they will have a 32 spread today and if MDT gets below 0 tonight they could have a 30-40 spread tomorrow. 

 

I suspect the snowcover actually amplifies the diurnal range by having a larger cooling impact on low temperatures than on high temperatures, under ideal radiational cooling conditions. Also, some of those days likely saw non-diurnal temperature spreads due to reinforcing shots of arctic air, plus moderation into the overnight ahead of the reinforcing shots of arctic air.