One Of Strongest March Cold Waves in U.S. History Continues

This cold wave across much of the nation and southeastern Canada is one for the record books. It's been awhile since a number of U.S. cities set not just daily record low temperatures, but record lows for an entire month.

In this visible satellite image taken above
the Texas/Oklahoma border yesterday, those whitish
streaks you see are bands of sleet accumulated
on the ground, left by strong thunderstorms
Sunday that happened in near record cold air.  

That happened this week. We already mentioned the 21 below in Billings, Montana the other day. 

Now it's the East Coast's turn. Fresh snowpack in the Mid-Atlantic states from yesterday followed by clear skies last night set the stage for some incredible cold for this time of year.

Baltimore, Md. got down to 4 degrees above zero, setting a new low for March. The old record was 5 degrees in 1873 (!!)

Charlottesville, Virginia and Dover, Delaware also set record lows for the month of March. 

Down in the Houston, Texas area this morning, winter storm warnings were flying because of freezing rain. That's happening in a place with a normal low of 50 and a normal high of 70 this time of year.

For my friends here in Vermont, the freezing rain in Houston is the same depressing extreme as if we had an ice storm on Memorial Day weekend.

Up in central and northern Quebec some of lowest temperatures on Earth were reported this morning, with readings in some spots near 50 below.

This incredible cold is part of that extreme jet stream pattern that has plagued much of the northern hemisphere since before the start of winter.

A huge area of higher pressure has caused a band of incredible warmth from California, north through western Canada in Yukon, Alaska and on up to near the North Pole, and even over to Greenland at times.

Then, the jet stream heads back south, coming from the North Pole and blasting south into the eastern half of the United States. There's usually curves to the north and south in the jet stream, but not often to the extremes we've seen this winter.

The Climate Prediction Center outlook through March 17
shows continued deep chill in the eastern U.S.
with more warmth in the West and in Alaska.

The remarkable thing about this pattern is how persistent it has been. It's been going on with only brief breaks since about the end of November. Usually things change around a bit, but not this year.

Up until this week, the cold has been intense, but not unprecedented. But now that it's persisted into March, we got a true record cold snap.

The persistence of the weather pattern has meant a few places in the Midwest, particularly in Wisconsin and and Michigan,  had their coldest winter on record. 

Meanwhile, under the warm western ridge, Las Vegas had its warmest winter on record, as did a few towns in Alaska.

The extreme jet stream that has set up this pattern shows no sign of breaking down much for the rest of March. The cold will relax, of course, as the next batches of cold air from Canada won't be as frigid.

Also, as the month goes along, it will have to warm up some, only because the cold will ease in tandem with the rise in normal temperatures this time of year.

However, for the Midwest and Northeast, it looks like we're in for a delayed spring, with below normal temperatures likely most days through the month of March.

I have no idea when this weather pattern will become "unstuck" from the way it's been. It makes you worry it's permanent, but of course that's not the case. 

We'd better have a nice warm rest of the year to make up for the first three months of 2014, though.