Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Incredible Extreme Cold And Snow Records Are Shattering In This Winter Of Discontent.

Someone in Indianapolis took advantage of a
a cold, snowy February to creat an army
of Minions made of the snow. Maybe
the Minions are ready to combat winter?  
Today dawned with a winter storm happening or at least ready to happen in a broad stripe across the South from Arkansas to the Carolinas and Virginia.

There's even a rare freezing fog advisory in parts of Georgia just ahead of the snow, so we know things are strange in Dixie.

Up here in Vermont and the rest of the Northeast, we're bracing for our next Arctic cold front, due to come through later today to drop temperatures below zero again.

Ahead of the cold front, we're basking in "warmth."  As dawn broke on Burlington, Vermont this morning, the temperature was 34 degrees warmer than it was at the same time Tuesday. Still, it was only 15 degrees, which is exactly normal for early morning this time of year.

Of course, the weather has been anything but normal this month. With the next cold shot coming in, some cities in the Northeast will have their coldest February on record, or even their coldest overal month on record.

People are coming out with mindblowing statistics.  The National Weather Service around New York City said the Big Apple's average temperature for February was 24.2 degrees, which is exactly the same as Anchorage, Alaska for the same period.

All cities in the New York City region will very likely have one of their top five coldest Februaries on record, if not the coldest.

The rogues gallery of Northeast cities poised to have their coldest Februaries on record include Buffalo, Rochester, Binghampton and Massena, New York; Montpelier, Vermont, Hartford, Connecticut, Concord, New Hampshire and Caribou and Bangor, Maine.

Bangor is really an epicenter of this extreme weather pattern. As of February 23, they were easily on pace to make February, 2015 the coldest month on record. Bangor was running two degrees colder than the previous coldest month, January, 1994, and another subzero Arctic blast is set to hit Bangor the rest of this week.

Bangor also had its snowiest 31 day period on record, ending on February 23. During that period, 67.9 inches of snow fell there. It's probably safe to say most residents of Bangor are probably sick of winter at this point.

I live near Burlington, Vermont, where February is only going to be maybe third coldest. So I can bask in the relative warmth here, I guess. Still, the cold has come on fast and strong. Burlington's first subzero morning of this winter didn't come until January 7. But since then, we've piled up 25 mornings that were zero or colder.

Bridgeport, Connecticut is also poised to have its coldest month on record. That city has not had a warmer than normal day since January 25. And if Bridgeport continues to have at least 10 inches of snow on the ground on Sunday, it will be the longest such streak on record with that much snow.

We can't get through this without talking about snow, can we? It snowed again in Boston last night. Just under two inches of it. That brought their seasonal snowfall to 101.5 inches, only the second time in the city's records that a winter's snow exceeded 100 inches.

If Boston just under six inches of snow between now and spring they'll have their snowiest winter on record. I'm almost willling to bet my next paycheck that the Boston record will indeed be broken.

Eric Fisher of CBS Boston  compiled a list that shows how Boston's February weather record books are almost being completely rewritten. Boston has had its snowiest five, seven, ten, 20, 30 and 40 days stretches on records. February is the snowiest month on record. It will be the coldest or second coldest February on record. Boston will have the most days in a February that failed to reached 32 degrees or higher.

Also, Boston had the most consecutive days with measureable snowfall, six of them. Also the sixth and seventh biggest snowstorms in Boston's history hit during this February.

Fisher there is more snow on the ground in Massachusetts than in Donner Pass, California. Donner Pass is usually buried in snow this time of year, but not now. There's a drought, and they've had record heat to counter New England's cold.

It's been warm in the west, that's for sure. Salt Lake City finally had a cooler than average day on February 22, ending an incredible 49 consecutive days of warmer than normal temperatures.

Records are made to be broken. Weather is always chaotic, so you have to expect records to fall every once in awhile. But this bizarre weather in the Northeast is really changing the record books. This is as extreme as it gets.


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