Mostly Random Thoughts On The Record Arctic Blast As It Concludes

A frigid near -20 view from a web cam at the University
of Vermont in Burlington this morning. Note the steam
on Lake Champlain from the rapidly shrinking part
of the lake that is still not frozen. 

I'm still working on a bit of an opus on how this huge Arctic blast and storminess has become a pawn in the climate change political wars, but since it's still in the minus 20s as I write this early Sunday morning, let's offer a few other bits and pieces on this first.  

RECORD LOWS

There were widespread record lows across the Northeast this morning, including here in Vermont, where Burlington reached 20 below, the first time the temperature there has touched 20 below since January 16, 2009.

It's also the first time Burlington has had a record low since 2015. (During just 2017 in Burlington, 13 record highs were tied or broken.)

Yesterday in Burlington never got above zero, the first time that's happened since January, 2014.

As the day goes on today, I'm sure we'll get lots of reports of new low temperature record set throughout the Northeast today.

The nation is now temporarily having more record lows than record highs, a reversal from the past year. According to NOAA, as of yesterday, 1.275 record low minimums have been recorded across the United States and just 161 record highs. (way out in the western part of the nation.)

The overall longer term trend has had record highs far outpacing record lows. I'm sure global warming has something to do with that. Over the past 365 days, the United States has seen 34,151 record highs and only 10,398 record lows at the many hundreds of weather stations across the country.

With this long Arctic outbreak finally showing signs of petering out, the pace of record highs will start to increase in the coming days and the pace of record lows will surely decrease.

By the way, back here in Vermont, temperatures are now forecast to get well into the 40s by Thursday. A January thaw seems almost definitely on the way.

NOT SHIP SHAPE

One bit of news that came out of that huge, destructive nor'easter that hit last week has me steaming mad at Norwegian Cruise Lines, of all outfits.

The 4,000 passenger cruise ship Norwegian Breakaway sailed into the teeth of the extraordinarily strong nor'easter on a return trip from Bermuda to New York last week and encountered 30 foot swells and hurricane force winds.

Passengers onboard reported water pouring into the ship from all angles, water dripping down elevator shafts, two inches of water in staterooms. Glass shattered everywhere as things fell off shelves. The force of the waves even shattered glass shower doors in guest rooms, reports CBS 2 in New York. 

You can see in a video at the bottom of this post scenes of interior flooding, and outdoors, immense waves and hurricane force winds.

The infuriating thing is Norwegian Cruise lines should have known that storm was there. The cruise company put out a statement saying the ship "encountered stronger than forecasted weather conditions due to winter storm Grayson during the trip's return to New York from the Bahamas."

There's shifting blame for your own mistakes on to an innocent party for you. The size, strength, intensity and general location of this storm had been widely forecast by meteorologists for days before the storm actually developed.  I call bullshit on Norwegian Cruise Lines.

Luckily, there were no serious injuries, but there was damage and a lot of vacations were ruined.

CBS 2 contacted other cruise lines, who said they wisely detoured their ships around the southern periphery of the storm to avoid the worst effects of the waves and wind. These maneuvers caused  minor delays in schedules. But who cares? Everybody was safe and sound on those ships.

FAST NEWS FRIENDS

On to a lighter topic: Inevitably, in extreme weather, news stations put their reporters outdoors into the thick of it, where they look miserable as they tell us the obvious: It's nasty out.

In Belmar, New Jersey, WNBC Reporter Tracie Strahan was out on a beach boardwalk during the storm, near a coffee shop that was closed due to the storm. This gal needed coffee!

Enter "Mikey Bones" as the reporter called him, Mike Flint of Neptune, New Jersey, who brought coffee to our intrepid reporter. The two became fast friends on air. The affable Mike, with his thick Jersey accent and goofy smile, just made the news report so much better and you can see Strahan get much happier on air with Mike, and the coffee.

Video is below, followed by that video from the storm-tossed Norwegian Cruise Line ship.

The famous "Mikey bones blizzard television interview from last week:



The Norwegian Cruise Line in the big storm, where it shouldn't have gone: