Winter Weather

Mike

Mike

Well-known Member
Location
London
Our news here states that North America is experiencing
an Arctic Vortex, with some serious cold in some places.

I don't really know what an "Arctic Vortex" is, but the
clips that they showed were scary, the river in Chicago
frozen solid, thick snow and fog everywhere, unless they
were selective and showing only the worst.

Whoever you are and wherever you are, please stay warm
and please stay safe.

Mike.
 

Mike said:
Our news here states that North America is experiencing
an Arctic Vortex, with some serious cold in some places.

I don't really know what an "Arctic Vortex" is, but the
clips that they showed were scary, the river in Chicago
frozen solid, thick snow and fog everywhere, unless they
were selective and showing only the worst.

Whoever you are and wherever you are, please stay warm
and please stay safe.

Mike.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike. I'm in the NE, not quite as bad as Chicago right now. I saw a pic of the train station in Chicago lighting gas flames under the train rails to keep the ice and snow off.

Yes, all of sudden we're hearing the term Polar Vortex now. Used to be arctic blast. I guess I'll have to go look it up.
 
https://www.weather.gov/safety/cold-polar-vortex

The polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the Earth’s poles. It ALWAYS exists near the poles, but weakens in summer and strengthens in winter. The term "vortex" refers to the counter-clockwise flow of air that helps keep the colder air near the Poles.

Many times during winter in the northern hemisphere, the polar vortex will expand, sending cold air southward with the jet stream (see graphic above). This occurs fairly regularly during wintertime and is often associated with large outbreaks of Arctic air in the United States. The one that occurred January 2014 is similar to many other cold outbreaks that have occurred in the past, including several notable colder outbreaks in 1977, 1982, 1985 and 1989.


There are several things the polar vortex is NOT. Polar vortexes are not something new. The term “polar vortex” has only recently been popularized, bringing attention to a weather feature that has always been present. It is also not a feature that exists at the Earth’s surface.

Weather forecasters examine the polar vortex by looking at conditions tens of thousands of feet up in the atmosphere; however, when we feel extremely cold air from the Arctic regions at Earth’s surface, it is sometimes associated with the polar vortex.

This is not confined to the United States. Portions of Europe and Asia also experience cold surges connected to the polar vortex. By itself, the only danger to humans is the magnitude of how cold temperatures will get when the polar vortex expands, sending Arctic air southward into areas that are not typically that cold.
 

We are used to winter here in Canada. Today -21 F and a 20 mph wind resulting in a weather warning for a wind chill factor of -40 . Another month of winter for sure groundhog or no groundhog. Just have to dress warm .
 
The farm area where I was raised in northeastern Indiana (Churubusco), the temp this morning at 7 was -13 and that didn't include the "wind-chill" factor of 26mph wind. It was actually colder there than where we are moving to in northern Colorado.
 
A brother of mine lives in suburban Chicago. Today's high at his home was -12F and tonight's low is predicted to be -27F.

He, however, is currently in Los Angeles on business.

That kid always did have great timing!

:winter1:
 
RadishRose said:
https://www.weather.gov/safety/cold-polar-vortex
Click to expand...
Thank you RadishRose for your explanation about the Arctic Vortex, when I clicked
the link, the graphic looks like the one they showed on the news tonight for the
weather that we are going to get starting tomorrow, they are not talking about the
kind of cold that you are experiencing and the snow will be around 4 inches if it is bad.
Enough to close down a lot of things like schools, buses, trains and we are all told to
stay in unless our journey is urgent.

Mike.
 
Sue and I …….Make that Sue....Decided we should get out of the house and go shopping and maybe have lunch in town at our favourite Chinese restaurant.

We take public transportation now. Easier than driving as I hate trying to find a place to park. Anyway, off we go out the door, hit by a wind blast that can only be described as WOW!.....

We trundled off to the bus stop. I checked the weather on the iPhone...It was a balmy -29F....AND to get colder. Love global warming....

So, we get to our destination, do the shopping walk two blocks to the restaurant, enter, taken to a table and it takes 10 minutes to remove various articles of clothing.

I was tired from peeling off coat, tuque, scarf, mittens and backpack full of groceries....As was Sue. Of course, after the meal it was time to put all that stuff back on.....Just love winter.

I hear by NEXT Wednesday the temperature is going up to 45F. Should have waited till then to shop, I'm thinkin'....
 
Today, we set a record for the lowest "high" temperature on this date....we reached all the way up to 6 degrees for a high. This "vortex" is moving east, and by the weekend we may reach 60 degrees. I don't recall a Winter with such wild temperature swings, in such a short time.
 
We’ve been at about -20 feels like -32 with blowing gusts of wind and snow.
I drove my little car to the gym tonight and the windshield wouldn’t defrost. I really had to scrape a big enough spot to see. The car defrost made it a bit bigger but my windows stayed iced up. My window wiper never unstuck. I keep forgetting to lift it while it’s parked so that doesn’t happen but I forget. Anyway it has low profile winter tires/wheels and handles very well. I’m used to winter driving but my dear dogs aren’t liking this weather one bit. We are skating on a 3 kilometre iced pathway this weekend for my birthday. It’s really fun
 
Mike said:
Thank you RadishRose for your explanation about the Arctic Vortex, when I clicked
the link, the graphic looks like the one they showed on the news tonight for the
weather that we are going to get starting tomorrow, they are not talking about the
kind of cold that you are experiencing and the snow will be around 4 inches if it is bad.
Enough to close down a lot of things like schools, buses, trains and we are all told to
stay in unless our journey is urgent.

Mike.
Click to expand...

Yes around 4 inches isn't a lot but is enough to make a big mess. You folks be careful!
 
My part of Scotland doesn't often experience the worst weather. It looks like Wales and S.England will get the worst of the current bad weather. The last major snowfall here was in 2010. It's been cold here (-6 C overnight, that's 21 F) and the winscreen washers on the car froze over.

Christmas 2010, taken from outside my house.
xmasday10.jpg
 
ice072way_custom-7f774b427ee357a0bdc656f9a9d913ca1c9f05b7-s800-c85.jpg
 
Cold here, low teens, but at least we're on the positive side of zero. It's supposed to warm up in the next few days.
 

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