Now
Partly cloudy, cold. As advertised, the arctic attack last night was sharp, but it was a glancing blow to the Mid Atlantic area. Lows in the teens (15° at both National and Dulles) were the coldest so far this season, but winds shifting to a more southerly direction by noon have allowed readings to rebound to freezing or slightly above (still about 10° below average). The high of 33° means that we have still had only 1 day with a high at or below 32° this month, compared with the 30-year average of 5.2. Tomorrow's mildness will also be short-lived, however. The next icy blast looks longer-lasting, but less intense locally, at least to begin with.Temperature chart at 7am today from Unisys
Tonight and Tomorrow
Not as cold. Skies will be mostly to partly cloudy tonight with lows in the mid 20s downtown and near 20° in the outer 'burbosphere. Tomorrow will be partly cloudy and seasonably mild with highs in the upper 40s.For the outlook through the rest of the weekend, scroll on down to Camden's post below.
Climate Corner
The draft report of the IPCC, scheduled to be released next Friday, continues to leak like a Greenland moulin. ABC News reported it had obtained a copy of the draft. ABC (Australia) also covered the story: "UN panel strengthens climate warning". Reuters distributed a report, "Warming to raise seas for 1,000 years". Where is the Paper of Watergate? So far, the only hit on a search of "IPCC" at the WaPo is for the online AP story we linked to a few days ago.The political noise machine is predictably already gearing up for full attack mode. The Letters section of the noted science journal West Salem Coulee News is also chiming in.
Mediarology
Last Sunday's Climate Code on the Weather Channel (at its new time of 5:30) featured a survey of the 10 greenest large cities in the U.S. from SustainLane. Your Nation's Capital is number 12 in the rankings, one position behind Charm City. The program is repeated tomorrow evening at 5:30, 7:30 and 11:30.
Recent temperatures have been much more January-like, and there is more of that on tap, but the fact remains that, with only a week remaining, the month has yet to put together a string of more than 3 consecutive below-average days. Although it won't last, the earlier warm readings have kept the month to date average of 43.4° in the top 10 of all Januaries in Washington. Heating degree days, a measure of the amount of fuel required for heating, are down 28% from average.
The Weather Channel, specifically, the Climate Code, was cited as the #1 item in the Colbert Report Threatdown last night, beating out even CNN, for reporting the truth about a phony Barack Obama story, and the "tree-huggers" of "The Wizard of Oz". The reason, of course, was its hidden agenda: Bears!
Posts
