Thursday, February 5, 2009

Snow Continues Travel Disruption in UK
Deniers Drooling While OJ Takes a Bath


Feb. 6 Update: Number of daily records for Feb. 5:
Highest maximum temperature 11
Lowest minimum temperature 6

Original post:
The UK Guardian reports today that snow is continuing to disrupt travel and schools across England and Wales, with salt supplies running low in some areas:

Forecasters said the worst of the weather was likely to be in the Midlands with as much as 10cm (4in) of snow, however the south and west of England and Wales ground to a halt today after waking up to their heaviest falls of snow this week.
Michael Fish, Britain's longest-running TV weather forecaster, notes that the snowfall is the heaviest since 1991, while Charlie English, author of The Snow Tourist, gives some British snow history, including:
The snowiest British winter of the 20th century was in 1947 (the coldest was 1963), when snow fell somewhere in the UK every day from 22 January to 17 March.
The latest forecast from the UK Met Office:

This Evening and Tonight:
Patches of sleet and snow edging southeastwards across England and Wales, with locally heavy snow developing across parts of southern and eastern England later. Scotland and Northern Ireland will have scattered wintry showers. Widespread ice will form across the UK.

Friday:
Locally heavy snow across southern and eastern England, especially during the morning. Elsewhere, brighter with some sunshine, but cold. Scattered wintry showers will affect northern and western areas.

The cold weather blog is still eating it up, while drooling over the no-skill 252-hour forecast for Feb. 15.

Florida cold

Don't forget the record cold in Florida; you guys must have made a killing betting on OJ:
"Orange-Juice Futures Slide 8.3% as Florida Crops Skirt Cold Snap".
ACTUAL LOWS/RECORDS FOR FEBRUARY 5:
ORIGINAL
THIS RECORD LOWS RECORDS
LOCATION MORNING FOR FEB 5 BEGAN

ARCHBOLD :ACHF1 27 26 IN 1980 1969
ARCADIA :ARCF1 *26 26 IN 1996 1899
AVON PARK 2 W :AVPF1 28 25 IN 1966 1901
BARTOW :BARF1 28 27 IN 1996 1892
BROOKSVILLE CHIN HILL :BROF1 23 21 IN 1996 1892
BUSHNELL 2 E :BSHF1 24 22 IN 1996 1948
CHIEFLAND 5 SE :CHIF1 19 **17 IN 1996 1956
FORT MYERS/PAGE FIELD :FMY 34 29 IN 1996 1902
INVERNESS 3 SE :INVF1 25 23 IN 1996 1948
LAKELAND LINDER FIELD :LLDF1 27 **24 IN 1996 1948
MOUNTAIN LAKE :LWLF1 29 26 IN 1996, 1935
1966 & 1935
MYAKKA RIVER STATE PARK :MKCF1 26 24 IN 1996 1956
PARRISH :PARF1 NA **24 IN 1996 1957
PLANT CITY :PLCF1 29 25 IN 1996 1892
PUNTA GORDA 4 ESE :PNTF1 30 **27 IN 1996 1965
ST LEO :STLF1 27 22 IN 1996 1895
ST PETE/ALBERT WHITTED :SPG 37 **28 IN 1996 1914
SARASOTA-BRADENTON :SRQ 31 **24 IN 1996 1948
TAMPA INTERNATIONAL APT :TPA 32 25 IN 1996 1890
TARPON SPRINGS :TRPF1 NA 23 IN 1996 1892
VENICE :VNCF1 29 **26 IN 1996 1955
WAUCHULA 2 N :WAUF1 NA 27 IN 1996 1933
& 1958
WEEKI WACHEE :WEEF1 NA 22 IN 1996 1969
WINTER HAVEN :WHNF1 29 26 IN 1996 1941

* NEW OR TIED RECORD LOW FOR FEBRUARY 5
** RECORD LOW FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY


Total number of daily maximum temperature records set in the entire U.S., Feb. 1-4: 76
Total number of daily minimum temperature records set in the entire U.S., Feb. 1-4: 9

Git out the mukluks and the mastodon traps, maw, the Ice Age is nigh!

And Al Gore is still fat!

Images: Train arriving at Clapham Junction station, London, from UK Guardian; UK weather forecast for 6 am Friday from Met Office; orange juice futures prices from Wall Street Journal

3 comments:

Manoj Sharma said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Steve Bloom said...

Steve, I just saw this from NASA. You seem like a good person to ask about it. Amusingly, warm air seems to have been at least somewhat behind the 'orrible cold.

Steve Scolnik said...

Interesting link, Steve. What this says is that warming in the stratosphere disrupted the normal upper-level circulation in the Arctic, dumping a lot of cold air further south than it would normally be. It's a classic case of the tail wagging the dog, since the amount of air in the stratosphere is only about 20% of that in the troposphere, where most weather occurs.

The whole point, of course, is that this is weather, not climate, although that doesn't stop denialists like the IceCrappers (linked in the post) from pimping such events as contradicting global warming.

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