The Deep South shivered through a ridiculously frigid weekend, with low temperature records crumbling over much of Florida, Texas, and Louisiana. This morning, record lows for the date fell in Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa, Fort Myers, Lakeland, Tallahassee, and St. Petersburg. The most extreme low temperature record this morning was set in Key West, where the mercury fell to 42°F at 5am--the second coldest temperature ever observed in Key West. This is just 1° warmer than the all-time coldest temperature observed in Key West--41° in January of 1981 and 1873. Widespread reports of sleet and snow flurries accompanied the cold blast across Central Florida on Saturday, the eighth snow event in Florida since 2000, according to Wikipedia. It remains to be seen how much damage the $9.3 billion Florida citrus industry will see because of the cold blast, which is the most severe in Florida since the December 1989 cold wave that devastated the citrus industry. Temperatures below the 28° that causes fruit damage affected some citrus-growing areas again this morning, for the third consecutive morning.
Figure 1. Ice encases citrus in Altoona, Florida. Image taken Sunday, January 10, 2010 by wunderphotographer CAVU.
Intense and long-lasting cold
In Texas, two airports tied all-time January low temperature records on Saturday morning--Hondo, who's 12°F tied the record set January 11, 1982, and Cotulla La Salle, which hit 16°F, tying the record set January 13, 1975. Most of Texas' airports set daily low temperature records on Saturday morning. Saturday's low in Waco of 8°F broke the previous record of 15° for the date, and was the first time Waco has been in the single digits since the -4°F reading on December 23, 1989. Not only has the South's cold been intense, it has been exceptionally long-lasting. Montgomery, Alabama has had a low temperature below 25° nine consecutive days, breaking the old mark of seven straight days set in January 2001. With the cold snap only grudgingly scheduled to release its grip on the South, Montgomery can expect to run their streak of sub-25° lows to at least eleven straight days this week. Mobile, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida now have their second longest streak of days with a minimum temperature below freezing, at nine and eight days, respectively. Pensacola may equal or top their record of eleven straight days (set in January 1940) later this week, but Mobile is unlikely to break their record of fifteen straight days (set in February 1940). Also of note is that Key West has seen five consecutive days with low temperatures below 50 degrees (January 7th - 11th). This is the second longest such streak recorded in Key West, one day short of the record six-day streak on December 1 - 6, 1876. Key West has a decent chance of tying that record on Tuesday morning, when the low should fall to 50 or below.
A nicer beach weekend in Antarctica than Central Florida
Saturday's high and low temperatures in Orlando and Daytona Beach, Florida were 40° and 30°F. Tampa's high and low were 42°F and 29°F. Under sunny skies and light winds less than 10 mph, Saturday's high and low temperature at San Martin Base, Antarctica were 44° and 34°F. Gray, cloudy skies with winds gusting to 16 - 21 mph greeted beach goers at the beaches near Daytona Beach and Tampa, so it was a much nicer day at the beach in the Antarctic Peninsula than in Central Florida on Saturday (the Florida Chamber of Commerce loves stats like that!) Nice beach weather in Antarctica continued through Sunday, with sunny San Martin, Antarctica (high 41°, low 35°) recording an average temperature warmer than most stations in Central Florida. In all fairness, it is summer in Antarctica, and the ocean temperatures in Florida were a bit warmer than in Antarctica.
A major pattern shift coming
As I noted in my previous post, a sharp kink in the jet stream and a strong negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation is responsible for this winter's cold blast over eastern North America and Europe. The ridge of high pressure that has been blocking the west-to-east motion of weather systems over the past ten days is weakening, though, and a major shift in the winter weather pattern is in store for the Northern Hemisphere by late this week. A more typical El Niño pattern will set up, with the jet stream diving southward over California, bringing a strong flow of moist, Pacific air to the West Coast. A strong low pressure system will also bring heavy rain to the Gulf Coast on Friday and Saturday. Temperatures will slowly moderate across Europe and the Midwest and Eastern U.S. this week as the pattern gradually shifts, and more ordinary winter weather can be expected in these regions by next weekend.
Figure 2. Departure of the surface temperature from average for the first eight days of 2010 shows much colder than average conditions were present over the Midwest and Southern U.S., much of Europe, and Central Asia. Much warmer than average temperatures were present over the Northwest U.S., Greenland, the Arctic, and Southern Asia. A sharp kink in the jet stream was responsible for the temperature anomaly pattern. Image credit: NOAA/ESRL.
Jeff Masters
Taken in Wintergarden Florida. Enjoy
Mark
This passes for icicles in south Florida.....
On the campus at the University of Florida's
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It is 4 and out!......LOL.....oh ya the stock market is up from all the bailout money that was poured back in....ROFLMAO
or Craig's List?
Tried placing a call to the Almighty too,but she was real Busy with Orange Juice matters and such,so I left a message.
Maybe I'll get a Call back this week on that note.
Put an ad up on Craig's List, let'um know you're turning 50 and you're a reveler on a budget! I betcha get a reasonably priced ticket! The Man Upstairs will take care of you :0)!!
I'll light a candle...and get a couple o' nuns prayin' on it for ya...
And your State gave... well my dad at least, Bobby Jindal :P
the point being...they all $uck!
Its gotta be true,,why I saw it here last night on the "internets".
50? You too? February 3 for me...
John Wayne-Orange County, California
71 °F
Scattered Clouds
Seems there is a trend developing here floodman.
Yep...a trend indeed and LST started it!
By the way, I want you to notice how I avoided mentioning this weekend's game; I grew up in St Louis, rooting for the Cardinals, I lived there when Warner took the Rams to the Superbowl and won it and I lived in the New Orleans area for a while so I'm pretty much torn here...so I'll just keep my mouth shut and watch the game
LOL
About 100,000 ft. absolute Barometric pressure(8.35mm HG)
from the NWS New Orleans office,3:36 am this morning.
Long term...
Wednesday should see highs in the middle 50s as Arctic air mass
moderates further while over the southeast U.S. Models continue to
indicate the development of a low pressure system in the west Gulf
of Mexico that occludes rather quickly just south of the Louisiana
coast. This should establish a rather large precipitation shield
over the Gulf south in the form of predominant stratiform cold
rain. Thicknesses do not support any type of winter precipitation
with this system as much of the cold air seems confined to the
northern latitudes during the period. A large cold pool aloft may
provide a small window for a hail threat Saturday if convection
could be sustained during the afternoon under the most unstable
cold pool column. The disturbance for this weekend appears to be
the first in a series of low latitude disturbances that may be
establishing a theme for the remainder of January as large scale
hemispheric pattern is trending toward an active sub-tropical jet.
I might be able to help a little on this score; let me see what I can do...check your WUMail
Don't down Jindal; he isn't too bad a sort...we'll see what politics does to him
As Emeril used to say, "BAM", when he threw a new ingredient into the recipe. That upper level Jet Max is add some SPICE to the trough, wait and see!!
I hate politically Agnedas
Did i misspell that.....LOL
March here...the big 5-0. Glad I made it :)
I was going to post some pictures of frost on my cars from this morning, but the other pictures just BLOW mine away... Granted I am in Deep South Miami-Dade County. Having to chip ice off of the windshield this morning reminded me of why I don't live further north.
I'll be sure to send you a card...I'll be 80, so don't be surprised if it's a little late (or the message a bit confusing) LOL
I'll be dead by then...so happy 50th in advance!
I'll be a cool crisp 82 on that date. Good chance I'm history by then.
Lol looking forward to it
haha thanks, maybe you'll have a hoverround
82 year-old hippy in a hoverround.
Those 82 year-olds at Wal-Mart about run me over with the way they "drive" those things.
I was toddling and destroying while you babies were only eating, sleeping, ****ing, and crying.
Buck it up! Old age is not for the the weak or timid!
Is this a trick question? 32F(0C) is both the freezing and melting point of water, so it won't freeze solid.
WOOHOO!
If I had a hose, say 1 foot, and at one end I ran 98.6 F water. The air around the hose was 32F(0C). Would the water freeze at anytime coming out of the hose?
Woah,now wait..
I lost 3 feet of that 2 years ago on Jan 14th while Still in the FEMA trailer..
And I wanna thank all here again who sent prayers,cards and Well wishes when I had that Surgery.
Especially wunder bloggers Barefootontherocks and Redhead who sat with my Wife thru it and even helped us move from the FEMA trailer into our present Home in Uptown NOLA.
Their two Angels in my past I'll never forget.
Actually, my DD Form 213 is thumb-tacked to my bedroom wall.
The wife has explicit instructions. Call a friend with a pickup truck. Drive to the nearest funeral home. Buy a cardboard (temporary) coffin. Come back to where I am, load me inside, tie everything off with rope, load me into the back of the truck, and drop me and the DD Form 213 off at the closest national cemetary.
No Mass
No Funeral Home
No Memorial Service
But do go out and have a big dinner in my honor! :)
Life, my friend, is a full contact sport
Price to pay is rainfall.....
6-10 day...
8-14 day...
Same answer as before. Some would freeze. Some would melt. You'd have slush, eventually.
how fast is it flowing?
I've had everything poked...shoved...placed...put, into my body over the last 6 years.
Some while awake. Most while I was stone gone on anesthesia.
It ain't fun.
Get those prostates checked!!!!! LOL.
Standard pressure, the kind supplied by any municipality.
nor here either.
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