Chilly Spell - First Metro Hard Freeze Saturday Morning

49 F. high temperature in the Twin Cities Tuesday.

52 F. average high on October 28

44 F. high on October 28, 2013.

October 28 in Minnesota Weather History. Source: Twin Cities National Weather Service:

2004: Exceptionally muggy for October. Dew points surged into the middle to upper 60's over central and southern Minnesota. Ladybugs are extremely active.
1955: Early snow with 2.2 inches in the Twin Cities.
1905: Snowfall accumulated in south central Minnesota. Snow totals included 7 inches at Fairmont, 6 inches at Farmington, 4.5 inches at Montevideo, 4 inches at Faribault, and 3 inches at New London.





Weather PTSD

Today marks the two year anniversary of Sandy, an odd mash-up of ex-hurricane and nor'easter, three times the size of Katrina. Sandy swamped lower Manhattan under 14 feet of water, rearranging the coastline of New Jersey, leaving behind $65 billion in damage. Sea level in New York Harbor is 17 inches higher than it was in the 1700s. Between that, high tide and a full moon the die was cast for a record storm surge.

A new study at Monmouth University suggests as many 20 percent of homeowners impacted by Sandy's wind and waves are still suffering emotional stress, a weather-related version of Post-traumatic stress disorder. I see this in tornado and flood survivors as well: anxiety, depression, sleep disorders and other symptoms of a severe trauma.

No weather drama close to home, just a return to scrappy clouds and a whiff of wind chill. A reinforcing cold front keeps highs close to 40F on Halloween, but skies should be clear, winds light for candy cravings.

We go from hard freeze Saturday morning to a gusty south wind over the weekend - 50s return by Sunday; the pattern not ripe for major storms looking out into mid-November.No more 60s in sight. No Halloween blizzards either.

Speaking of trauma.

---

A visualization comparing GPS data from New York City taxis in the days surrounding Hurricane Sandy with the same data under normal traffic conditions

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-10-taxi-gps-hurricane-sandy-effect.html#jCp

A visualization comparing GPS data from New York City taxis in the days surrounding Hurricane Sandy with the same data under normal traffic conditions

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-10-taxi-gps-hurricane-sandy-effect.html#jCp

The largest Atlantic hurricane on record, Hurricane Sandy offered a chance for researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to try out a new computational method they developed that promises to help municipalities quantify the resilience of their transportation systems to extreme events using only GPS data from taxis.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-10-taxi-gps-hurricane-sandy-effect.html#jCp

Colder Winters in Asia, Europe Linked to Sea Ice Decline. Climate Central examines how reduced sea ice from rapid arctic warming might impact the frequency of cold weather blocking patterns; here's a clip: "..The model simulations suggest that the reduced sea ice leads to greater absorption of incoming solar heat by open ocean waters, which leads to pressure changes in the atmosphere. Specifically, it seems to intensify a feature called the Siberian High over Europe and Asia, and leads to more of what are called blocking patterns, where the atmosphere effectively gets stuck in a particular pattern for days or even weeks. In the case of the study, the feature leads to more breakouts of Arctic air over the combined Europe-Asia landmass..."

---

Google's Dominance in Search Is Nearing Its Peak. Quartz has the story; here's the introduction: "Google is stumbling. Earlier this month the company disappointed shareholders with underwhelming quarterly results. The amount of money it makes each time somebody clicks on an ad has steadily fallen for the past three years. In response, according to Re/Code, Google CEO Larry Page has appointed insider Sundar Pichai to lead the bulk of Google’s product lines, freeing Page to focus on the “bigger picture...”

---

TODAY: Partly sunny and brisk. Winds: West 10. High: 48
WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Partly cloudy. Low: 39
THURSDAY: Mostly cloudy, turning colder late. High: near 50, then falling
FRIDAY: Clear and chilly. Chilling too. Wake-up: 29. High: near 40
SATURDAY: Hard freeze, then sunny & windy. Wake-up: 25. High: 46
SUNDAY: Intervals of sun, milder breeze. Wake-up: 34. High: 53
MONDAY: Some sun, slightly cooler. Wake-up: 42. High: 50
TUESDAY: Partly sunny, cooler than average. Wake-up: 38. High: 48

---

Climate Stories...

With Storms Intensifying, Milwaukee Braces for Bigger Floods. The Daily Climate takes a look at how a more volatile climate is impacting Milwaukee; here's a clip: "...Milwaukee is emblematic of how climate change is forcing the hand of sanitation departments in the Midwest. More frequent, intense storms threaten aging systems, making repairs, upgrades and innovative solutions more urgent. Climate change "keeps me up at night," said Kevin Shafer, executive director of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. "Before, we had a design criteria, and Mother Nature followed a historic trend. Now the historic trend is thrown out of whack." The Midwest is already seeing more frequent and intense storms, with more precipitation on the way, said Don Wuebbles, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Illinois and member of the scientific team behind the 2014 U.S. National Climate Assessment. Eight of the 10 wettest years for daily precipitation in the upper Midwest have happened since 1978..."

---

A Chronicler of Warnings Denied. The New York Times has an interview with "Merchants of Doubt" author Naomi Oreskes; here's an excerpt: "...I did some digging of my own. I learned that my critic was among an informal group of physicists who’d risen to prominence in weapons and rocketry during the Cold War. Though none were climatologists, they became key figures in climate change denial. On the various issues where members of the group had been active — acid rain, ozone depletion and climate change — there appeared to be a playbook drawn from the tobacco wars: Insist that the science is unsettled, attack the researchers whose findings they disliked, demand media coverage for a “balanced” view..."

---

The Varieties of Denialism. This subject obviously extends well beyond climate science. Here's the intro to a story by Massimo Pigliucci at Scientia Salon: "I have just come back from a stimulating conference at Clark University about “Manufacturing Denial,” which brought together scholars from wildly divergent disciplines — from genocide studies to political science to philosophy — to explore the idea that “denialism” may be a sufficiently coherent phenomenon underlying the willful disregard of factual evidence by ideologically motivated groups or individuals...."

---

2014 Setting Up As Warmest Year, Worldwide, Since 1880? We started the year in a cold phase (La Nina) and the much-hyped El Nino of 2014 is taking it's sweet old time ramping up in the Pacific. In spite of that, 2014 is on track to become the warmest year, globally, on record. Here's an excerpt from desmog.uk: "...These records tie 2014 with 1998 and 2010 for the warmest first nine months on record. The United Nations has pointed out that 13 out of the 14 hottest years recorded have taken place since the turn of the 21st century. In a statement, NOAA said: “If the surface temperature remains elevated at the same level for the remainder of the year, then 2014 will set a new record for the warmest annual average temperature since records began in 1880...”

---

Boston is Rethinking It's relationship With The Sea. Canals similar to Amsterdam to let the water IN? It may not be as crazy as it sounds, according to a story at the BBC; here's an excerpt: "...This is why Boston's city planners and architects are contemplating the radical idea of turning its most historic district - the elegant 19th Century terraced houses of the Back Bay - into a network of canals. "Much of the model has been how do we keep the water out? Everybody's afraid of the water," says Dennis Carlberg, sustainability director at Boston University and co-chair of Boston's sea-level rise committee. "So we wanted to turn that conversation on its head and say, well what if we let water in? How can we make life better in Boston by bringing water in?...."

---

Study Provides Deeper Understanding of Climate Change. Much of the excess heat energy from fossil fuel emissions is going into the deep oceans, and we're not precisely sure how a warming trend in the Pacific will manifest itself in the future: more hurricanes and typhoons, shifts in rainfall patterns and a higher risk of extreme summer heat? Here's an excerpt of an article at mycentraljersey.com: "...The study shows that changes in heat distribution between the ocean basins is important for understanding future climate change. However, scientists can't predict precisely what effect the carbon dioxide currently being pulled into the ocean from the atmosphere will have on climate. Still, they argue that since more carbon dioxide has been released in the past 200 years than any recent period in geological history, interactions between carbon dioxide, temperature changes and precipitation, and ocean circulation will result in profound changes..."