-9 F. morning low on Sunday.
0 F. high temperature yesterday in the Twin Cities.
31 F. average high on February 22.
14 F. high on February 22, 2014.
February 22, 1981: Warmth returns to Minnesota with a high at Pipestone of 55 and a high of 52 at Luverne.
The Longest Month?
Nagging
about the weather is highly subjective; everyone has their opinions,
anecdotes & horror stories. There's no one right answer.
So forgive me while I lament the month of February, my least favorite month of the year.
Think
about it. November brings the novelty of snow and Thanksgiving.
December features Santa and good tidings of credit, NFL playoffs in
January, March holds the promise of spring break and muddy 30s as Old
Man Winter begins to lose interest. But February? Aching cold - spits of
snow - greasy freeways. Like an annoying uncle who doesn't know when to
leave.
Sorry for the rant. Tracking a parade of anorexic clippers
is making me nutty. Towns from Kentucky to Virginia have seen more snow
than MSP so far this winter; New England as much as 4 to 6 times more
snow. And I still don't see a "shovel-able" snowfall into at least the
second week of March.
A southern storm brushes us with light snow
next Sunday morning. At this point I'll be surprised if we pick up a
grand total of 35 to 40 inches by May 1. A bust for snow lovers.
But
if you love wind chill you're in luck! The mercury hits 30F Tuesday
before the next Canadian cold slap - keep your warmest parka handy.
Arctic Burps.
Canada exports more chilling air into the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes
by midweek, but first the mercury pushes into the 20s later today,
brushing freezing Tuesday morning before tumbling once again. NOAA NAM
2-meter temperature forecast via Ham Weather.
A Cold Finish to February.
I still see a cold bias into the end of next week; growing evidence
that we'll finally thaw out the second week of March. A southern storm
brushes Minnesota with a light accumulation next Saturday night and
Sunday morning - it's early but a couple inches could fall. Probably
nothing more.
Dripping Icicles.
There's a hardy cardinal that sings a happy tune every morning outside
my window. Hardy and a little stupid, but I appreciate the effort. GFS
guidance shows 30s pushing into Minnesota (finally) by March 5 or March
6. Circle your calendar.
Snow Drought.
Parts of eastern Kentucky and western Virginia have picked up more snow
than the Twin Cities so far this winter. Some coastal communities in
New England have received as much as 3 to 5 times more snow than MSP.
Here's an excerpt from meteorologist
D.J. Kayser's weather blog: "...
Minneapolis
sits at only 24.1″ of snow so far this winter, 14.9″ below average for
this time of year. Meanwhile, places further south have gotten more snow
than us. Jackson, KY, only averages 17.8″ of snow through February 19th
– they’ve seen 24.7″. And 20.8″ of that has fallen this month – over
15″ of that within the past five days..."
Thrilled By Chills? Take A Look At The World's Coldest City.
NPR
had a story over the weekend that made me temporarily forget about the
latest cold front. Keep me out of Yakutsk, Russia, please. I'm feeling
better about the Twin Cities. Here's an excerpt: "...
Maybe you've
heard of Yakutsk from the board game Risk, which you might have played
in the comfort of your warm home. Out here, the average winter
temperature is brutal: -30 degrees Fahrenheit. "The first impression I
had was being physically gripped by [the cold]," Chapple says. "It was
literally like something had wrapped around my legs..."
Photo credit
above: "Yakutsk, Russia is the world's coldest city: average winter
temperatures hit -30 degrees. It's also the largest city built on
permafrost.
Amos Chapple
Jeremy Jackson On Sea Level Rise. This
YouTube video
will not be endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce of Miami, New Orleans
or New York City anytime soon. Jeremy Jackson addressed the Naval War
College in Newport, Rhode Island on February 5. The presentation goes
over an hour - if you have friends in south Florida, Louisiana or the
Big Apple you might want to take a peek.
Tornado In A Bottle.
How many fans does it take to create a miniature tornado in a
laboratory? Fewer than you might think, according to an interesting
story and video at
Slate; here's a clip: "...
We can create a 5-meter-wide tornado inside the chamber.
A tornado is a combination of rotation and suction. By angling the
airflow from the fans around the lower chamber, we control the rotation
of a tornado vortex, and we create the suction by running the six huge
fans in reverse. The beauty of our tornado is that we can move it along
the ground at 2 meters per second..."
Apple Wants To Start Producing Cars As Soon As 2020.
Will they buy Tesla to jump-start their development efforts? It's no
longer about digital devices, soon it will be a digital lifestyle,
including new transportation options. Here's a clip from a story at
Bloomberg Business: "...
Tesla’s
success in creating a startup car company has shown that the
traditional barriers of entry into the auto industry aren’t as difficult
to overcome as originally thought, said one person, who asked not to be
identified because the matter is private. At the same time, automakers
have struggled to bring technical leaps to car development, something
that Silicon Valley is also seeking to accomplish. For example, Google
Inc. has invested in developing an autonomous vehicle since 2010..." (Image courtesy of
iJailbreak).
7 Cities That Are Starting To Go Car-Free. I found this story at
fastcoexist.com fascinating - wondering if the trend will come to the Twin Cities; here's an excerpt: "...
Traffic in London today moves slower than an average cyclist (or a horse-drawn carriage). Commuters in L.A. spend 90 hours a year stuck in traffic. A U.K. study found that drivers spend 106 days
of their lives looking for parking spots. Now a growing number of
cities are getting rid of cars in certain neighborhoods through fines,
better design, new apps, and, in the case of Milan, even paying
commuters to leave their car parked at home and take the train instead..." (If anyone spots the woman in the convertible above please call 911 immediately).
TODAY: Cold start. Turning windy with fading sun. Wind chill: -25 early. Winds: SW 15-25. High: 24
MONDAY NIGHT: Mostly cloudy, rising temperatures. Low: 23
TUESDAY: Mild start, few flakes in the air. High: 31
WEDNESDAY: More clouds than sun, chilly. Wake-up: 6. High: 15
THURSDAY: Blue sky. Sunscreen optional. Wake-up: -4. High: 12
FRIDAY: Plenty of sun. Another wintry hug. Wake-up: -2. High: 18
SATURDAY: Clouds increase, light snow late? Wake-up: 9. High: 26
SUNDAY: Snow tapers. Couple inches early? Wake-up: 18. High: 27
Climate Stories....
Deeper Ties To Corporate Cash For A Doubtful Climate Scientist. Except
that he's not a climate scientist; he's an aerospace engineer. His
papers over the years have cast doubt on man-made warming; linking any
changes in temperature to the sun. And you'll never believe who is major
funders are.
The New York Times has the story; here's an excerpt: "...
Historians
and sociologists of science say that since the tobacco wars of the
1960s, corporations trying to block legislation that hurts their
interests have employed a strategy of creating the appearance of
scientific doubt, usually with the help of ostensibly independent
researchers who accept industry funding. Fossil-fuel interests have
followed this approach for years, but the mechanics of their activities
remained largely hidden..."
Senator Edward Markey To Investigate Energy Companies on Climate Science Funding. Here's a clip from
The Boston Globe: "...
The
Massachusetts Democrat will send letters to fossil fuel companies,
trade organizations, and others with a stake in carbon fuels, aiming to
reveal other climate-change-skeptical scientists whose work has been
subsidized by those parties, a Markey spokesman said via e-mail. “For
years, fossil fuel interests and front groups have attacked climate
scientists and legislation to cut carbon pollution using junk science
and debunked arguments,” Markey said in a statement. “The American
public deserve an honest debate that isn’t polluted by the best junk
science fossil fuel interests can buy. That’s why I will be launching
this investigation to see how widespread this denial-for-hire scheme
stretches within the anti-climate action cabal...”
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