U.S. deep freeze continues; dangerous air pollution episode in Utah
The January 2013 North American cold wave continued to bring bitter cold to much of Eastern Canada and the Midwest and Northeast U.S. this morning. In the U.S., below-zero temperatures were recorded Thursday morning in twelve states east of the Rockies. The most intense cold was centered near the Minnesota/Ontario border, where Embarrass, Minnesota hit -42°F (-41°C) and Crane Lake, Minnesota bottomed out at -36°F (-38°C). The coldest spot in Canada was in Souix Lookout, Ontario, about 100 miles north of International Falls, where the mercury fell to -40°F (-40°C.) The fun continued on the summit of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire this morning, where a temperature of -26°F (-32°C) combined with a wind of 71 mph to create a remarkable wind chill of -73°F (-58°C). A digression: back in 1986, when I taught weather forecasting at SUNY Brockport in New York, I worked with a meteorologist who used to work on top of Mt. Washington as a weather observer. He said it was standard practice back in the days he worked there to engage in a ritualistic prank whenever a new weather observer joined the staff. On the first day the new observer was there during one of Mt. Washington's classic hurricane-force wind events, he would be sent out with a safety harness and a can of paint to paint the observation platform. The unwitting observer would inch out into the hurricane winds, struggle to pry off the lid of the can of paint, and quickly discover the impossibility of painting during a hurricane--the powerful winds blowing over the top of the paint can would create a powerful Bernoulli Effect, levitating the paint out of the can and hurling all of the paint far downwind. The sheepish newbie weather observer would report back inside and ask, "you really didn't want me to paint the observing platform, did you?" to the sound of uproarious guffaws.
Figure 1. A cold day in New England: cold air flowing off of the New England coast creates thick stratocumulus clouds over the Atlantic Ocean in this true-color MODIS satellite image taken at 12:35 pm EST January 23, 2013. Image credit: NASA.
Dangerous air pollution in Utah
The most dangerous weather in the U.S. this week is occurring in the valleys of northern Utah, where clear skies, light winds, and a strong temperature inversion have combined to create a dangerous 6-day long air pollution episode. (A temperature inversion occurs when air temperature increases with altitude, acting as a stable lid preventing atmospheric mixing; inversions are common in mountain valleys when high pressure dominates.) It's been unusually cold during most of January in Northeast Utah, with Salt Lake City on track to have its 3rd coldest January on record. The cold weather has caused people to use their wood burning stoves more than usual, resulting in high emissions of smoke. More than 100 Utah doctors delivered a petition to state lawmakers on Wednesday, demanding that authorities immediately lower highway speed limits, curb industrial activity and make mass transit free for the rest of winter. "We're in a public-health emergency for much of the winter," said Brian Moench, an anesthesiologist and president of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment. He estimated that poor air quality contributes to 1,000 to 2,000 premature deaths each year along Utah's Wasatch Front.
Figure 2. View of a smoggy Salt Lake City taken at 2 pm MST January 23, 2013. Webcam image courtesy of University of Utah/TimeScience.
Winds have remained below 6 mph for six straight days in Northern Utah, allowing fine Particulate Matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter (also called PM 2.5) to build up to unhealthful levels. PM 2.5, also known as particle pollution, is a complex mixture of extremely small dust and soot particles that lodge in the lungs and cause large increases in hospital admissions and excess mortality during severe air pollution episodes like this one. The federal standard for PM 2.5 is 35 micrograms per cubic meter, averaged over 24 hours. In Salt Lake City, fine particle air pollution has been above the federal standard for six consecutive days, with a peak value of 91 micrograms per cubic meter on January 19. In nearby Provo, Utah, the pollution has been much worse, with 24-hour average PM 2.5 levels more than triple the federal standard on Thursday morning, at 131 micrograms per cubic meter. If the PM 2.5 levels go above 150 micrograms per cubic meter, this will be in the "Very Unhealthy" category as defined by EPA. At this pollution level, the entire population is likely to be affected, and health warnings of emergency conditions are issued. Compounding the air pollution woes in Provo are high levels of nitrogen dioxide gas, which peaked at 98 ppb on Tuesday, just below the 100 ppb federal standard. Light winds and a strong temperature inversion will continue today, and freezing rain fell over much of the Salt Lake City area this morning, turning the roads into skating rinks, resulting in dozens of traffic accidents. Fortunately, the forecast for Provo calls for snow and rain this weekend due to a low pressure system, and the rain and winds associated with this low should be able to reduce air pollution levels significantly.
Figure 3. Observed air quality in North Provo, Utah, January 19 - 24, 2013. 24-hour average fine Particulate Matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter (also called PM 2.5) levels (black circles, top image) were in excess of the 35 micrograms per cubic meter U.S. standard (orange line) during the entire period, and peaked at 131 micrograms per cubic meter--more than 3 times the Federal standard--Thursday morning. Levels of toxic nitrogen dioxide (yellow dots) peaked at 98 ppb, just below the U.S. standard of 100 ppb, on January 22. Note that during the entire 5-day period pictured here, the wind speed at the surface never rose above 6 mph (lower image, black dots.) Image credit: Utah DEQ.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 — Blog Index
Here in D.C the kids have half a day.Now I'm getting word that other counties in Maryland are releasing their kids two hours earlier.It seems people have learned a very long and good lesson from January 26 2011...
SOUTHERN BALTIMORE-ANNE ARUNDEL-CHARLES-ST. MARYS-CALVERT-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...FREDERICK...WESTMINSTER...COLUMBIA...
BALTIMORE...ANNAPOLIS...WALDORF...ST MARYS CITY
206 AM EST FRI JAN 25 2013
...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 2 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO
9 PM EST THIS EVENING...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON HAS
ISSUED A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW...WHICH IS IN EFFECT
FROM 2 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 9 PM EST THIS EVENING.
* PRECIPITATION TYPE...SNOW
* ACCUMULATIONS...1 TO 3 INCHES...WITH THE HIGHER AMOUNTS NEAR THE
MASON-DIXON LINE AND IN LOWER SOUTHERN MARYLAND.
* TIMING...SNOW WILL BEGIN DURING THE MID AFTERNOON AND TAPER OFF
IN THE EVENING. SNOW MAY BE MODERATE TO LOCALLY HEAVY AT
TIMES DURING THE LATE AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING.
* TEMPERATURES...IN THE LOWER 20S.
* WINDS...SOUTH 5 TO 10 MPH.
* IMPACTS...ROADS WILL BECOME SNOW COVERED AND SLIPPERY...
RESULTING IN HAZARDOUS TRAVEL DURING THE AFTERNOON AND EVENING
COMMUTE.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR SNOW MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW
WILL CAUSE PRIMARILY TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR SNOW
COVERED ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES...AND USE CAUTION WHILE
DRIVING.
&&
Stopped raining just before I had to drop the kid at school. Only Tea I have is Green Tea and Hot. Can be arranged though....
Crikey!: 15,000 crocodiles escape from South Africa farm during flooding
National Post Staff | Jan 24, 2013 2:32 PM ET
The good news: The Rakwena Crocodile farm in South Africa caught nearly 7,500 crocodiles that escaped when the nearby Limpopo river rose. The bad news: Just as many are still on the loose.
The reptiles got loose when the farm had to unlock its gates due to flooding, the Daily Telegraph reports.
"We've been recapturing them as and when the local farmers phone us to tell us that there are crocodiles on their property," said Zane Langman, the son-in-law of the owner of Rakwena told the Agence France-Presse.
Of course, most of the croc hunting happens at night. Why you ask? Because the crocodiles eyes glow red at night making them easier to see in a way that is in no way whatsoever disturbing at all.
The crocodiles have exacerbated an already dangerous flood season which has left many in the region and in neighbouring Mozambique homeless.
In one case Langman said that he went to save a group of friends in a flooded house the point was driven home.
"You want to get them but you wonder the whole time if you'll make it there. When we reached them, the crocodiles were swimming around them," he said to News24. "Praise the Lord, they were all alive."
"I heard there were crocodiles in Musina [about 120km away] on the school's rugby field," Langman told the BBC.
At least eight people in South Africa and 12 in Mozambique have been killed by the floods, while over 15,000 have been driven from their homes according to Reuters. It%u2019s unclear if the crocodiles factored into any of the fatalities.
Source: National Post
Bye, see you next week, hopefully.
Edit: Here is video on the crocodile escape.
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK
0320 AM CST FRI JAN 25 2013
VALID 281200Z - 021200Z
...DISCUSSION...
GENERAL AGREEMENT EXISTS AMONGST THE GFS/EC/UK/CMC GLOBAL MODELS IN
THE EVOLUTION OF A LARGE SCALE POSITIVE TILT TROUGH ACROSS THE WRN
U.S. THROUGH D4/MON. HOWEVER...IT IS IMMEDIATELY THEREAFTER AND
BEYOND WHEN SUBSTANTIAL DIFFERENCES APPEAR AND PERSIST AMONGST THE
MEDIUM RANGE GUIDANCE...THUS INTRODUCING CONSIDERABLE UNCERTAINTY IN
THE FORECAST FOR NEXT WEEK.
THE ECMWF EXHIBITS THE GREATEST DEPARTURE FROM PRIOR RUNS AND IS AN
OUTLIER IN DEVELOPING A CUTOFF LOW WITHIN THE BASE OF THE POSITIVE
TILT TROUGH ACROSS THE SOUTHWEST AND BAJA THROUGH D5/TUE. THE
GFS...AND TO SOME EXTENT THE OTHER GLOBAL MODELS AND GFS
ENSEMBLE...MAINTAIN A MORE PROGRESSIVE AND PHASED DEEP UPPER TROUGH
AND STRONGER COLD FRONT THAT SPREAD EAST AND SOUTH ACROSS MID/LOWER
MS VALLEY THROUGH D6/WED. BUT...EVEN AMONGST THE GFS ENSEMBLE
MEMBERS...UNCERTAINTY IN THE AMPLITUDE OF THIS TROUGH IS HIGH WITH
THE STANDARD DEVIATION IN 500MB HEIGHTS ACROSS THE CNTRL U.S.
EXCEEDING 90M AT THE 120H FORECAST VALID D5/TUE EVENING.
DESPITE THE SPREAD IN GFS ENSEMBLE MEMBERS...THERE REMAINS A LOW
PROBABILITY SEVERE WEATHER THREAT FROM ARKLATEX TO MS DELTA REGIONS
AS THE COLD FRONT ASSOCIATED WITH THE UPPER TROUGH DEVELOPS INTO AN
AXIS OF POTENTIAL INSTABILITY THROUGH D5/TUE EVENING. WITH LATEST
MODEL SOLUTIONS AND ENSEMBLE MEMBERS EXHIBITING SUCH DIVERGENT
OUTCOMES HOWEVER...FORECAST CONFIDENCE IN A MORE WIDESPREAD SEVERE
WEATHER THREAT HAS DECREASED SINCE YESTERDAY. THUS...PREDICTABILITY
APPEARS TOO LOW TO MAINTAIN A SEVERE WEATHER AREA AT THIS TIME.
Plenty of CAPE:
Stay safe and warm fellow weather nerds.
A good article about Red Tide and the belief that it is a Man made problem...not natural. This is my belief as well.
Precipitation now shows .19 and I hear it starting up again but very lightly. We got .19 yesterday. MTD was .22 not counting todays. We do need this rain.
That is an INSANE trough... If models start saying it goes Negatively tilted, we are in for a doozy of an outbreak.
you cant have it its mine rain give it back
I am usually pretty quite, but I'm not making any promises today. Enjoy your snow!
Viewing: 401 - 428
Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 — Blog Index