East Coast Record?
As we were dealing with our own snow system this past weekend, the Mid-Atlantic States were getting buried under what many people were calling “snow-mageddon”. The nation’s capital recorded 32 inches at the Dulles Int’l Airport and around 20 inches at Reagan Int’l Airport. In nearby Baltimore, nearly 24 inches was measured. Some locations with slightly higher elevations had over 40 inches of snow during the two-day event.
Many cities recorded either their all-time heaviest snow storm or the second highest since snow records started in the late 1800s, including both Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. Although not in the official records, back in 1772 both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson penned in their diaries of a snow storm that dumped around three feet of snow in that same area which would be the heaviest known event for that region.
So this event at least in some localized areas produced snow amounts not observed in over 230 years.
Posted by: Daryl Ritchison on 2/08/2010 at 9:21 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Tags: baltimore, climate, fargo, record snow, washington, weather
Winter
This past autumn when you heard forecasts for the upcoming winter, the forecasts were for meteorological winter which comprises the three coldest months of the year; December, January and February. Granted the winter season can easily run well into April in this region, but February is considered the final month of winter. With less than a month left, Fargo Moorhead is currently running about 1 degree below average to this point in the winter.
The current pattern over North America would suggest that the first half of February will likely finish below average, so we will need a strong push of warm weather during the second half of the month to not only make this month, but also meteorological winter, finish above normal. The past two winters finished below average by 4.7 and 3.0 degrees, so without a push of warmer air this month, this will be our third straight colder than average winter season.
Posted by: Daryl Ritchison on 2/04/2010 at 7:55 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink
Tags: climate, fargo, forecast, weather, winter
January Precip
The month of January had three principle precipitation events. The first on January 6 brought 3.1 inches of snow and 0.20 inches of liquid and the last event, which was the day of the blizzard, was another light snow event with 2.2 inches falling containing 0.15 inches of moisture. It was the second event on January 22-23 that contained most of the moisture the area received last month.
The rain and snow during those two days contained 1.16 inches of moisture with 6.2 inches of snow. Total precipitation last month totaled 1.57 inches which ranks as the 6th wettest January on record. That brings our total precipitation since December 1 to 3.42 inches which is 2.09 inches above normal for those two months. In fact, this winter already ranks as the 5th wettest on record with nearly an entire month left in the season.
Total snow last month was 10.5 inches bringing our seasonal total to 36.3 inches through January 31.
Posted by: Daryl Ritchison on 2/02/2010 at 7:56 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Tags: climate, fargo, january 2010, snowfall, weather
January Extreme
During the last few months of 2009 our area was in a persistent four week weather pattern that brought significant monthly temperature anomalies. September was very warm, followed by a cold October, and then back to warmth in November with the pattern bringing back the cold in December. So as January began many were wondering if this pattern would continue.
The first ten days of the month were bitterly cold bringing thoughts of another cold month to many. But then a rapid warm up occurred and the middle two weeks of January had temperatures nearly 20° above average. But then the cold came back for the last week of the month with temperatures again well below normal. In some ways, January brought all the extremes of the past four months into four weeks.
In the end, the extremes last month nearly balanced out, with the average temperature in January finishing 1.6° above normal.
Posted by: Daryl Ritchison on 2/01/2010 at 10:51 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: 2010, climate, fargo, january, weather
Flood Outlook 2010
From the hydrologists at the North Central River Forecasting Center in Chanhassen, via the National Weather service, have issued their latest forecast for spring flooding in the River River basin:
http://www.weather.gov/water/textprods/view.php?wfo=fgf&prod=ESF
Posted by: Daryl Ritchison on 1/29/2010 at 9:33 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: 2010, fargo, flooding, red river
Minimum Extremes
This month has brought some dramatic temperature changes to the area. One of most interesting to me has been the extreme range in low temperatures observed. Back on January 2 the official low in Fargo Moorhead was -33° which was a record for that date. Then three weeks later, on January 23, the official low was 33° above zero. That was also a record, but this time a record high minimum for that date.
So during this month our low temperatures have varied by 66° which is the 2nd highest such difference in our record books for this month. The greatest difference in minimum temperatures in January occurred in 1892 when the range was 67°. That year the lowest minimum temperature was -37° and the highest minimum was 30°.
The all-time record dates back to March of 1964 which experienced a minimum low temperature of -22° with a high minimum of 50° for a monthly difference of 72°.
Posted by: Daryl Ritchison on 1/28/2010 at 11:23 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: climate, extremes, fargo, low temperature, weather
The Windiest Place is...
The blizzard on Monday once again reminded us of how windy the Red River Valley can be. The wind gusted to over 50 mph at times (peak was 54 mph at Fargo's Airport and 55 mph at Moorhead's airport). But our wind potential pales in comparison to the weather station atop Mount Washington in New Hampshire.
Rising to over 6000 feet the same cold air masses the sweep through our area have a much greater impact on the weather station situated so high above sea level. Wind speeds exceeding 100 mph are common and in April, 1934 a gust measured to 231 mph was observed. This has been listed as the strongest wind speed ever directed measured by instrumentation until this month.
The World Meteorological Organization just announced that after a long review that a new world wind speed record has been verified. Back on April 10, 1996 Tropical Cyclone Olivia produced a gust of 253 mph as it passed near Barrow Island in Australia besting the long held Mount Washington record.
Posted by: Daryl Ritchison on 1/26/2010 at 8:08 AM | Comments (4) | Permalink
Tags: climate, fargo, mount washington, record wind, weather, windy
Below and Above
After a very cold start, this month has had a remarkable turnaround in temperatures. The first 10 days of the month ranked as the 10th coldest such period on record with temperature averaging 10-15 degrees below seasonal normals. Then the weather turned mild with the stretch from January 11 to January 21 recording temperatures about 15 degrees above normal. In fact, that stretch in the middle of the month was the 11th warmest such period on record.
So to this point, January is running slightly above average for temperatures. The storm over the weekend is part of another pattern change that is occurring over North America so at the moment it appears the rest of the month will trend to colder temperatures once again. The month of January could therefore finish reasonably close to the long-term average for temperatures with, in typical fashion for our climate, very little average weather occurring during the month.
Posted by: Daryl Ritchison on 1/25/2010 at 9:51 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: climate, fargo, north dakota, weather
Christmas Part II?
There has been much talk this week that this weekend’s storm is the same one that hit our area around Christmas. The mixing of warm tropical air with the colder weather in the arctic triggers waves to form in the upper-level wind flow over the Northern Hemisphere. These waves of varying shapes and sizes generally flow slowly from west to east around the globe. Low pressure systems tend to form on the troughs of these waves.
The wave that helped develop the snows around Christmas has been slowly circumnavigating the globe, but the original area of low pressure that triggered our heavy snow event around Christmas dissipated as it moved into northeastern Canada. But the atmospheric wave associated with the storm did trigger additional areas of low pressure of differing intensities as it moved around the globe. Therefore, one storm did not move completely around the world, but the same piece of atmospheric “energy” has reappeared in the United States.
Posted by: Daryl Ritchison on 1/23/2010 at 6:01 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: climate, fargo, patterns, snow, waves, weather
Up, Up and Away
One of the most common questions asked this time of year deals with when the average high and low temperatures start to increase. There is something about the averages starting to rise that brings a sense of relief to many individuals. Starting today, the average high has started the slow climb upwards.
Yesterday the average high was 15° and today it is 16°. Our average low on the other hand will wait until tomorrow for the increase to begin. The average low today is -3° and tomorrow it will increase to -2°. The averages will increase very slowly the next couple of weeks. By the end of the month the averages will be 18° and 0°. In February we will gain a degree about every four days and on February 28 the averages will be 27° and 11°.
The milestone I look forward to is the day our average high finally reaches 32° and that will not occur until March 10.
Posted by: Daryl Ritchison on 1/22/2010 at 6:37 AM | Comments (2) | Permalink
