13 February, 2011

TODAY'S TOP WEATHER STORIES
On Weather & Climate Through the Eyes of Mark Vogan

MASSIVE NATION-WIDE TEMPERATURE FLIP FOR USA, COOLER WEATHER SET TO RETURN NEXT WEEKEND!

Between Feb 10th & Feb 13th we see Oklahoma rise 107 degrees
IN 4 DAYS OKLAHOMA GOES FROM -31 TO 76

HERE IS A SELECTION OF INCREDIBLE TEMPERATURE JUMPS IN JUST 3 DAYS!

OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma City (73 degree rise in 3 days!)
On February 9th the high was 18 degrees, Low 7, on the following night (10th) the low fell to -5 but 3-days later on the 13th it rose to 68 degrees.

Ponca City (89 degree rise in 3 days!)
On February 10th, the temperature overnight plunged to a frigid -15 but just 3 days later the high reaches 64 degrees on the 13th.

Gage (86 degree rise in 3 days!)
On the evening of the 10th the low dipped to -15 but just 3-days later the high reached 71 degrees.

Stillwater (93 degree rise in 3 days!)
On the evening of the 10th the low fell to -21 degrees but just 3 days later on the 13th the high topped 72 degrees.

Guymon (80 degree rise in 4 days!)
On the evening of the 9th Guymon fell to -3 degrees after a high of 19 degrees, on the 10th the low fell to -1 but on the 13th the high reached a warm 76 degrees.

KANSAS

Garden City (86 degree rise in 3 days!)
The 9th was a bitter day with a high of just 14 degrees, that night it dropped to -9 degrees. However the really cold night came the following night when the mercury plummeted to a brutal -12 degrees on the night of the 10th. What was more amazing was that just 3 days later, the high on the afternoon of the 13th was a warm 74 degrees.

Dodge City (80-degree rise in 3 days!)
On the night of the 10th the low fell to a frigid -10 degrees but rocketed to 70 degrees just 3 days later on the 13th.

TEXAS

Wink (82 degree rise in 3 days
On the night of the 10th, the low fell to 4 degrees but just 3 days later the high rose to a summer-like 79 degrees on the 13th.

Lubbock (81 degree rise in 4 days!)
On the evening of the 9th the low fell all the way to 4 degrees but rose to 77 degrees just 4 days later on the 13th.

It has certainly been a breathtaking turnaround from daytime highs barely reaching 20 degrees for most areas from central Texas northwards, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week and nights which plunged to some of the lowest levels on record with widespread -0s and 0s. Now that the Arctic air has been kicked out as the ridge off the west coast breaks down and pushes eastwards into the Plains, the PACIFIC air flowing up, over and down the Rockies has revved up the heat engine in the exact areas that shivered just a couple of days ago.

Just look at these two maps above (Courtesy of The Weather Channel). It's nearly 70 degrees in Oklahoma City right now and it's reached 70 in Gage, OK.

Bingiza Reaches Major Hurricane Strength, Eyes Madagascar
ACCUWEATHER NEWS

Storm in Black Sea off Russian coast splits ship in two
BBC WORLD

TODAY'S WEATHER ACROSS AMERICA
From AccuWeather

Shipping Companies Weather Storms, Consumers Weather Higher Prices
By Gina Cherundolo, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer


Pondering Flood Insurance? Heavy Snow Melt Brings Flood Risk
By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist


Stormy Pattern Settles Into Northwest
By Katie Storbeck, Meteorologist


How To Keep Your Roof From Collapsing
AccuWeather

WEATHER TALK
By Mark Vogan

HELSINKI, MOSCOW, TALLINN & KIEV IN FOR BONE-CHILLING WEEK, EVEN COLDER NEXT WEEK?

You don't need to be a meteorologist to work out that if you live in Scandianavia down into the Baltic states, western Russia and down into the Ukraine that's it's getting darn cold! Nor do you need to be a meteorologist to see that there's a lot of blue showing up over this region of the world.

Note in the above graphic which represents the 500-mb pattern for Europe tomorrow (Monday 14th) that a large trough is sitting over NE Europe. This is keeping daytime highs in Helsinki, Tallinn, Moscow and down to Kiev below normal. Highs are struggling to get above -10 to -14C and thanks to clouds and widespread snowfall over this large landlocked region, temperatures at night aren't falling too much (around -15 to -18C) or certainly not as low as they could be going given the low height lines and the depth of the cold now pushing into the heart of western Russia all the way into the Ukraine and Black Sea where indeed a ship sank in heavy seas due to the same storm that's been bringing a lot of heavy snow to Moscow the past several days.

As you'll see from the ma11:S=nzuF9cm_7vzpx1ZO; blogger_Tdel for Thursday 17, the trough is expanding over the east of Europe, whilst the west is warm and under maritime dominance with a constant ridge, trough cycle ever 2-4 days. Moscow and points to the north of the city are seeing constant snows pile up and this is only paving the way for the week of colder and colder weather. An Arctic high will start to bring clearer skies as the storm system that's produced all the snow moves out and this will allow skies temperatures to drop. Over the past several days, day and night temperatures have had little variance thanks to heavy cloud and snowfall. Because of all the fresh snowcover, clearer skies, lighter winds and a colder air mass moving down, daytime highs are going to drop into the -18 to -20C in Moscow, presenting the coldest air of the winter here. Nights will plunge into the -22 to -25C range from tomorrow night into Wednesday night. Helsinki, Finland should see highs Tuesday, Wednesday range from -13 to -15C with overnight lows dipping to between -18 and -22C under clear skies. Tallinn, Estonia will warm to between -8 and -10C with lows dipping to between -10 and -13C due to cloudier skies.

Once we reach the Thursday through Saturday time frame highs and overnight lows become colder despite the core shifting slightly east of Moscow into far west Asia. Helsinki will warm to -14C and fall to -21C rather than early week's high's near -20 and lows near -23C, Tallinn will warm to to a colder -11C and by night, under clearer skies fall to -21C as skies clear out more here. As for Moscow, from now on through this week, it's only growing colder with highs only reaching a frigid -22C by midweek and lows which dive into the -24 to -26C range, nearer those levels witnessed in January 2006.

As you can see from the above European model for NEXT week (Tuesday 22) the core of coldest air is sitting very near the Russian capital and if this map were to hold true, Moscow would be shivering in perhaps record or near record February cold with highs likely stuggling to reach -25C or lower and nights would drop under -30C, perhaps even -35C.

WHAT'S REACHING TODAY'S BLOG?

A Warm Week Ahead, No Storms until at Least Friday
Frank Strait, AccuWeather

THE EXTREMES OF THE DAY

TODAY'S US EXTREMES
COURTESY OF ACCUWEATHER

HIGH: 84 degrees at Goodyear, AZ
LOW: -11 degrees at Gunnison, CO

TODAY'S UK EXTREMES
COURTESY OF THE MET OFFICE

HIGH: 53 degrees (11.4C) at Murlough (Co Down)
COLD HIGH: 37 degrees (2.5C) at Cluanie Inn (NW Highland)
LOW: 29 degrees (-1.5C) at Drumnadrochit (Loch Ness)

TODAY'S EXTREMES HERE AT MY HOUSE

HIGH: 42 degrees
LOW: 36 degrees

Thanks for reading.
-Mark