Polar Vortex Sends Life-Threatening Freeze To US 684
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Reuters reports that the Midwestern United States is shivering through the region's lowest temperatures in twenty years as forecasters warn that life-threatening cold is heading eastward as a polar vortex of freezing Arctic weather sweeps across the United States. 'The coldest temperatures in almost two decades will spread into the northern and central U.S. today behind an arctic cold front,' says the National Weather Service. 'Combined with gusty winds, these temperatures will result in life-threatening wind chill values as low as 60 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit/minus 51 degrees Celsius).' The coldest temperature reported in the lower 48 states on Sunday was minus 40 F (-40 C) in the towns of Babbitt and Embarrass, Minnesota. Meteorologists warn that the wind-chill factor could make it feel twice as cold, causing frostbite to exposed parts of the body within minutes. Eleven people have already died in weather-related incidents in the past week, including a 71-year-old woman with Alzheimer's who wandered from her home in upstate New York and was found frozen to death only 100m away. Polar vortexes occur seasonally at the North Pole, and their formation resembles that of hurricanes in more tropical regions: fast-moving winds build up around a calm center. Unlike a hurricane, these are frigid polar winds, circling the Arctic at more than 100 miles per hour. The spinning winds typically trap this cold air in the Arctic. But the problem comes when the polar vortex weakens or splits apart, essentially flinging these cold wind patterns out of the Arctic and into our backyards. 'All the ingredients are there for a near-record or historic cold outbreak,' says meteorologist Ryan Maue. 'If you're under 40, you've not seen this stuff before.'"
Re: In which units? (Score:2, Interesting)
Perceived cold is proportional to the amount of heat loss per unit time, so perhaps it's in units of heat lost per minute of exposure.
Re:Cue the climate change deniers ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Painful cold (Score:4, Interesting)
Course, you guys often have it worst over there, but, in Boston today it was quite the opposite.
In fact, last I checked it was almost 60 F outside. This morning, the foot of snow we got a few days ago was melting so fast you could actually see the water vapor coming off the piles of snow, it was enough to make it the foggiest commute I have had in what seems like a decade.
Looking at the forcast, we are expecting this snap to hit us and bring it down to 16 tonight. That is one hell of a temp drop!
Re:Where did I see this? (Score:5, Interesting)
My first thought too. Everybody laughed at the winter superstorm, but the radar image looks eerily the same.
Dang iz cold (Score:5, Interesting)
I have the good fortune to live on Lake Michigan in Chicago, where there are beautiful mists rising off the lake as the waves smash into the ice piles extending off the shore, splashing on them, adding layer on layer of ice. Truly a fascinating sight.
This is the kind of winter I recall as a kid, blizzard of '78 being one vivid example. Snow piled up to the roof of our garage! It got so heavy that come Spring the snow melted to reveal the yard fences all bent out of shape. But the past several winters have been so mild, barely freezing at all the past two, that today there's almost a sense of a return to normalcy.
In "get off my lawn" mode, all this weather reporting drama is just silly -- when I was younger winter was like this on a regular basis. We were heartier for it too. I had grizzly chest hairs by age six.
Re:Cue the climate change deniers ... (Score:4, Interesting)
We should be [...], greening the deserts; in short, taking the simple steps to making Earth a little better.
Greening the deserts is not a risk free proposition.
You could easily shift local or global weather patterns, depending on how much greening you do and where you do it.
Anyways, if you want to see results, you can watch the Chinese try (and so far fail because of poor choices) in their attempts to green the Gobi desert.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-North_Shelter_Forest_Program [wikipedia.org]
Re:Threatning the midwest! (Score:5, Interesting)
I live in Minnesota, and instead I'm cheering the cold: Yay, all the damn insects that hitched rides up here on trucks from the south are dying!
(While I'm very serious about freezing those pests to death, I'm glad the local homeless shelters have added capacity for this incident. I like bug suffering, but not people suffering.)