It was "The Beast *from* the East" btw, not "of the East". I live in the SE of the UK and the term was actually invented on a weather forum nearly 20 years ago.
While the article is interesting, it doesn't explain how during the 80s we had several much stronger and more persistent easterly spells brought about by a Scandinavian High - including January 1987, which led to 20+ ft drifts in my area, temperatures of -7C by daytime (the coldest here for hundreds of years) and a week off school!
The name was invented, as I said, on TheWeatherOutlook forum around 2001. It then spread to the other weather forums (NetWeather, UKWW, even uk.sci.weather) in the UK.
The media, then, picked up on it in 2018 and ran with it - it's catchy, after all. You then get places like Ars bastardising the name as they don't know where it came from in the first place.
FWIW, the primary driver of the Beast in 2018 was actually SSW which occurred a few weeks earlier.... much as was the case this year, which also saw an easterly with snow. This year was actually the first midwinter easterly since 1997, the 2018 event coming right at the end of winter (in late February, spring starts on the 1st March). Before 1997, we had them in 1996, 1993, 1991, 1987, 1986, 1985....
Needless to say those of us who like snow and cold in winter are hoping the miserable run of snowless winters is coming to an end!
Lake Erie doesn't freeze over very often - the last time was in 1996. But when it does, there is less snow. I was there in 1996 visiting my sister, and it seemed just like any PA winter. In another warmer winter that I went up, it was inundated with snow. It would be a great Ski resort if they had any decent mountains.
Hess’s Law. Read a book. Water's enthalpy change of vaporization versus sublimation is around 50kJ/mol with a small difference in energy because we're comparing solid versus liquid, but total energy to gas is the same. Of course speed is not energy, and I can forgive you for confusing them.
Nope (Score:5, Interesting)
It was "The Beast *from* the East" btw, not "of the East". I live in the SE of the UK and the term was actually invented on a weather forum nearly 20 years ago.
While the article is interesting, it doesn't explain how during the 80s we had several much stronger and more persistent easterly spells brought about by a Scandinavian High - including January 1987, which led to 20+ ft drifts in my area, temperatures of -7C by daytime (the coldest here for hundreds of years) and a week off school!
In other words, it'
Re: (Score:2)
The headline is cut n paste from ars....
https://arstechnica.com/scienc... [arstechnica.com]
Re:Nope (Score:3, Interesting)
Ars have it wrong too in that case!
The name was invented, as I said, on TheWeatherOutlook forum around 2001. It then spread to the other weather forums (NetWeather, UKWW, even uk.sci.weather) in the UK.
The media, then, picked up on it in 2018 and ran with it - it's catchy, after all. You then get places like Ars bastardising the name as they don't know where it came from in the first place.
FWIW, the primary driver of the Beast in 2018 was actually SSW which occurred a few weeks earlier.... much as was the case this year, which also saw an easterly with snow. This year was actually the first midwinter easterly since 1997, the 2018 event coming right at the end of winter (in late February, spring starts on the 1st March). Before 1997, we had them in 1996, 1993, 1991, 1987, 1986, 1985....
Needless to say those of us who like snow and cold in winter are hoping the miserable run of snowless winters is coming to an end!
Evaporation from Arctic? (Score:2)
With the ice gone, the water is still very cold. Hard to see that much evaporation would result.
I would have thought that the current from the Caribbean would produce the most moisture, with storms coming from the east.
But certainly sea water absorbs much more heat than reflective ice and snow.
Re: (Score:3)
With the ice gone, the water is still very cold. Hard to see that much evaporation would result.
I would have thought that the current from the Caribbean would produce the most moisture, with storms coming from the east.
But certainly sea water absorbs much more heat than reflective ice and snow.
There is a functioning model of the low ice, higher snowfall issue.
Lake Erie, and the lake effect snows https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/c... [spectrumnews1.com]
Lake Erie doesn't freeze over very often - the last time was in 1996. But when it does, there is less snow. I was there in 1996 visiting my sister, and it seemed just like any PA winter. In another warmer winter that I went up, it was inundated with snow. It would be a great Ski resort if they had any decent mountains.
Re: (Score:2)
With the ice gone, the water is still very cold. Hard to see that much evaporation would result.
ice reflects most light. water absorbs a significant amount of light. Absorbing light heats you, reflecting it does not.
And the sublimation of solid ice happens just as quickly as the evaporation of liquid water.
Re: (Score:2)
Hess’s Law. Read a book. Water's enthalpy change of vaporization versus sublimation is around 50kJ/mol with a small difference in energy because we're comparing solid versus liquid, but total energy to gas is the same. Of course speed is not energy, and I can forgive you for confusing them.
Re: (Score:3)