[Dave K]

Quote

Summer in March for the Midwest
The ongoing March heat wave in the Midwest is one of the most extreme heat events in U.S. history. With so many records being shattered, it is difficult to cover in detail just how widespread, long-lasting, and extreme the event is, and I offer just a few highlights:

Winner, South Dakota hit 94°F yesterday, the earliest 90°+ reading ever recorded in the Northern Plains, according to wunderground's weather historian, Christopher C. Burt. The 94°F reading was just 2°F short of the all-time state record for South Dakota in March, which was 96°F in Tyndall in 1943.

Chicago and Rockford have now both broken high temperature records 5 days in a row. There is even the potential they could tie or break record highs for up to an unbelievable 8 days in a row depending on how warm temperatures get Monday through Wednesday. It is extraordinarily rare for climate locations with 100+ year long periods of records to break records day after day after day.

Record heat in Canada
Record-breaking heat has also penetrated into the Prairie provinces of Canada over the past week. Winnipeg, Manitoba broke its record high for the past four days in a row, and hit 21°C yesterday, its hottest temperature on record so early in the year. With today's forecast by Environment Canada and wunderground both calling for highs near 25°C (77°F), Winnipeg is likely to record its highest March temperature on record. Previous record: 23.3°C on March 27, 1946. The earliest date for a 25°C+ temperature in Winnipeg is April 9, 1977.

For more details and analysis see http://www.wundergro...l?entrynum=2055

See also the NWS Chicago page at http://www.crh.noaa....=80740&source=0

This post has been edited by Big Dave's Gusset: 19 March 2012 - 16:15

[AndrewJM]

The recent heatwave has certainly been spectacular - I have been following it here http://www.chicagoweathercenter.com/ on the Chicago Tribune website. The city has been recording 80s high temperatures for around the last week, more days than in the last 140 Marches combined! The city's average high is around the 45F mark in mid-March and heavy snow is still common at this time of year.

[Dave K]

Winnipeg is predicted to reach 25 °C today but a heck of a drop tomorrow down to a max of only 10 °C! But when you see that the normal max for the day as below then even 10 °C is warm for the time of year. Can you imagine anywhere in the UK having a max 24 °C above the monthly average



Winnipeg Richardson Int'l Airport

Averages and Extremes for: March 19, 2012

Averages and Extremes		Year
Average Maximum Temperature	-0.4°C
Average Minimum Temperature	-10.2°C
Frequency of Precipitation	29%
Highest Temperature (1938-2008)	18.9°C	1938
Lowest Temperature (1938-2008)	-29.4°C	1965
Greatest Precipitation (1938-2008)	6.6mm	1964
Greatest Rainfall (1938-2007)	3.7mm	1979
Greatest Snowfall (1938-2007)	10.4cm	1964
Most Snow on the Ground (1955-2002)	70.0cm	1956

This post has been edited by Big Dave's Gusset: 19 March 2012 - 18:54

[nicko31]

I must say its little suprise the yanks are obsessed with weather, they get some incredible stats!!

[Dave K]

From the NWS:

*MARCH 19TH* CHICAGO-OHARE...RECORD HIGH OF 78 TIED (SET IN 1921)

And from Winnipeg

Quote

Manitobans continue to bask in unusually warm weather, with record-breaking temperatures.

On March 19, Winnipeg beat a longstanding record for the warmest day in March, previously set back on March 27, 1946 when the temperature was 23.3 C.

Shortly after 3 p.m. on Monday, Winnipeg hit 23.4 C.

Record-keeping for weather in Manitoba has been documented since 1873.


http://winnipeg.ctv....ub=WinnipegHome

[Dave K]

Quote

Posted on march 17th

Each year, when the list of coldest U.S. cities is compiled, International Falls, Minnesota regularly winds up at the top of the list, earning its title as "Icebox of the Nation". The city once hit -55°F (on January 6, 1909), and takes pride in the distinction of being the coldest city in the U.S., having trademarked the term "Icebox of the Nation" in 1948. The city recently defended the trademark against the town of Fraser, Colorado, which sought to usurp the title as the Nation's Icebox.

But yesterday, International Falls set a truly phenomenal weather record for warmth. The city's temperature soared to 77°F, which was 42° above the average high temperature for the date. Not only was it the city's hottest March temperature on record by 4°, it was just 4° shy of yesterday's high in Miami, Florida. But what was truly amazing is that the 77°F high in International Falls beat the previous record for the date by 22°! I talked to Christopher C. Burt, wunderground's weather historian, and he couldn't recall seeing a station with a century-plus period of weather records break a daily record by such a wide margin (International Falls' records go back to 1895.) Yesterday's temperatures in International Falls were but one chapter in the on-going story of one of the most extreme meteorological events in U.S. history. Never before has such an extended period of extreme and record-breaking warm temperatures affected such a large portion of the U.S. in March, going back to the beginning of record keeping in the late 1800s.

Jeff Masters: http://www.wundergro...l?entrynum=2054

[Nigel Bolton]

Spoke to mys sister who lives just outside of Chicago, and she says it is wonderfully warm. She and her family are enjoying every last second.

N.

[Bazmundo]

Surface temp anomaly 8-15th March featured on Earth Observatory:
http://earthobservat...ew.php?id=77465

[Conrad]

To give you some idea of this record breaking heat in the eastern part of North America. Today Tuesday 20th March the High today in Montreal was 23C/73.4F, this is precisely 10C/18F higher than the previous high record for this date! and exactly 20C/36F higher than what is normal for this date.

There you go climate warming deniers. If this was July this type of synoptics would cause multiple deaths from heat stroke. Reports today from the Laurentian highlands north of here tell of people skiing in their bathing suits - a bit painful if you fall!

Climate warming seems to correlate with a higher frequency of extreme events, heatwaves, sometimes coldwaves, more droughts and more bad floods. More numerous and more destructive tornadoes.

In Canada the climate warming deniers now form the Federal government. They have been closing down all of the important environmental monitoring scientific stations. They have closed down the Ozone monitoring program for the entire Canadian section of the Arctic in spite of the fact that late last winter in 2011 the largest Ozone hole ever seen formed in the north arctic and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere. This is clearly something that needs watching because of its health implications yet the Canadian government has cancelled the Ozone monitoring program and fired the scientists. Government employed scientists are no longer permitted to directly address the general public, instead whatever they have to say has to be monitored and approved by and filtered through government appointed PR people.

Things are going badly wrong here in Canada and yet somehow very few people outside of Canada seem to have any inkling that there is something badly wrong here.

[Dave K]

Quote

March 20^th

Chicago-O’Hare

· This was the 7^th consecutive day the record high for the date was at least tied.

· It was the 6^th 80 degree day this March, extending the record for number of 80 degree days in March.

· The 85 degrees observed was the third warmest March temperature on record in Chicago, only surpassed by 87 degrees on March 31, 1981 and 88 degrees on March 29, 1986.

Rockford

· This was the 5^th 80 degree day this March, extending the record for number of 80 degree days in March.

· The 83 degrees observed was the third warmest March temperature on record in Rockford, only surpassed by 84 degrees on March 31, 1986 and 85 degrees on March 29, 1986.


http://www.crh.noaa....=80740&source=0

[John Mason]

For lovers of statistics, the overnight minimum in Rochester, Minnesota on March 18th was 2F warmer than the previous record high of 60F, set on March 18th 2010!

Cheers - John

[Dave K]

Quote

A warm, dry winter set up conditions to turn a warm spell into a March heat wave like nothing Ottawa has ever seen.

The heat came from the south of us, but we’ve had south winds before in March, and the temperature has never risen past 17 C.

On Tuesday it reached 25.1, continuing the week’s pattern of smashing records by eight or nine degrees each day. The old record was 14.6 C, in 1995.

Read more: http://www.ottawacit...l#ixzz1pktqZrvy

[AndrewJM]

The heat seems to be centred on Chicago which is currently the warmest city in the USA - very unusual, in fact I would hazard to say it is unheard of. Currently 85F at O'Hare and by contrast only 39F at Amarillio, TX

[Conrad]

Today Wednesday 21st March the heatwave continues in Montreal with an afternoon high of 26C/78.8FF but many locations in southern Ontario and southern Quebec went over 27C/80.6F this afternoon. I wonder where this exceptionally warm air has come from. In July SW winds arrive here after passing over the hotplate US but this is only the first day of Spring . Could anticyclonic subsidence account for a part of this warmth? Anyway tomorrow afternoon a cold front will approach us from the NNW. It's expected to set off a few showers or thundershowers and then temperatures will drop, they'll still be above normal for the time of year but not so extremely record breaking above normal as during the past few days. The air is rather humid too. This morning there was a ribbon of dense fog over the Saint Lawrence river, which is still very cold, but immediately away from the river it was perfectly clear.

[Peter H]

Conrad, on 21 March 2012 - 04:23, said:

To give you some idea of this record breaking heat in the eastern part of North America. Today Tuesday 20th March the High today in Montreal was 23C/73.4F, this is precisely 10C/18F higher than the previous high record for this date! and exactly 20C/36F higher than what is normal for this date.

There you go climate warming deniers. If this was July this type of synoptics would cause multiple deaths from heat stroke. Reports today from the Laurentian highlands north of here tell of people skiing in their bathing suits - a bit painful if you fall!

Climate warming seems to correlate with a higher frequency of extreme events, heatwaves, sometimes coldwaves, more droughts and more bad floods. More numerous and more destructive tornadoes.

In Canada the climate warming deniers now form the Federal government. They have been closing down all of the important environmental monitoring scientific stations. They have closed down the Ozone monitoring program for the entire Canadian section of the Arctic in spite of the fact that late last winter in 2011 the largest Ozone hole ever seen formed in the north arctic and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere. This is clearly something that needs watching because of its health implications yet the Canadian government has cancelled the Ozone monitoring program and fired the scientists. Government employed scientists are no longer permitted to directly address the general public, instead whatever they have to say has to be monitored and approved by and filtered through government appointed PR people.

Things are going badly wrong here in Canada and yet somehow very few people outside of Canada seem to have any inkling that there is something badly wrong here.

It does seem to be an extraordinarilly extraordinary spell in an increasingly extraordinary country. Dr jeff Masters has a good summary.

[Dave K]

Quote

March 21^st

Chicago-O’Hare

· This was the 8^th consecutive day the record high for the date was at least tied.

· It was the 7^th 80 degree day this March, extending the record for number of 80 degree days in March.

· The 87 degrees observed was tied for the second warmest March temperature on record in Chicago, tied 87 degrees on March 31, 1981 and surpassed by 88 degrees on March 29, 1986.

Rockford

· This was the 6^th 80 degree day this March, extending the record for number of 80 degree days in March.

· The 84 degrees observed was tied for the second warmest March temperature on record in Rockford, tied 84 degrees on March 31, 1986 and surpassed by 85 degrees on March 29, 1986.



http://www.crh.noaa....=80740&source=0

[Chris Alder]

I doubt I'll see 87f all year!

[Peter H]

Weekly global temperatures. The anomalies (drop down box) over N America are huge.

Edit: in fact, such is the magnitude of the anomaly, that you can see it in the observation as a 'plume' up across the states.

This post has been edited by Peter H: 22 March 2012 - 13:38

[John Mason]

From Dr Jeff Masters:

Pellston, MI: record high broken by 32°F
Pellston, Michigan in the Northern Lower Peninsula is called “Michigan’s Icebox”, since it frequently records the coldest temperatures in the state, and in the entire nation. But the past five days, Pellston has set five consecutive records for hottest March day. Yesterday’s 85° reading broke the previous record for the date (53° in 2007) by a ridiculous 32°, and was an absurd 48°F above average.

Low temperatures beat the previous record high for the date at two stations
The low temperature at Marquette, Michigan was 52° yesterday, which was 3° warmer than the previous record high for the date! The low at Mt. Washington, NH yesterday (44°) also beat the previous record high for the date (43°.)

Multiple Canadian cites break all-time April records for warmth in March
Not only was yesterday the warmest March day in recorded history for many of Canada’s major cities, it was also warmer than any April day at many locations. St. John, New Brunswick hit 25.4°C (78°F.) Not only did this crush the record high for March (previous record: 17.5°C), it is well above any temperature ever measured in April (extreme April temperature on record: 22.8°C.) Halifax, Nova Scotia hit 25.8°C yesterday, beating their all-time March record of 25.6°, and their all-time April record of 26.3°C, set on April 30, 2004. Other major cities in Canada that set all-time warmest March records yesterday included Ottawa (27.4°C), Montreal (25.8°C), Windsor (27.8°C), Hamilton (25.6°C), London (26.4°C), and Fredericton (27.1°C)….

Summer in March warmth crushes records in Michigan
Yesterday, nearly every major airport in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula broke the record they set the previous day for their hottest March temperature, including Detroit (84°), Flint (86°F, just 2° below their all-time April record), Saginaw (87°F, just 2° below their all-time April record), Grand Rapids (87°), Muskegon (82°), Lansing (86°), Alpena (87°), Gaylord (83°, which was 26° above the average high for the date), Pellston (85°), Houghton Lake (85°), and Traverse City (87°, which was which was 45°F above the average high for the date, and was the fifth consecutive day they tied or broke their record for hottest March temperature, and just 3° below their record high temperature of 90° for April.) In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Sault Ste. Marie’s 83° (26° above the average high for the date) crushed the previous March record by 8°, and was only 2° shy of the warmest temperature ever measured in April.




Cheers - John

[DG57]

I can only say Oh my!

The American continent is known for its extremes, whatever they are, geological, biological, climatological or meteorological, but it's always and still impressive to hear these!

I wanna travel to the USA so badly! Anyone wants to bring me in his bag? I'm small enough.