>INFUSION OF ELEMENTS UNITE TO CREATE THE BLIZZARD OF A DECADE TO IOWA

Written by Mark Vogan on December 10, 2009 in Rest of Europe with 0 Comments

>The Ingredients were there and for the taking and this time around, everything came together.

1) A mild November held heat longer in the Great Lakes
2) The positive Arctic Oscillation led to building of Arctic air through November.
3) An active Pacific Storm track
4) Warm, moist tropical air crossing the southern tier

Because of the deepening of the western trough after the AO went negative this excellerated the Polar Jet Stream and the northward push of warm air up against the decending cold air combined with a very powerful upper low that crossed Southern California leading to unusually strong upward motion right under the nose of a 180-200 mph jet. The energy from the upper low which was loaded with moisture as it dumped 52 inches of snow in the Colorado Mountains tapped Gulf moisture as well as wrapping warm air around the core, this drive of Arctic air behind and warm ahead in front led to vigourous upward motion forcing thunderstorms out ahead of the system as well as 1-2 downpours in a matter of just a few hours, tornado warnings across the Ohio Valley and down across the Southeast it also pulled unsually warm air up into the Ohio Valley and into West Virginia where temps rose into the 60s. This injection of warm, tropical air fuelled a bombing out as the low pressure center hit the lower Lakes where their warmer than normal surface aided in intensifying this system. The windfield tightened and therefore unleashing 50 to 60 mph winds, unhindered by the flat terrain of the Midwest. 60 mph winds and heavy snow combined to create fierce blizzard conditions from Northern Kansas Through Nebraska, Iowa, Southern Minnesota and into Wisconsin, behind this massive wind machine, came the true Arctic cold with the “core” getting pulled along by the massive storm system, call it the drive train if you will. With abundant, deep snow coverage across the West and a strong Arctic High Pressure cell that was forced south from the Yukon, Alberta and Saskatcewan’s snowfields where lows dropped to a record -37C at Edmonton on Sunday, that cold air was stationed the past few mornings directly over Wyoming (-38F at Tensleep) Montana (-35F at Dunkirk), the Sierra of California (-20F at Bridgeport) and Nevada (-21F at Cold Springs) Colorado (-17F at Denver) Utah (-34F at Fairfield) Nebraska (-21F at Scottsbluff) Arizona (-2F at Flaggstaff) Texas (6F at Amarillo) Idaho (-6F at Boise) Washington (17F at Seattle) and wind chills that hit a frigid -50 when combined with ferocious 70 mph winds at Berthoud Pass, Colorado, an elevation over 12,000ft.

RAPID DROP IN TEMPERATURE FOR CHICAGO THROUGH THE OVERNIGHT

With nearly one inch of rain yesterday morning and mid-30 degree air. That rain started to change over to snow, firstly, west of the city but continued creeping ever closer throughout the day eventually arriving. By my bedtime (british time) last night, Chicago’s O’Hare was down to 28 degrees. By this morning the temperatyre fell rapidly as the Arctic boundary crossed the city and the low this morning dropped to zero with wind chills well below zero!

Cold numbers from this Morning
Seattle, Washington 17 degrees, Portland, Oregon a new record low of 14 degrees and Redding, California reaches a new all-time cold benchmark with 16 degrees, -5 at Flagstaff, Arizona, Grand Canyon, Arizona -19 degrees.

ACCORDING THE TO LAS VEGAS NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, Death Valley’s Furnace Creek hit 27 degrees,Bishop, CA 5 degrees but the price goes to Spring Valley State Park where a Co-Op site reported a low temperature down to -27 degrees!

Thanks for reading.

-Mark

PHOTOS FROM IOWA

DES MOINES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
I-80 NEAR MITCHELLVILLE