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

Cyclone warning for Darwin and coast
ntnews.com.au

Tropical Cyclone Threat For Northern Australia
ACCUWEATHER NEWS

TODAY’S WEATHER ACROSS AMERICA
From AccuWeather

Wamrth This Week to Challenge 100 Year Old Records
AccuWeather

Fog, Low Clouds May Slow Travel In Midwest
AccuWeather

Flooding Risk From 2011 Thaw Outlined
AccuWeather

Rain Will Threatened Cactus League Workouts
AccuWeather

WEATHER TALK
By Mark Vogan

A TAIL OF TWO CONTINENTS
WARMEST AIR OF 2011 FLOWS NORTH INTO THE HEART OF THE USA WHILST THE COLDEST AIR OF 2011 FLOWS SOUTH INTO EUROPEAN RUSSIA, FOLLOWING ABNORMALLY COLD AND ABNORMALLY MILD SPELLS FOR BOTH REGIONS

CURRENT TEMPERATURES: 

Oklahoma City, USA  73 degrees
Moscow, Russia       -4 degrees

Oklahoma City vs Moscow

Interesting facts

Oklahoma City is on the same latitude as Algerian and Tunisian Sahara Desert!

Moscow is on the same latitude as Hudson Bay and Northern Manitoba! 

Whilst it’s now reached a balmy 73 degrees in Oklahoma City, A STUNNING 78 DEGREE JUMP IN 5-DAYS, and 73 degrees in Dallas, USA. This is about a big of a turnaround you’ll ever get after last week’s huge blizzard followed by stunning cold in which lows fell to 5 below zero in Oklahoma City and 31 below zero in the northeast of Oklahoma, rewriting the history books, across the Atlantic and it was mild last week, abnormally so, but now, Moscow honeymoon period of this balmy winter is over whilst Oklahoma City and it’s Ssurrounding Southern Plains neighbours enjoy the prize for enduring one of the worst coldoutbreaks of alltime. It’s currently 4 below zero in the Russian Capital and falling under clear skies and a deep, fresh snowpack.

Note, these two maps below are only 5-days appart for actual lows and high’s, amazing!

Tonight may see lows drop below the season’s coldest reading in Moscow of 10 below zero F recorded way back on December 1st. As this week progresses, it looks certain that daytime highs will struggle to reach 5 below zero with nights dipping to possibly 20 to 22 below zero F. These temperatures though not unheard of for a city known for it’s harsh, long winters hasn’t seen these numbers since 2006 when Moscow endured one of it’s toughest winter’s in living memory. That winter saw high’s remain below 10 below zero and plunge to 22 below zero at night.

Ironically, whilst Moscow, much of European Russia and far eastern Europe shivers in it’s coldest weather of winter 2010-11 across the pond it’s been record-cold and snowy and now folks of the American Southern Plain are enjoying well earned late-winter heat. This is all part and parcel of a huge hemispheric flip in the upper-levels of the atmosphere. Moscow and much of eastern Europe enjoyed balmy temperatures last week whilst Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas shivered in some of the coldest weather in history, now it’s gone the other way as Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas enjoy 70s, even 80s and European Russia endures potentially it’s coldest weather in 5 years! 

VAGARIES OF THE WEATHER
INDIA & SUB-CONTINENTAL ASIA WEATHER
BY RAJESH KAPADIA

Vagaries’ hopes of North Gujarat/Kutch rains (mentioned in blog on 11th and 13th, as the surprise factor.) was also realised with Naliya, Abdasa (Kutch) receiving 2 cms each and Lakhpat, Bachau, and Sami – 1 each. In N.Saurashtra, Dwarka measured 3 mm, Deesa 1 mm and traces in Okha.

Otherwise, the rest of the country distribution is shown in this IMD map.


Snow continued in H.P. on Tuesday, with Manali and Dalhousie getting the white mantle today.Una town recorded the maximum rainfall of 50.6 mm in the state, while it was 29 mm in Palampur and 16.8 mm in Dharamsala. Dharamsala was at a high of 8.5c today.


In Kashmir, there was a let up in the snowfall today.The night temperature in Kargil on Tuesday was -8.4c, making it the second coldest place in the state, after Shyok which froze at -23c.


Leh recorded a low of -3.8c. However, Pahalgam, which serves as the base camp for the annual Amarnath yatra, was much colder than Leh with the night temperature recorded at-5.4c.


F2 has now moved into Nepal. Several places have received rain/snow, with Dipayal getting 39 mms, and Kathmandu’s guage measured 3.2 mms of rain. (Neeraj, so we were right about the pre WD heat !Vagaries assured you on the 10th.) And the day was cooler at 21.7c in the capital.


Asia Cold:


On the international front, its now Japan’s turn for severe snow ! he Japan Meteorological Agency warned Monday of heavy snowfall in Tokyo and surrounding areas overnight as wintry weather is hitting the region, disrupting traffic. Part of the Tokyo metropolitan expressway was closed shortly after 9 p.m. Monday due to snow accumulation. A wintry atmospheric pressure pattern has been seen south of the main Japanese island of Honshu, and was moving northeast on Monday.


And Jim (Accuweather Expert) states: “The cold, the harshest and longest-lasting for the winter thus far, will substantially increase the demand for heating energy.


As of Monday, severe cold had spread across northern Russia, Finland and northern Scandinavia for four or five days. Temperatures have already dipped to -22c in St. Petersburg and Helsinki, Finland.


Cold this severe also reached into Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as of Monday.


In the Russian Arctic, Pechora dipped to -42c on Monday.


Farther south, the cold thus far has been less severe compared to normal, yet still significant. Moscow, for instance, has had lows between -16c and -13c”.


However,on Tuesday, 15th. Feb, the coldest place, as usual, was Ojmjakon at -58c and followed by Dzalinda at -51c.


Latest on La-Nina: Tokyo-based Research Institute for Global Change (RIGC),have estimated that the currently strong La Nina phenomenon in the equatorial and east Pacific could weaken quickly over the next few months but would rebound in late 2011, later this year.That calculates to a neutral condition during the SW Monsoon period . But estimates on La-Nina are difficult to make, and only recently we read about this event pulling well into 2011.

WHAT’S REACHING TODAY’S BLOGS?

A Wild Ride
Joe Lundburg, AccuWeather

Three More Storms Over The Next Week
Ken Clark, Western Expert, AccuWeather

THE EXTREMES OF THE DAY

TODAY’S US EXTREMES
COURTESY OF ACCUWEATHER

HIGH: 87 degrees at Laredo, TX
LOW: -5 degrees at Saranac Lake, NY

TODAY’S UK EXTREMES
COURTESY OF THE MET OFFICE

HIGH: 50 degrees (10.2C) at Valley (Wales)
COLD HIGH: 38 degrees (3.1C) at Dalwhinnie (Highland)
LOW: 25 degrees (-4.1C) at Resesdale Camp (Northumberland)

TODAY’S EXTREMES HERE AT MY HOUSE

HIGH: 41 degrees
LOW: 28 degrees

TODAY’S CONDITIONS (LOCALLY)
After sleet changed over to snow at dinnertime last night, skies cleared out and quickly temps dipped to freezing and nbsp;MILD SPELLS FOR BOTH REGI after steady rains and even a period of steady snow as well as heavy and failr large hail (Dumfries & Galloway) whittened the ground and remained through through much of today as temps went below freezing as quickly as this wintry precipitation fell and this occurred in areas not much higher than sea-level. With rain droplets freezing as well as rain soaked and in areas, snowy or even hailcovered roads froze under clear skies this created treacherous road travel this morning and for walking on pavements. Today remained cool with a southeast wind, keeping the air feeling cool.

Thanks for reading.
-Mark