January 14, 2009

Light posting tonight - working on stuff

Was in town for acupuncture and now will be out in the DaveCave(tm) as soon as it warms up a bit (wood heat and the temps are plummeting tonight). It's not just me with the temperature -- from CNN:
Bitter cold to linger across U.S. through weekend
Frigid air gripped cities from the Canadian border to Florida on Wednesday, with some cities posting record lows.

Snow in cities such as Indianapolis, Indiana, brought rush-hour traffic to a near-standstill.

Records were posted in the Michigan cities of Flint, at 19 below, and Saginaw, 10 below, and in parts of the Lower Mississippi Valley, where places like Hot Springs and Monticello, Arkansas, were in the low S, said Andrew Orison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

He was unable to immediately access the previous records.

Subzero temperatures were accompanied by wind chills as low as 40 degrees below zero. The wind chill factor describes the combined effect of the wind and cold temperatures on exposed skin, making the temperature feel colder than it is.

"The temperature outside is unbelievable," said Jennifer Flesher of Princeton, Illinois, where she said the temperature was 8 degrees with a wind chill of minus 12. "I went outside to use a snow blower, and my lungs actually started hurting. It catches your breath."

Minneapolis, Minnesota, posted a reading of 19 below zero, and it was 14 below in Fargo, North Dakota, where the wind chill made it feel like 31 below, said CNN meteorologist Chad Myers.

Orison said most temperatures were below zero in the Upper Midwest through the Great Lakes and into the Northeast.

The worst is yet to come, he said.
Well isn't that just wonderful -- air and snow temp are both right at 28F and dropping. If this was a result of radiation cooling, the air temp would be a lot lower as the snow takes time to release it's latent heat. With them the same, that means that it's the result of a cold front and will be likely to persist through tomorrow. Posted by DaveH at January 14, 2009 7:33 PM | TrackBack