North American Weather (U.S.A & Canada)

[johnholmes]

Current obs at 8am...

Temps - minus -42oC

Wind - 0km/h

Humidity - 60%

Pressure - 104.2

I suppose the very very small plus there is that its flat clam. I have never experienced trying to breathe outside with that temperature but it must be very unpleasant out in it?

keep the obs coming I find it fascinating to see what weather you get over there in the winter, and also the summer.

Perhaps you could, those over in USA and Canada start a weather report thread for North America?

[phil nw.]

I suppose the very very small plus there is that its flat clam. I have never experienced trying to breathe outside with that temperature but it must be very unpleasant out in it?

keep the obs coming I find it fascinating to see what weather you get over there in the winter, and also the summer.

Perhaps you could, those over in USA and Canada start a weather report thread for North America?

That`s a good idea John.

I too am fascinated by the Winter conditions across the Atlantic and appreciate the "on the ground" reports by our friends over there.

Keep up the good work guys.

[jimben]

Do you also have to be careful of the time you spend outside. I guess that skin would freeze very quickly.

[johnholmes]

as an addition to that, you posted it once, Roger I think, to show where you each lived, perhaps if you start a N America weather report thread you could 'pin' the map at the top; if Paul M is willing?

[Beverley Lass]

By'Eck, those are impressive cold temps guys !

Agree with the others, it's great to hear all about your weather details.

Thanks.

BL.

[Coopsy]

I suppose the very very small plus there is that its flat clam. I have never experienced trying to breathe outside with that temperature but it must be very unpleasant out in it?

keep the obs coming I find it fascinating to see what weather you get over there in the winter, and also the summer.

Perhaps you could, those over in USA and Canada start a weather report thread for North America?

Good idea John, I will have a word with Paul and see about the mpa and the new thread

Do you also have to be careful of the time you spend outside. I guess that skin would freeze very quickly.

Yep, I walked to work, and I live 2 mins (basically across the road) I didnt have my forehead covered and its exactly the same feeling as when you have too much ice cream and you get brain freeze, extremely painful. Nos enad eyelashes freeze instantly. Its touhg going on the body too

[Roger J Smith]

The funny thing was, I was reading this and the weather girl froze up on TV ... the signal froze, that is, just as she was saying how cold it was in Alberta.

Rich, I think that was the coldest reading anywhere in Canada oddly enough, it wasn't below -40 C anywhere else in the far north or the usual cold spots but Banff was showing -41 C at one point as well. Checked their all-time record, -48 C for December and -50 C for January/February, so it's just about as cold as it can get at this early stage of winter.

Here we have -8 C and it is crystal clear with a strong NE wind coming out of the Fraser valley. It is clear as far south as Portland OR then there's some snow left over from the weekend storm, but it now looks as though we are going to get a heavier dumping of snow on Wednesday night into Thursday.

Meanwhile it is close to 10 C (50 F) in Toronto, and 15 C or almost 60 F in NYC today, with mid-60s F in Virginia and North Carolina, and it looks as though a general mild spell is setting in for the east coast although the left-over remnants of western cold will occasionally skim through the Great Lakes and inland northeast.

The extreme cold has spread almost as far south as the Gulf coast again, but it will be held back this time by developing warm fronts in west Texas.

[Coopsy]

I'm glad you said that Roger as I was sceptical when I saw the reading...but its defiantely the coldest its 'felt' since I arrived here almost 3 1/3 years ago

Incidentally there are only 2 regions that escape a weather warning in the whole of Canada today,makes for quite a colourful chart

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/warnings/warnings_e.html

[SteveB]

Love hearing your reports, and like others have said, it would be a good idea to see where you all live via a map.

Keep the reports coming

[Roger J Smith]

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/data/analysis/jac18_50.gif

This will only work for the rest of today and through the day on Tuesday as the map will update on Tuesday evening, but if you look at this current (18z) weather map,

Just to orient yourself, it shows Canada and the northern part of the U.S., looking at the western half, you can easily find the U.S.-Canada border, it is a straight (curving) line at 49N that runs from the coast to almost the Great Lakes. The one exception is that it runs around the south end of Vancouver Island which you can see along the coast. If you find the one observation they have on that island, -3 C temp etc, then where I live would be about under the pressure reading for that station. In other words, I am on the mainland, not the Island of the same name (Vancouver) and just a little bit inland and north of the border. I can see part of the "Gulf islands" that lie in Washington state from the top of a south-facing slope near my place, it's that close to the border here. I can't see Russia from my house though.

Now where is Rich, you ask? If you go further east inland, you'll see the first border in Canada, it's the diagonal line that runs along the height of land in the Rockies and east of that is Alberta. Now if you find one weather station there whose data is circled, that one is Jasper, so the station further south near the border is Calgary, I think, and Rich lives west of there, so about under the vis code for that station, where it reads "83" that's about where Canmore is.

And if you go all the way east, you'll see the five Great Lakes, then the east coast of Canada, look for a weather station that is reporting south winds, temp 10 and dew point 7, that one is maybe a hundred miles west of where Debs lives.

And since we're getting reports from Seattle, that is about two hundred miles due south of my location, on Puget Sound, that inlet that you can see running south into western WA state. The area that is immediately south of Vancouver Island and in northwest WA state is the Olympic peninsula that I mention sometimes, this is another region of high mountains that tends to deflect strong winds to either side.

The other advantage of having this map up is that you can gaze in awe at our crazy weather across the country, from -30 C in the west to +10 in the east etc. And in the coming days, this map will update to show the latest 18z map available. They update it pretty fast, about 19z it should be the most recent one.

As they say, hope this helps. But maybe somebody can put up a map of the more standard variety, if you do, you should be able to locate those four places from my description looking at this weather map.

The thing to keep in mind is, we don't just have the one mountain range "The Rockies" that everyone around the world would know about. There are actually four mountain ranges from the coast to the Rockies, and each one of them interacts with the climate, so within British Columbia there are many different regional climates. The basic idea is that in winter it gets colder not just to the north as you would expect, but also to the east of each one of these mountain ranges in turn, but all of the valleys are normally fairly mild until you get to the last one before the Rockies, by then it is quite a bit colder than the valleys further west. And on the Alberta side of the Rockies, the winter climate is a mixture of very cold air masses from the north, and mild spells that come about during the chinook which is what we call our foehn wind here. It's going to be a while until the next chinook, but when one comes along I'll post the map for it. Usually there is a low somewhere to the north of where Rich is located, like around Jasper or Edmonton in central Alberta.

Edited December 15, 2008 by Roger J Smith

[johnholmes]

can you pse show a map of Canada and US again with arrows pointing to where each of you are, honest it will help us all, and if Paul agrees to it, pinning this at the top of a thread for N America weather reports will also help a lot.

thanks

John

[Cookie]

I'm glad you said that Roger as I was sceptical when I saw the reading...but its defiantely the coldest its 'felt' since I arrived here almost 3 1/3 years ago

Incidentally there are only 2 regions that escape a weather warning in the whole of Canada today,makes for quite a colourful chart

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/warnings/warnings_e.html

thanks for posting that link mate. Interesting to see they have warnings out for where the do ice road truckers which doesn't surprise me at all.

some good reports keep them coming!

[Coopsy]

Here is a map of where we all live - hopefully I am close with everyone, if not please shout and I can redo. Feel free to pin.

[johnholmes]

thanks for that CC, hope it can be pinned to the front of a weather report page if Paul is agreeable to that?

anyway I've bookmarked it for myself for ready reference

another point if I may, using 2 letter identifiers for the state/town/city can be a touch confusing at times although you over there use it as routine. Could you expand on the 2 letters to make it seem a bit more obvious to numpties like me please?

Edited December 16, 2008 by johnholmes

[January Snowstorm]

Are Boston or NY shaping up for a white Christmas does anyone know ??

[debs]

Hi all,

Well a major snow storm is heading our way and may be followed by another on friday. Tomorrow snow is expected from 8am onwards with up to 20cms possible by the evening. Hope it all falls into place for Friday as that would more than guarantee us some snow for Christmas, although Boxing Day is looking promising for snow as well.

I'm not an expert so if anyone on here has any more info, it will be appreciated. Current temps here are at -5 with a windchill making it only -10 so not too bad. I can see that Toronto area is going to be hit bad.

Take care all.

TTFN

Debs

x

[mettalfabrik]

funny that, i was just looking at the GFS models on http://moe.met.fsu.edu/tcgengifs/

and thought that eastern part of Canada\usa is in for it

take care

bryan

[❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️]

That is some serious cold!

[Hilton]

Temperatures in Seattle haven't got above freezing since Saturday (with windchills down to about -10C) and the snow we had on Saturday night is still around and making everything very pretty. Tomorrow is supposed to be slightly warmer but with the prospect of potentially lots of snow. Anywhere between about 2 and 10 inches is forecast for the region, but how much of that comes off and exactly where gets it depends on the impacts of the mountains with the rain shadow and potential convergence zone. Will post updates tomorrow with how much we get (hopefully not so much that it stops me from flying home for Christmas on Thursday...)

[Roger J Smith]

A new storm is bringing a mixture of snow and freezing drizzle to Vancouver and some parts of Washington state, looks like it will eventually snow in Seattle once a small amount of milder air is mixed into the circulation. The low is tracking southeast down the outer coast and will eventually be in central California by Friday, bringing them some snow at fairly low elevations although rain near sea level. Meanwhile, the storm we had a few days ago is now reforming in southern California and bringing heavy rain to the San Diego area near the Mexican border, and heavy snows in the mountains around Los Angeles, in addition to an unseasonable chill in the desert resorts around Palm Springs (last report, 6 C cloudy).

The severe cold wave has let up slightly for Alberta but continues further east and about as far south as Kansas City and St. Louis, while the cities on the east coast are getting a light rainfall while inland there is light snow from a weak disturbance. Stronger lows are due around Friday and Sunday, and these are likely to spread snow across most of the inland parts of the northeastern states, as well as Boston, but New York City may get mostly sleet or a cold rain from these. It looks like it will turn quite cold for a few days early next week in that region, then another storm will be along for Christmas but the track of this is a bit uncertain, could be a rain-snow mix. So a white Christmas is certainly possible for various parts of the New York and Boston regions but not necessarily the downtown parts of those cities.

Debs, looks to me like there will be 5-10 cm snowfalls from all three of these disturbances around tonight, Saturday and Monday for you. The storm on Monday could be heavier, the track looks like being across eastern Nova Scotia.

We are looking at a ten-day period that started last Friday with temperatures averaging eight degrees below normal here and as much as fifteen degrees below normal in some inland regions. Meanwhile, western Alaska and the Bering Strait region of Siberia are running that much above normal in a southerly return flow. This mild air is making limited progress into the high arctic but small disturbances are sluggishly moving around the top of the arctic high to our north and dying out in the central arctic with their little pools of -15 C air just being absorbed by the surrounding -30 C chill. This is bringing some unusual freezing fog and light snow into the western arctic islands.

[debs]

Evening All,

Well the snow started at 9am and by the time lunchtime came we had over half a foot of snow. The snow is still falling and we have about a foot or more now. A little bit more than forecast but wonderful none the less.

Managed to take some fotos.

Enjoy

Debs

100_1200.mov

[mezzacyclone]

Love the snow on the shoreline pic debs

Interesting in New Orleans having snow for only 2nd time in 19 years last week!

All my eyes on the High following the Newfoundland & Labrador Low progged on Tue 23rd WX map and if it links up to Greenland after its exit of your Eastern seaboard?

Keep the info comin folks, specially Seattle obs as i`m hoping for Brett Favre to settle back into his old wisconsin type weather for the Jets v Seattle matchup on Sunday!

[debs]

Love the snow on the shoreline pic debs

Hi Mezz,

Yes it is lovely to see the waves and the snow in the same foto. The beach is about 50 yards from the house so we get to see some pretty good waves, especially over the last couple of weeks with the windspeeds hitting 100km at times and the high tides as well.

TTFN

Debs

[Coast]

Its been snowing in Las Vegas - What's happening out there in the Southern States? (and can we have some please!)

www.airliners.net/aviation-forums

news.sky.com

It's the worst storm in 30 years, as three inches of snowfall has been forecasted to settle on the palm trees and casinos of the famous Las Vegas strip. Other parts of the city are expecting as much as eight inches of snow, in the week's second snowstorm.

Schools have been closed due to snow for the first time in three decades, as the city struggles to cope with the wintry conditions. Some holidaymakers have been forced to extend their holidays, as all flights in and out of the city are cancelled.

They've flocked to the landmark "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign - now covered in snow - to have their photos taken of the rare sight. National Weather Service Meteorologist Andrew Gorelow said the three inches of snow set to settle on the strip would break the current December record of two inches, set in 1967. But he said it wouldn't match the Las Vegas winter record of nine inches, set in 1974.

The wintry weather has been blamed on a powerful wet Pacific storm combined with a rare Arctic chill.

[Callie]

Its been snowing in Las Vegas - What's happening out there in the Southern States? (and can we have some please!)

www.airliners.net/aviation-forums

news.sky.com

I read Las Vegas airport has no snow clearing equipment. Yesterday's Virgin Atlantic flight to LV got diverted to LA and has been there overnight, hope they make it to LV today!

Callie