[Vision2020] Corrrection: Dr. Jeff Master's US Weather Analysis: "Colder in Florida than Alaska and Greenland"

[Ted Moffett]

Dr. Jeff Masters' name is "Masters" not "Master" as I wrote by writing his
name "Master's."
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The "Arctic Blast" hitting large areas of the US is big news right now, as
the jet stream is heading south from Canada bringing freezing Arctic air
deep into the southern US.  But why?  In part, a high pressure area over
Greenland turning the jet stream, where temperatures were or are in some
places warmer than Florida. Even the cheesy Weather Channel broadcast this
analysis!  I immediately wondered if temperatures warmer in Greenland than
Florida could be linked to the polar amplification effect from warming
global climate change, but this may not be largely involved.

Dr. Jeff Master's offers his analysis at the website below (strong negative
North Atlantic Oscillation, third lowest since 1950 for a winter month),
with a revealing color coded to temperature map of recent northern
hemisphere temperatures that shows the "hot spot" over Greenland, followed
(if you click on the link) by some beautiful winter photos:

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1409

The Deep South shivered through another frigid morning today, with low
temperature records crumbling again over much of Florida. Lakeland hit 27°F,
smashing the old record of 34°F; Melbourne hit 28°F, eclipsing the old
record of 32°F; and West Palm Beach bottomed out at 37°F, besting the old
record of 38°F. The cold wave is being driven by an unusual sharp and
persistent kink in the jet stream that is being blocked from moving by a
strong ridge of high pressure over Greenland. As a result, an exceptionally
strong surface high pressure of 1055 mb over the North Central U.S. is
pushing large amounts of cold, Arctic air southwards from Canada. No coldest
January temperature records have been set yet from the cold blast, but the
500 largest U.S. cities have been averaging about 11 new daily low
temperature records per day the first five days of January, according to the
National Climatic Data Center<http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/records.php>.
The cold will ease Friday in the Deep South, but return with a vengeance
Saturday night though Monday morning, as another push of cold air descending
from Canada promises to bring a cold wave that will approach the December
1989 and January 1977 cold waves in intensity, and may being some new
all-time January low temperature records to the South.

*Colder in Florida than Alaska and Greenland*
The sharp kink in the jet stream has brought record warm temperatures to a
few stations in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest this week, making much of
coastal Alaska warmer than Florida. Cold Bay, Alaska, set a record high
yesterday of 47°F, after recording a low temperature of 30°F. This made Cold
Bay warmer than Pensacola, Florida, which had a high of 47°F and a low of
24°F. In fact, most of Florida--including Jacksonville, Tampa, Melbourne,
and Tallahassee--recorded lows at or below the 27°F low recorded in
Anchorage, Alaska yesterday. The jet stream kink has also brought
temperatures more than 30°F above average to Greenland. The
temperature in Narsarsuaq,
Greenland<http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/BGBW/2010/1/7/DailyHistory.html>at
10am EST today was 46°F, far warmer than most of Florida.

*Figure 1.* Departure of the surface temperature from average for the first
three day of 2010 shows much colder than average conditions were present
over the Southeast U.S., much of Europe, and Central Asia. Much warmer than
average temperatures were present over the Northwest U.S., Greenland, the
Arctic, and Southern Asia. A sharp kink in the jet stream was responsible
for the temperature anomaly pattern. Image credit:
NOAA/ESRL<http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/composites/day/>
.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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