The 'Polar Vortex' Is Coming Back. Again.
Source: The Atlantic
The expected timetable for the vortex a name that's not technically accurate in many cases is that the cold will arrive in the Midwest this weekend and in the following days paint the South and East with misery. If anybody wants to shoot the messenger, although please don't, consult this prognostication yesterday from the Weather Underground's Jeff Masters. Here's part of it:
Temperatures 20°F below normal will likely invade the Upper Midwest on Sunday, and gradually spread southeastwards during the week. The peak cold is predicted to occur late next week, with temperatures 20 - 35° below normal covering much of the eastern 2/3 of the country. As a result of these new model runs, the natural gas market has been soaring ever since early this morning, and is now approaching a five-year high of $6.
That five-year high had been topped as of Wednesday afternoon, with prices soaring to $6.25. That's understandable considering that in the past month, only 4 days have reportedly had below-average demand for natural gas in the United States.
Read more: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2014/02/polar-vortex-coming-once-again/8449/
Huddle together for warmth...
Inkfreak
(1,695 posts)Guess I'll be buying more pellets got the stove. $250 a ton and I'm already 2.5 tons into the winter. Of course we started using ours in October. I'm ready for spring...
liberal N proud
(60,349 posts)giftedgirl77
(4,713 posts)It's a beautiful 75 here in SC today, I'm sick of winter & my body can't take it anymore.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Laffy Kat
(16,391 posts)ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)I moved to the suburbs about 10 years ago. One thing I do not miss is the lack of parking. With snow, it is even worse.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Purveyor
(29,876 posts)Can't do a damned thing outside when all you have are tunnels to walk about in. All but impossible to walk in this 2 foot of wet, nasty snow.
Dogs hate it, even my husky.
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)not until I dig out,. I have been housebound for 3 weeks. I hurt my back shoveling slush, that then froze and then we had snow on snow on snow - the other day when it rained in NYC, it snowed 4 inches here 10 miles out. I am running out of food (will have to eat in restaurant around the corner), but I want real food.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)Georgia has had more snow from the last 2 storms than we have had in the past 5 years. At that time, the whole state shut down. And I had four broken water pipes. I did all the right things to avoid that happening, such as letting the water drip in all the faucets, and I even ran the clothes dryer to pump hot air to the pipes underneath. I live in a mobile home and put a heater under the house. But those pipes could not handle single-digit temperatures.
I love the cold weather. And the snow here falls just enough to cover the ground, and is gone the next day. The past storms caused so much ice that there were auto accidents on all the roads. And trees toppled because of the ice.
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)KeepItReal
(7,769 posts)Who left the fridge open? - Tug Speedman
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)LiberalArkie
(15,731 posts)At least we have had a week of spring time weather.
geomon666
(7,512 posts)This is the future we as a society have given to ourselves through decades of unchecked industrialism and deregulation. The summer is going to be really fucking interesting.
Delphinus
(11,845 posts)I'm curious about Summer too.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)XemaSab
(60,212 posts)It's going to be sunny and in the mid-70s all week.
This has been our "winter":
Freak snowstorm that drops 6 inches of snow overnight.
Sunny and warm for 7 weeks.
Torrential rain that drops 6 inches in a day and takes the percent average rainfall from 20% to 40%.
Sunny and warm for 3 weeks.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)I still believe that we are going to feel an early Spring this year. We're starting to warm up already. The nights are no longer single digit. The daytime highs are well above freezing. It's 49 degrees now with a low tonight of 34 and a 50% chance of snow flurries.
You have some weird weather going on out there this year. I'll grant you that one.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)Hooboy.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)from parts of the country with an abundance via refurbished pipelines to areas experiencing drought conditions. Mebbe it's time for someone to research and implement something like that.
amandabeech
(9,893 posts)However, I expect some of them will get out the hunting rifles.
That's the kind of opposition you can expect to any pipeline.
People will invite you to move to Michigan, however, and enjoy all the water right where it is now.
But remember to bring your snow shovel. Some of that water comes down as snow.
Psephos
(8,032 posts)Coastals have had a long run of taunting us "rubes" here in Michigan. S/he who laughs last laughs best.
amandabeech
(9,893 posts)without being flooded with it, at least most of the time.
knitter4democracy
(14,350 posts)People can move here, sure, but if you expect us to allow our lakes to be drained so people can live in a desert, you don't know us very well.
RedSpartan
(1,693 posts)It's February.
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)If they contain water filled clouds please.
Take care east coast!
Response to brooklynite (Original post)
NickB79 This message was self-deleted by its author.
Dollface
(1,590 posts)* A WINTERY MIX OF FREEZING RAIN, SLEET AND SNOW WILL BEGIN AROUND 6 AM AND MOVE NORTH.
* ICE ACCUMULATIONS OF A COATING UPWARDS TO A QUARTER OF AN INCH EXPECTED THIS MORNING.
* A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON.
* WINDS GUSTING TO 50 TO 55 MPH ALONG THE LAKE SHORE TONIGHT AND 40 TO 45 MPH INLAND.
* SNOW SQUALLS AND BLUSTERY WINDS OF 25 TO 45 MPH ON FRIDAY.
* POOR DRIVING CONDITIONS WITH WINTERY MIX DEVELOPING DURING THE MORNING RUSH HOUR. MANY SECONDARY AND COUNTRY BACK ROADS WILL BECOME TREACHEROUS.
* PONDING OF WATER ON MANY ROADS AND LOW LYING AREAS WITH SNOW AND ICE CLOGGED DRAINS.
* WIND GUSTS ARE LIKELY TO RESULT IN SCATTERED POWER OUTAGES AS A RESULT OF FALLING BRANCHES.
They forgot to mention the fog and possible thundersnow.
I like weather but seriously,
louis-t
(23,309 posts)Then came snow and sleet.
another_liberal
(8,821 posts)(followed by) "Hanging's too good for him!"
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)We went from Fall to Spring with only a two-week Winter.Trees leafing out WAY ahead of time - flowers poppin' up everywhere - critters not sure of what's happening but playin' along anyways. We've got a crowd of hummingbirds well in advance of their usual return.
And we need RAIN! Oh God do we need rain! And I'm an atheist!
YvonneCa
(10,117 posts)...and oh so true! It's 85 in my back yard with flowers everywhere. (Sorry non CA people who are truly suffering.) Birds returned in January. Daffodils bloomed in January and died last week...
But this summer with little water and 110 degree weather worries me.
Response to YvonneCa (Reply #23)
catchnrelease This message was self-deleted by its author.
catchnrelease
(1,946 posts)Here in So Cal yesterday I picked and ate the first of the RIPE boysenberries from our vines! They are usually ready around May. The apricot tree has already bloomed, been pollinated and the tiny apricots are forming. I'm worried that we will have a--what should be normal--cold snap and it will wipe out all of the setting fruit and flowers. It would be great if we would just have some rain now.
I also agree, I can't imagine what this Summer will be like here.
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)Fruit setting months ahead of schedule. And this after we lost ALL our citrus on the 40 such trees we have to the week and a half of low 20s nites!
catchnrelease
(1,946 posts)That's terrible. Our 'orchard' is just a few backyard fruit trees, so while disappointing it's not a serious loss. I assume that once you have lost that first set of fruit the trees will not bloom again this year? (Since I haven't experienced that so far, thank goodness, I've never thought about what would happen next. Our only citrus is a Meyer Lemon which seems to be ever-blooming.)
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)I've been too disgusted to count, but at least half the citrus trees were killed or severely damaged. In fact, you can drive around here and find whole groves of young trees that were wiped out by the cold spell. Between the cold snap and the drought, I'd be watching for big price increases in citrus and nuts for the coming year(s).
catchnrelease
(1,946 posts)That is much worse! To lose the trees themselves has to be devastating. It takes so long for them to start producing, I understand what you mean about prices being up for years. My husband and I drove to the bay area at the first of the year, via I-5, and could see that many of the orchards near the road looked bad, and that was before the freezes. I know how much my little urban garden means to me, I can't imagine how you feel when it's your livelihood.
jakeXT
(10,575 posts)This spring, you may see and smell fewer of those foul stink bug pests, and you can thank the polar vortex.
The punishing, prolonged blasts of arctic air this January proved too much for most stinkbugs to overcome according to Virginia Tech field researchers.
Each fall, Virginia Tech entomology professor Thomas Kuhar and his team gather stink bugs that congregate on the outside of buildings. The stink bugs are put into ventilated 5-gallon buckets filled with foam insulation tubes and then the buckets are stored outside for the winter, under a shelter. Each bucket contains about 100 stink bugs.
The insulated buckets simulated the overwintering locations of stink bugs. The bucket arrangements also help to keep the bugs in a dormant state of diapause while they await experiments in Kuhars Virginia Tech lab.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/02/20/polar-vortex-chill-exterminated-95-percent-of-stink-bugs-in-va-tech-study/
vkkv
(3,384 posts)Consecutive below freezing days here in Calif kills them off for a while.
colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)This has been the suckiest winter here in Central Ohio , snow bands moving in every 2 days and lots of brutally cold days for this area.
I know I'm quite tired of this polar vortex thing.
durablend
(7,466 posts)Supposed to be a possibility for the east coast late next week.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY
Lucky Luciano
(11,266 posts)The cold makes it more likely that we can break the all time record for snowfall in NYC of 75 inches from 1995-6. Right now were are around 57 inches. Only 18 to go!
It makes my 5 mile runs in Central Park a bit more brutal, but it's all good.
gollygee
(22,336 posts)I'm in Western MI in that really really dark blue part. And my kids have missed like 8 or 9 days of school already.
And we were finally getting a good melt going on.
mackerel
(4,412 posts)and see California covered in every shade of blue.
PeteSelman
(1,508 posts)People are such wusses anymore.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)"Cold Front" and "Alberta Clipper"? Not dramatic enough?
former9thward
(32,111 posts)clarice
(5,504 posts)GliderGuider
(21,088 posts)Aren't you glad it has nothing at all to do with weather?