Monthly Low Temperature Records Fall Across Western U.S.; April Blizzards Break Historical Benchmarks; Snowplows In Hawaii; April Cold Records Slain Across Europe; + Deadly Indian Avalanche
Monthly Low Temperature Records Fall Across Western U.S.
2023 is off to abnormally cold starts across much of the U.S. — cold that is extending into its fourth month.
“There’s no way this winter could be considered average or something to expect by any means of the spectrum,” said Monica Traphagan, lead NWS meteorologist. “Most likely, it’s going to always be an outlier of things…”
NWS data reveal that Salt Lake City–for example–held at 6.4F below normal through March. That chill meant more valley snow instead of rain, with totals blowing away all valley and mountain expectations alike — a theme that has now extended into April.
Below is a snapshot of just a handful of the felled low temperature records from yesterday, April 5.
A myriad of new daily low temperature benchmarks were set, but monthly records have also been felled, at least 12 of them — across southern California, Utah, Colorado, Oregon, and Arizona (not all visible in the snapshot below).
The historic cold crossed the northern border, too — into Canada.
Saskatchewan–for example–broke seven low temperature records on Wednesday. These include the Elbow Area’s 23C, which broke the old record of -22C set in 1979; the Leader Area’s -25.1C, which smashed the previous benchmark of -19.4C from 1975; and the Rosetown Area’s -26.2C, which usurped the old record of -24.5C set in 1982 (in books dating back to 1913).
Looking ahead, more of the same is on the cards for the North American continent as the chill of solar minimum persists:
April Blizzards Break Historical Benchmarks
Accompanying the record cold has been historic April snow.
Casper, Wyoming broke a 40-year-old snowfall record this week.
The 26 inches that accumulated busted the previous record 24.2 inches set back in 1982, according to the NWS data.
As well-documented, all-time snowfall records have been slain left and right across the higher elevations of California and Utah et al., but this week’s storms are also helping valley communities experience their snowiest snow seasons in decades, often ever.
Salt Lake City–for example–reached 14.5 inches of snow over the first four days of April — the most snow in April since 1984 (solar minimum of cycle 21). It also catapulted the city’s snowfall total this season up to 87 inches — the first time 80 inches has been surpassed since 1996 (solar minimum of cycle 22).
Snowplows In Hawaii
Plows are working on Hawaii’s Big Island, removing snow that continues to fall atop Mauna Kea.
An April snowstorm dropped several inches this week, forcing officials to close a number of roads.
“The access road to the summit of Maunakea is CLOSED to the public at the Visitor Information Station at an elevation of 9,200 feet due to snowy conditions, below-freezing temperatures, high humidity, and wet roadways that will likely develop into icy conditions,” wrote Mauna Kea Rangers in recent update.
More snow is on the way; as a result, the NWS in Honolulu has extended a Winter Weather Advisory.
April Cold Records Slain Across Europe
Europe’s return to winter is biting hard.
For the fourth year in a row now, harsh April frosts have been tearing across the continent’s growing regions.
Taking Spain, a string of low temperature records for the month were taken out Wednesday, including the -4.5C (23.9F) Vitoria and the exceptional -6.6C (20.1F) in Burgos – never before has Spain been so cold in April.
The low elevations of Poland were also shivering, posting a low of -7C (19.4F); Italy saw -4.9C (23.3F); France, too, felled long-standing records; while in Austria, all–that’s 100%–of the country’s stations fell below 0C (32F) on Wednesday — the first time that’s happened in April since 2003.
Incredibly, meteorologists are calling for colder temperatures today (Thursday). And looking further ahead--admittedly into the unreliable time frame–latest GFS runs foresee a potentially disruptive Arctic Outbreak descending into the continent April 19, which, if it were to play out, would cause untold headaches for Europe’s farmers, and the lighting of many a ‘frost fire’.
Stay tuned for updates.
Deadly Indian Avalanche
At least seven people have died and many more are trapped after a major avalanche struck in the Indian state of Sikkim.
Following a season of heavy snow, which included a bitterly cold March, a string of deadly avalanches are now hitting India’s higher elevations. The latest hit near a road that connects Gangtok to the Nathu La pass and the nearby Changu lake, which, according to statement released by the Indian army, buried six vehicles carrying up to 30 tourists.
“By 3 p.m., 14 persons were rescued and taken to nearby Army medical facility. However, seven persons succumbed. The other seven persons were administered first aid and returned to Gangtok,” read continued the army’ ‘s statement.
In total, 380 stranded tourists and some 85 vehicles were rescued from the scene.
After a peek into the over 70 temp range at 72 F on the second temps have fallen below back down to 64 F pre-dawn range this morning.
Also the Sky temp has been mid 20s so far it surprised me with a 19.7 which I averaged into a 20 F reading. If you get a temp gun and take readings you will see what I mean. How Dr Roy Spencer gets an average temp down to a tenth of a degree globally is miraculous. I mean the temp swings daily are something else. The Global Warmists are picking on a phenomena trying to promote a lie. It seems the temps go up and down with the Sunspot cycle more than anything else. Witness the Jan 2010 Million fish frozen in the Everglades versus the Feb 2021 705 Texans frozen to death – 11 years apart! What’s going to happen in 2032?
So the real surprise this morning in SW Florida was not just the 20 F sky temp, but the fact the high cloud cover, the medium cloud cover should have prevented that low a temp. It did NOT. The clouds only came in at a high of 28, below freezing which is very very abnormally cold!!!
Stay Warm Everybody, Move to within 16 degrees of the Equator!!!
Dallas
Dallas,
The “temp gun” you are using is a spot radiometer. They are very inaccurate, except for close measurement.
The reading you are getting is mostly due to humidity. The temperature outside Earth’s atmosphere is just a few Kelvins above absolute zero. Try this: measure the sky temp before and after a cold front moves through. While the air temp may only vary by a few degrees, the apparent temp of the sky can vary by tens of degrees. Or go to Las Vegas during the summer. Air temp at 115 will show the sky temp you are trying to measure at less than -76 F, the lower limit of common radiometers, due to extremely low humidity.
The UAH satellites that Dr Roy Spencer uses are very sensitive and filtered to measure the temperatures in the lower atmosphere by measuring the temperature of the water (humidity) in the atmosphere.
Most common IR instruments have a calibrated accuracy of +/- 1 degree C (+/- 1.8 degree F). The UAH satellite data is likely calibrated to tighter tolerances and hundreds of thousands of readings are smoothed out to yield trend data.
Regardless, the absolute numbers do not tell the story: the trend does. That shows we are coming out of a Modern Warm Period.
Stay warm, my friend!
Surely, Thank Photoncounter for the observations.
Yes the lowest temp I recorded with the spot radiometer
was a -54 F on 30 Jan 2022, -38 F 31 Jan 22
Below 0 F are fairly common, there was a -35 F 13 Mar 22.
Last year in April we had a couple of air temp spikes to 78 the first
half of the month, then nothing above 68 the second half.
It did not really warm up til the second week in June with a couple of
80’s then. Remember this is pre-dawn in the dark before the sun
starts warming things up.
Surely the inaccuracy will be consistent. It is definitely not a “definite” temp as I do move the device around the sky to find the lowest temp, averaging to the higher reading if a .8 appears momentarily.
DS
WoW!!! SW Florida Again!!! 26.962006, -82.352592
Today’s High by Accuweather 88 F, then a massive cooling trend!!!
Temp Drops the next 8 days, not bouncing above 80 F until 16 April 2023!
Note: That may not be accurate as it is at the far edge of the 10 day prediction
window!
Cap, you often compare todays weather with record lows from previous SC Minimums. Can”t find another SC Max as feeble as the one we are currently living through? Sounds like dangerous uncharted territory.
I’m full on expecting the EU to outlaw Frost Fires in the near future due to their CO2 output. Should be fun to watch the reaction to that one.
Dutch farmers have been protesting for months about EU mandated cuts to nitrogen emissions and government buy outs of farms. They formed a new political party that won the most seats in regional elections last month. Even the EU and other technocrats/greenies are going to have to take notice. Two things the French love are wine and rioting/protesting (there’s riots in Paris at the minute over changes to pension rules). Not even Macron is stupid enough to do anything that would harm wine production and he’s a lame duck, no longer having a majority in the French senate.
High of 36F yesterday in Colorado Springs, it was 12F with the sun shining yesterday morning. It’s been the coldest start to a year I can ever remember. Yesterday was almost 25º below normal. Warmth is finally coming the next few days, but some of my plants froze covered up in the greenhouse. But we’re in runaway global warming, right?!?
John, That is a cool start to the morning!!!!
12 F………Brrrrrr!
Seems like the Global Warming is running away from us,
running away as far as it can!!!