Extreme Cold and Northeast Snowstorm

On the morning of January 21st, the temperature at International Falls dropped to -46, which was the coldest reading since January 6th, 1968. Over the following two days, another hard freeze hit the Gulf Coast.

On January 26/27, this storm hit the Northeast with up to 20 inches of snow (Great Kills, and Irvington in NY), and produced thunder snow at New York City.Other snow totals include: 18.9" at Newark airport, NJ; 19" at Central Park, NY; 17.3" at La Guardia Airport, NY; 10" at JFK Airport, NY; 13" at Bridgeport, CT; 13.7" at Islip, NY; 12" at Hartford, CT. The 57" of snow that fell at Hartford, CT for the month of January beat the old record of 45.3" set in December 1945, making it the snowiest month on record. This storm also broke several monthly snow records for January:

...SNOWIEST JANUARY ON RECORD...

...CLIMATE SITE...   ...OLD RECORD...   ...JANUARY 2011 TOTAL*...
CENTRAL PARK        27.4 INCHES (1925)        36.0 INCHES
NEWARK              31.6 INCHES (1996)        37.3 INCHES
LAGUARDIA           27.6 INCHES (1996)        32.4 INCHES
BRIDGEPORT          26.2 INCHES (1965)        41.8 INCHES
ISLIP               21.5 INCHES (2005)        34.2 INCHES

*MONTHLY SNOWFALL TOTALS AS OF 7 AM JANUARY 27 2011

On January 26th, a North Pacific storm of 954 mb was at 45N latitude:
More impressive activity from the North Pacific on the 29th:
With this much energy upstream, it is little wonder that many models are showing a winter storm which could put down 1-2 feet of snow on Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan through Wednesday, February 2nd.

North Pacific Storm and Hawaii

Visible satellite images of the North Pacific storm which was still at 933 mb at 18Z on January 17th:Yesterday, buoy 46073 in the southeast Bering Sea reported 28.9 foot waves and wind gusts to 60 knots.

This upper low is drifting over Hawaii today:
High surf warnings have been issued for most of the Hawaiian islands as well as winter storm warnings for Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea above 8,000 feet, and Haleakala above 6,000 feet. At today's 12Z sounding from Lihue, temperatures were 11.0C at 850 mb and -0.1C at 700 mb. On January 17th, Lihue had a low temperature of 57.

Snow Cover, Hawaii and North Pacific Storm

A nor'easter which was mentioned in my last post looked like this later the same day (January 12th):This storm put down as much as 40.5" of snow in northwestern Massachusetts (Savoy). Several reports of thunder snow were received from eastern Massachusetts.

On January 12th, after the southern component of this storm hit the south with heavy snow, and the northern part snowed on the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic region, 70.9% of the Contiguous US was covered by snow:
Hawaii continued to have unusually active weather on January 13th, including this heavy squall line which hit Molokai and Maui:There was even a supercell south of Oahu:
A North Pacific storm located at about 45N latitude and 167E longitude was at 933 mb as of 6Z January 17:
A visible image of the storm from 00:32Z:
Recent infrared image from 11:32Z:
On the 0Z analysis chart, 300 mb wind speeds appear to be around 220 knots just west of the surface low:

Active Winter Weather

The storm which was mentioned in my last post dropped to 978 mb in western Colorado on December 30th:
On December 31st, it produced widespread blizzard conditions in the Northern Plains and tornadoes in Missouri and Arkansas which killed 7 people. Water vapor image during the outbreak:
On January 1st, Tucson had a low temperature of 21, beating the old record of 22 set in 1919. Kitt Peak had a low of -3, breaking the all-time record of 2 set on January 31st 1979. The old record for January 1st was 12 set in 1976. Kitt Peak is at 6790 feet, and records go back to 1960. On January 2nd, Bisbee had a low of 10, breaking the old record of 16 set in 1951.

On January 2nd a storm in the Bering Sea was at 958 mb:On January 9th, this storm dumped up to 11" of snow (Florence) and 3" of sleet (Lowndesboro) on Alabama.Wrightsville, Georgia was later hit with 1.5" of freezing rain.

This storm has merged with a Midwestern storm today over New England, and is producing heavy snow. A blizzard warning is in effect for Boston.Another hard freeze is ongoing for the Gulf states. Hard freeze warnings (dark blue) are active for much of the Gulf Coast and freeze warnings (light blue) go down to southern Florida:
An intensifying storm in the Pacific is hitting Hawaii with very heavy rain today:
All Hawiian Islands are under flash flood watches. A flash flood warning has been issued for Oahu. A winter storm warning is in effect for Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

As the strong La Nina continues, severe flooding is occurring in Australia. See amazing video here.

On December 28th, the German Weather Service announced that Berlin had the snowiest December in 110 years. In Ireland, the cold temperatures are causing pipes to burst. In Britain, some are saying that the cold winter is caused by global warming.