Record Colds in many places

[ET21]

Watch out.  Water freezes 40 degrees cooler than it is outside.   Floridian drivers might lose control of their vehicles on the thought of possible ice and get an 80 car pileup like that Wisconsin freeway.

I-94 in Indiana by Michigan City is the pileup I believe you're thinking, unless there was another one 

[KEK Inc.]

It's 38ºF in Seattle right now.  brrrr. 

Seattle is the northernmost largest city in the continental US too, but the Pacific keeps the west coast mild.  West Coast is best coast; east coast is least coast.

[Brandon]

Watch out.  Water freezes 40 degrees cooler than it is outside.   Floridian drivers might lose control of their vehicles on the thought of possible ice and get an 80 car pileup like that Wisconsin freeway.

I-94 in Indiana by Michigan City is the pileup I believe you're thinking, unless there was another one 

Maybe another one?  The one on I-94 was about 46 vehicles, of which 19 were trucks.  It's still under investigation.

As I type, it's only 0 degrees F outside with a windchill somewhere south of -20.

[kj3400]

It's 38ºF in Seattle right now.  brrrr. 

Seattle is the northernmost largest city in the continental US too, but the Pacific keeps the west coast mild.  West Coast is best coast; east coast is least coast.

Ha. I'd rather get snow and no work than a bunch of rain any day.
It's 37 here at the moment, though wind chill is making it feel like 27.

[Takumi]

It's 60°F here today. Tomorrow, 25°F, maybe.

[DaBigE]

Watch out.  Water freezes 40 degrees cooler than it is outside.   Floridian drivers might lose control of their vehicles on the thought of possible ice and get an 80 car pileup like that Wisconsin freeway.

I-94 in Indiana by Michigan City is the pileup I believe you're thinking, unless there was another one 

Maybe another one?  The one on I-94 was about 46 vehicles, of which 19 were trucks.  It's still under investigation.

As I type, it's only 0 degrees F outside with a windchill somewhere south of -20.

Yes, there was another one which was partially captured on one of WisDOT's traffic cams on US41/45 northwest of Milwaukee (Menomonee Falls/Germantown 'burbs) back in December 2013. There was another large one just south of that vantage point as part of the same snowstorm.

[Thing 342]

It's 60°F here today. Tomorrow, 25°F, maybe.

Yep. The weatherman (WAVY-10, to be precise) just told me to expect either a foot of snow or none at all. Gotta love Virginia weather.

[bassoon1986]

Maybe not so much to do with record colds, but Louisiana will be getting snow again tonight which makes the second time in a week. In central, southern, and coastal Louisiana. This NEVER happens. Last Friday's was actually fluffy snow, not the slush we usually get when snow is forecasted.

[NJRoadfan]

No offense to anyone in warmer states like Florida (as these cold snaps are unusual to near record territory on occasion) but seeing your news media outlets go ape because it dropped below 65 degrees makes me laugh

I was in Florida when it hit 37 outside at night, and it was in the upper 40s in the day. People knew we weren't from around there since we had proper coats on. The biggest problem is the houses there aren't insulated worth a damn and those hurricane rated glass windows are really drafty. The bigger problem were the brownouts from the record power usage from people running their electric heat.

[Brandon]

^^ I don't think I've seen electric heat in use.  Around here, you see gas-forced air as the most common with radiant heat (radiators) as a distant second.  Somehow I think my vision of giant space heaters (for electric heat) is somewhat inaccurate.

[NJRoadfan]

^^ I don't think I've seen electric heat in use.  Around here, you see gas-forced air as the most common with radiant heat (radiators) as a distant second.  Somehow I think my vision of giant space heaters (for electric heat) is somewhat inaccurate.

Its a heat pump system that provides air conditioning and heat. Basically it runs in reverse to provide heat, but once the temps go below 50, a resistive heating element kicks in since air-to-air heat pumps can't pull much heat from the outside air. The outside unit sometimes has to run a de-icing cycle as well as the elements freeze up. Its not just a Florida thing either. Newer seasonal residences in NJ have heat pumps in areas that don't have natural gas service.

Around here we have gravity steam heat. Dead simple to maintain and it even works without utility power!

[ET21]

^^ I don't think I've seen electric heat in use.  Around here, you see gas-forced air as the most common with radiant heat (radiators) as a distant second.  Somehow I think my vision of giant space heaters (for electric heat) is somewhat inaccurate.

College apartment. Everything in our place is electric, including the heat. So if our power goes out, we're basically screwed

[Road Hog]

Not only that ... My house is all-electric, and electric heat is ridiculously inefficient and expensive. I can run my air conditioner all summer and my bill won't be half what it is in the winter. And this is Texas.

[DaBigE]

^^ I don't think I've seen electric heat in use.  Around here, you see gas-forced air as the most common with radiant heat (radiators) as a distant second.  Somehow I think my vision of giant space heaters (for electric heat) is somewhat inaccurate.

College apartment. Everything in our place is electric, including the heat. So if our power goes out, we're basically screwed

College apartment and my first apartment out of college (should have kept on looking ). Those had a wall unit HVAC (like you find in a typical cheap hotel) in the main room and electric baseboard heaters in the bedrooms and bathrooms. I could just see the local PoCo licking their chops when winter was arriving. At least where I live now has a gas furnace. I can't imagine the electric bill if I was still in the old place with cold snaps we've been having lately.

So if our power goes out, we're basically screwed

As is most everyone, since you need power to run a furnace, heat pump, etc.

[KEK Inc.]

It's 38ºF in Seattle right now.  brrrr. 

Seattle is the northernmost largest city in the continental US too, but the Pacific keeps the west coast mild.  West Coast is best coast; east coast is least coast.

Ha. I'd rather get snow and no work than a bunch of rain any day.
It's 37 here at the moment, though wind chill is making it feel like 27.

If we get any snow, school is cancelled, and most transportation systems fail here.  We've had a pretty dry season so far with only 3 rain storms.  We're having wildfires.

[ZLoth]

Now, record breaking temps can occur more/less by random chance.  Today in Philly, for example, the low was 5 or 6 degrees, which broke the previous record of 7 degrees.  But half the days in January have record low temperatures below 0.  If today's weather occurred 3 days from now, it wouldn't have even been close to the record low of -5.

Try record HIGH temperatures in California, plus a record number of dry days during the rainy season (late-September through April). The blame is because of a high-pressure system out in the Pacific Ocean that is pushing all the weather north. This is causing a bad drought, and Folsom Lake Pond is at level lower than the 1976-1977. Time to rip out that lawn and put in that rock garden.

[agentsteel53]

Try record HIGH temperatures in California

indeed.  it was 92 in Lakeside the other day.  I miss winter! 

luckily it's still in the high 30s in the early mornings.  perfect weather for working in the yard.

[Brandon]

^^ How the hell can you miss winter when you don't really have winter.  When I went to San Diego, day after Christmas in 2011, it was 75F at the San Diego Zoo.  That's not winter.  Winter is snow, temperatures below 32F, and freezing your ass off.  75F is fricking summer.

[corco]

When I lived in Tucson we called it winter- but winter is looked at as summer is in colder climates- time to be outside and enjoy the weather and go swimming and all that. Summer becomes like the northern winter, just with blistering miserable heat instead of freezing your ass off. Personally, I prefer being cold to hot which is a big part of why I moved back north. At least in winter you can put a coat on and there is a lot to do outside. In 115 degree heat there is nothing to do but go inside and try not to melt.

[SD Mapman]

When I lived in Tucson we called it winter- but winter is looked at as summer is in colder climates- time to be outside and enjoy the weather and go swimming and all that. Summer becomes like the northern winter, just with blistering miserable heat instead of freezing your ass off. Personally, I prefer being cold to hot which is a big part of why I moved back north. At least in winter you can put a coat on and there is a lot to do outside. In 115 degree heat there is nothing to do but go inside and try not to melt.

Yes. Yes. We kinda had it bad this year when August was basically 95-105 degrees all month, and then there was a week in December when it didn't get above zero.

[agentsteel53]

Winter is snow, temperatures below 32F, and freezing your ass off. 

I am aware of the concept.  I've even specifically taken vacations in cold climates because I enjoy that kind of thing.

that said, for where I live, a daytime high of about 75 and an overnight low of 31 is what January is supposed to feel like.  it's been more like 36-85 recently.  I can dig the 36 (like I said before, it's perfect working weather) but anything over about 60 and I find it very tough to work outside.

[vdeane]

That is quite the temperature variance! 

[ZLoth]

How the hell can you miss winter when you don't really have winter.  When I went to San Diego, day after Christmas in 2011, it was 75F at the San Diego Zoo.  That's not winter.  Winter is snow, temperatures below 32F, and freezing your ass off.  75F is fricking summer.

For the 36+ years that I have lived in Sacramento, we have two seasons: hot and dry, and cold and wet. The normal rain season runs until mid-October until early-April. We have not been getting rain. It does get cold, but not 32-degree cold except in winter mornings (and we had a spell of that in December).

[JMoses24]

Georgia, Alabama, Florida and the Carolina's are completely screwed tonight. It is Snowmageddon down in Birmingham and Atlanta. People are stranded in their cars!

EDIT TO ADD: Case in point. This is I-75 near Marietta, GA. I pulled this off twitter.

[ET21]

How one inch of snow can cripple an entire region, or at least areas that only saw snow. That is one of the worst ice storms I've seen in my life for the Gulf/Carolina coastlines and a first time in seeing Winter Storm Warnings for FLORIDA!