Extreme Temperature Diary-February 23, 2018/ February Flood and Warm Wave of 2018 Day Four

 Friday February 23rd… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing post will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials)😊. Here is today’s climate change related topic:  February Flood and Warm Wave of 2018 Day Four

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Unfortunately met models were correct forecasting rain along and near our stalled front to train over the same flooded areas. Some places from Arkansas eastward though the Ohio Valley will indeed see a once in a hundred year flooding event. Here is what I am seeing today from TWC’s Greg Diamond:

Areas of flood warnings (in light green) have expanded significantly from what we saw Thursday:

Wow! Dr. Jeff Masters has written another great, intricate piece on the flooding: 

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/record-atmospheric-moisture-feeding-central-us-flooding

Yesterday I presented an excerpt of Dr. Master’s post on record 500 mb geopotential heights. Today I’ll show his record precipitable water data:

Record atmospheric moisture fed the flood

Accompanying the exceptional February warmth this week were record levels of February moisture, as a flow of unusually moist air rode northwards from the Gulf of Mexico, where water temperatures were about 1.0°C (1.8°F) above average. Meteorologists use a term called “precipitable water” to discuss how much water vapor is in the atmosphere. Precipitable water is defined as how much rain would fall on the ground if one took a vertical slice of the atmosphere above a given location and condensed all the water vapor into rain. Precipitable water levels tend to be higher when the temperature is warmer, since warm air holds more water vapor. This week, an extraordinarily large number of upper air balloon soundings set all-time records for February moisture. There are 73 radiosonde stations in the contiguous U.S. that take routine measurements twice per day, and six of them set all-time February precipitable water records this week; four of these stations broke their previous February record multiple times. That is a very rare occurrence, as radiosonde data goes back 70 years. Here are the new February precipitable water records set this week:

Detroit, MI, 3 new records: 1.38” at 0Z 21 Feb, 1.36” at 12Z 20 Feb, and 1.29” at 0Z 20 Feb; Old record: 1.15″, 2/23/1985
Lincoln, IL, 2 new records: 1.47″ at 12Z 2/20 and 1.36” at 0Z 2/20;  Old record: 1.34″, 2/25/2001
Colombia, MO, 2 new records: 1.44″ at 0Z 2/20 and 1.39” at 12Z 2/19;  Old record: 1.33″, 2/21/1997
Shreveport, LA, 3 new records: 1.75″ at 0Z 2/21, 1.69” at 12Z 2/21, and 1.75” at 0Z 2/23;  Old record: 1.66″, 2/21/1974
Alpena, MI, 1 new record: 1.11” at 0Z 2/21; Old record: 1.09”, 2/12/1999
Davenport, IA, 1 new record: 1.18” at 12Z 2/21; Old record: 1.09”, 2/25/2001

Today there will also be a severe component of this very spring like system:

The front has cleared the Northeast so record heat will be confined to the Southeast through Saturday, but remaining remarkable:

Philippe Papin‏ @pppapin

For example, #Asheville, NC was already experiencing the warmest February on record by +1.5F , but we still have another 6 days of +20-25F anomalies to go.

The previous warmest Feb was set last year FWIW.

12:18 PM – 23 Feb 2018

Stu Ostro‏Verified account @StuOstro

Yesterday/today  #nywx

7:33 PM – 22 Feb 2018

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Here are some ET reports from today: