Extreme Temperature Diary- Sunday February 20th, 2022/Main Topic: Bitterly Cold Outbreak Höðr To Occur Across The United States

The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary 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 or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉

Main Topic: Bitterly Cold Outbreak Höðr To Occur Across The United States

Dear Diary. So far, we have witnessed a relatively mild winter in the United States, except across the Great Lakes and New England areas, where near average conditions occurred after New Year’s Day. This week going into late February will be a frigid exception for most of us, and yes, as we witnessed last February and during 2021 a climate changed atmosphere can still spit out a significant cold wave during an overall warm year.

I’ve gone ahead and labeled the coming “CAT 3” Arctic outbreak as Höðr, who is a Norse god of winter. Höðr, sometimes called Hod, is the twin brother of Baldr, or Baldur, and is a Norse god associated with darkness and winter. He also happened to be blind and appears a few times in Norse Skaldic poetry. As many of my readers know, I name either heatwaves or cold weather once they get to major proportions. To see my guidelines, read this prior post:

We can see Höðr poised to enter the U.S. from Canada this Sunday afternoon on the following temperature chart:

By Monday frigid bellow 0°F air will encompass much of the northern Rockies and Plains:

By Tuesday Höðr will be rushing down the Front Range area of the Rockies, moving into the Pacific Northwest, and will be encompassing much of the Upper Midwest, where light snow and an icy mix of precipitation should be occurring. By this point, The Weather Channel may decide to name a winter storm:

Starting Thursday another winter storm will produce an icy mess from the southern Plains into the middle. Mississippi Valley. By this point near record cold will be occurring from California through the Rockies into much of the Midwest:

Höðr will not begin to break until a week from today and the only in the West:

How intense will Höðr get? Here are a few forecast indications:

Looking at model guidance, I do expect several hundred records from Höðr. Of course, I’ll be reporting some of these as they get pegged by the National Weather Service this week.

Here are some “ET” and some extreme precipitation reports from Sunday:

Here is more climate and weather news from Sunday:

(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)

Now here are some of today’s articles and notes on the horrid COVID-19 pandemic:

(If you like these posts and my work please contribute via the PayPal widget, which has recently been added to this site. Thanks in advance for any support.) 

Guy Walton “The Climate Guy”

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