Sunday March 15th… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing blog 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 or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Bad Weather To Add To Coronavirus Misery Across U.S. This Week
Dear Diary: Don’t shoot the messenger, but it would appear that by Wednesday of this week bad weather and climate will intersect with the misery produced by the coronavirus outbreak across the United States. A strong storm system will produce blizzard conditions from the north and central Rockies through much of the northern Plains states. The associated cold front will probably produce severe storms with the threat of tornadoes in the southern Plains and Mississippi Valley area. Here is a snapshot from the most recent GFS model run:
By late Thursday, as depicted above, severe storms will have moved out of Oklahoma and most of Texas, but a snow storm will be raging across the northern Plains.
Climate change wise, near record warmth will occur in the Southeast and as far north as the Ohio Valley and Middle Atlantic states. The cold side of the storm will be chilly, but as is so often the case these days, not frigid enough to produce an area of widespread record low temperatures. The 500 millibar pattern across North America looks very warm with a smaller cold lobe, which is the storm, ejecting into the Plains:
These model forecast temperatures for Thursday are probably not warm enough since crunched numbers have some weighted traditional climatology:
I’ll have updates on this life threatening situation for most of the central U.S. as we roll through this week.
Now, here are some of todays articles on the coronavirus:
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Here is some more weather and climate 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.)
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Guy Walton “The Climate Guy”