It’s not only Buffalo engulfed in a terrifying snow wall. Yesterday was the coldest November morning since 1976: More than 85 per cent of the surface of the contiguous United States reached or fell below freezing. This is much more anomalous than last year’s polar vertex: 10C below normal temperatures!
According to Dr. Ryan Maue, from WeatherBell models:
Tuesday morning, America ‘as a whole’ awoke to the coldest it has been in November since 1976 — 38 years ago. The Lower-48 or CONUS spatially average temperature plummeted overnight to only 19.4°F typical of mid-winter not November 18th!
Compared to normal, temperatures over the past several days have dropped off a cliff — to 10°C below climate normal — more anomalous than even during the Polar Vortex of early January 2014. November is shaping up to be a colder-than-normal month by a lot.
Dr Maue says that 226 million Americans experienced below freezing temperatures on Tuesday. And it’s only getting worse:
Record lows from Idaho to Nebraska and Iowa south to Texas and east through the Great Lakes, the eastern 2/3 of the US will shatter decades-long and in some cases, century-long records. Temperatures east of the Rockies will be 20-40°F below climate normals.
Cold air pushes east thru Wednesday with a reinforcing shot of Arctic air with origin from the North Pole & Siberia to arrive on Thursday in the Great Lakes. Any relief is is 5-6 days away as Chicago, Minneapolis, and Detroit will struggle to rise above freezing until Saturday.
Good luck everyone. This winter is really, REALLY going to suck.