January Obs and Discussions

It’s friggin’ cold out. No numbers necessary.

It’s so cold when I went out to the food store I was going to slice open a tauntaun for shelter.

Check out this image.  You can see the current air mass is straight out of the Arctic.  Really impressive image.

CPcantmeasuresnow wrote:Bottomed at 0 this morning. Another underwhelming low in this nice stretch of cold.

Still waiting for that double digit below zero in this stretch, which we've achieved a couple of times in the last three winters but the morning lows in the last two weeks have not impressed me at all. However the duration of the cold and the low high temps have been pretty impressive. Maybe tonight we make a run at -10. Conditions in the areas outside the UHI should be ideal tonight.

CP, I think the most recent cold stretch is accompanied with these high winds which must be the reason we are not getting below zero.Isn't radiational cooling hampered by high winds?

It looks like a period of light snow or frozen precipitation is set to work it's way into our area Monday afternoon. At the moment looks like a 4pm start time which could make for an annoying commute home.



Obviously we're in the midst of a deep freeze so whatever falls is likely to accumulate rapidly. We're looking at minor amounts, possibly less than an inch. But the concern should be ice. If the precip falls as freezing rain then it will make driving treacherous.

Monday afternoon. Will come to an end before sunrise Tuesday.

frozen wave off Westhampton Beach, LI

euro and gfs hinting at a little precip enhancement over NYC east out to LI. could produce an inch or2

docstox12 wrote:

CPcantmeasuresnow wrote:Bottomed at 0 this morning. Another underwhelming low in this nice stretch of cold.

Still waiting for that double digit below zero in this stretch, which we've achieved a couple of times in the last three winters but the morning lows in the last two weeks have not impressed me at all. However the duration of the cold and the low high temps have been pretty impressive. Maybe tonight we make a run at -10. Conditions in the areas outside the UHI should be ideal tonight.

CP, I think the most recent cold stretch is accompanied with these high winds which must be the reason we are not getting below zero.Isn't radiational cooling hampered by high winds?

Yes Doc it is.

Ideal conditions for areas away from the Urban heat Island is calm winds, snow cover, and clear skies. We will have 2 of the 3 tonight. If the freakin winds die down and we get all three I think many areas will make a run at -10.

In NYC the ideal conditions for record lows are not calm winds, a moderate 10-15 mph wind is best for them to carry away some of the UHI effect during the night. That was the setup for them 2 years ago when they hit -1.

GFS NAM and EURO continue to have a nice little burst of precip over NYC, LI. Could produce an inch or 2 and possibly some ZR

Montauk has a water temp of 28*. That has to have some effect on potential warm ups and marine influence along the coast no?

5* here now

6.9* here

3* here now BRRRRRRRRR!!!!

I’m down to 6.3

3° now here reefer -12

-3.3°, 30.29R, calm winds finally allowed temp to drop this morning... think it bottomed out

Didn't make double digits below zero here, -6 was the best we could do. Not  even that close to my lows from 2 and 3 winters ago.

Several areas in the HV did reach double digit below zero though. If the winds died down earlier last night they would have been much more widespread.

Hit a low of -12 just so cold.

weatherwatchermom wrote:3* and -10 how many days is this..wow I think this is 15 days below 32*...If I am not mistaken I think I heard the record is 16...have to look that up

This will make 13 straight days in NYC of 30 degrees or below. The record for consecutive days below 32 is 16, they may make it 14 tomorrow, but it ends Tuesday. Unfortunately not one record low in Central Park during the whole streak. As I've stated several times this was a nice streak for it's length of sustained cold but nothing extraordinary regarding low temperatures. 3 of the past 4 winters in NYC have had readings of 4 degrees or lower and this mornings low of 5 was the coldest it got in Central Park during this stretch not even matching the lows of those recent winters.