Last week, we took a look at the winter that just hasn't been here in the Northeast. It probably comes as no surprise that a week later, well, nothing's changed. Sure we just had a brush with a weak winter storm, but it was just that...a brush. The fact of the matter is, winter has gone somewhere. It hasn't simply vanished from the face of the Earth. The problem is, winter has gone to areas that don't normally see it to the extent that they have this year. People of Alaska, Greenland, and especially Europe continue to try to dig out from, or just survive, winter's icy onslaught. The results, while record-breaking, have done far more harm than good.
In Alaska, residents are still reeling from one of the coldest January's on record. In fact, for most of northern Alaska it WAS the coldest January on record. In the town of Nome, the average air temperature for the entire month was -16.6°F. This shattered the previous record of -15.2°F back in 1989. The temperature also dropped to -40° in Nome for the first time since 1999. Statistics from other parts of Alaska are staggering as well! Here's a sampling:
January 2012
Alaska
Kotzebue Average Temperature: -22.6° Lowest Temperature: -45°
Galena Average Temperature: -32.6° Lowest Temperature: -65°
Bettles Average Temperature: -35.6° Lowest Temperature: -61°
Tanana Average Temperature: -32.6° Lowest Temperature: -61°
You get the idea. The coldest temperature recorded at any point was -66° in Fort Yukon, AK on January 31. Winter obviously in relentless full force in Alaska. But that's just one area.
Greenland and Europe not only have the wicked cold, but snow has absolutely overwhelmed so many places. According to a "rule" followed by News10's own Steve Caporizzo (and the rest of us in the News10 weather department), when Greenland sees a winter with unrelenting snowstorms, we tend see fewer storms and consequently less snow here in New York and New England. The reason being that the jet stream tends to force the coastal storms that typically give us our whopper snowfalls farther out to sea before they have a chance to hit the Northeast. As a result, the storms arc into Greenland. We have seen this time and again this year, and the pattern simply refuses to change.
For this particular winter though, Europe has seen the worst of it, especially when you consider the human toll. A record-shattering cold outbreak in eastern Europe has claimed as many as 650 lives. Monster snowstorms have trapped tens of thousands of people in their homes as snow has piled up well over the roofs of houses and completely blocked off roadways. Local governments have had to resort to dropping supplies to trapped citizens by airlifts, and even those efforts have been extremely difficult due to nearly constant storms. Cars caught on local highways during the storms have found themselves in major pileups, and local authorities are unsure of when they will be able to clear the wreckage. This is just a small bit of the whole picture going on in Europe right now. For more details, check out the following link:
While only paying us brief visits here in the Northeast, winter has certainly been beating down on other parts of the globe. We may be missing it to a degree here, but let's hope that it lets up soon for those who have been suffering in it for weeks on end now. While this may only matter to those of us in the world of weather geeks, here's a bit of good news. Meteorological Spring begins in only 14 days on March 1. For so many, it cant' come soon enough.
Thanks for reading!
Until next time...
Nice writeup.
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