'Polar vortex' to blast frigid air over much of US
Source: AP-Excite
By CARSON WALKER
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - The weather warnings are dire: Life threatening wind chills. Historic cold outbreak.
Winter is normally cold, but starting Sunday tundra-like temperatures are poised to deliver a rare and potentially dangerous sledgehammer blow to much of the Midwest, driving temperatures so far below zero that records will shatter.
One reason? A "polar vortex," as one meteorologist calls it, which will send cold air piled up at the North Pole down to the U.S., funneling it as far south as the Gulf Coast.
The temperature predictions are startling: 25 below zero in Fargo, N.D., minus 31 in International Falls, Minn., and 15 below in Indianapolis and Chicago. At those temperatures, exposed skin can get frostbitten in minutes and hypothermia can quickly set in because wind chills could hit 50, 60 or even 70 below zero.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140104/DAB3OUC00.html
Ice floats on the surface of Lake Michigan Friday, Jan. 3, 2014, in Chicago. Single-digit temperatures are hitting Illinois after the state was blanketed in snow. Meanwhile, residents are bracing for a deep freeze. Highs early next week likely won't reach zero and wind chills could sink to 45 below. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
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" Anthropomorphic ?"
We are looking at. -1 for high and -11 for low.
Warmer here. Bundle up
You actually wouldn't think you can feel the difference once it gets that cold, but in reality, YES, it really does feel colder.
It is nasty, and if there is even a little bit of a breeze (to say nothing of even mild winds or worse) it takes your breath away when it hits you in the face. Your nose hairs freeze too. Unless your car is kept in a garage or is plugged in, there's a good chance it won't start. The snow and pretty much everything else crunches - if your car does run, the seals and shocks etc. will squeak and crunch as you drive over bumps. It can become very difficult to keep your car windows defrosted. Any exposed flesh will become frostbitten within 5-15 minutes (depending on the wind chill). If you throw hot water in the air, it does this:
And then there's -25 or -30! That hurts. -30 to -35 is the coldest I have experienced, so I can't speak to what -40 feels like, but some of our northern Minnesota folks could tell you.
18 degrees is just a normal January day for this area. A day in the 30's is considered balmy and is a treat because it melts some of the snowy sludge off the streets and driveways.
To be perfectly honest, I myself have never come across any proof that climate change is responsible for any *single* weather event, whether it be this week's Arctic air blast, or the tornadoes in 2011, etc.; in all likelihood, this is indeed just part of the normal pattern.
However, though, there is some legitimate evidence that does seem to suggest that climate change can, and possibly already is, affecting long-term trends in all kinds of inclement weather, even including cold snaps. Right now, it seems that "global weirding" might be the best term to describe what is currently happening.
I am in agreement with this. But I was thinking this morning, there are basically two responses to this. Normal intelligent people go outside, say "brrr" and then say, this could be due to global warming (although these normal intelligent people would recognize it could also be normal fluctuations and one should not jump to too easy conclusions).
On the other hand, climate change deniers go outside, say "brrr" and then say, see, there is no global warming. They're kind of like people who look at the horizon and say, see the earth is flat, because the horizon looks flat. 
I have a family photo from New iberia, Louisiana, taken in February, 1899, after a very rare blizzard.
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