The 'Polar Vortex' Is Coming Back. Again.

[brooklynite]

Source: The Atlantic

Anybody tired of the "polar vortex" yet? No? Excellent, because it's returning soon with all its tail-whipping winds and freezing temperatures as low as 35 degrees below average.

The expected timetable for the vortex – a name that's not technically accurate in many cases – is that the cold will arrive in the Midwest this weekend and in the following days paint the South and East with misery. If anybody wants to shoot the messenger, although please don't, consult this prognostication yesterday from the Weather Underground's Jeff Masters. Here's part of it:

Temperatures 20°F below normal will likely invade the Upper Midwest on Sunday, and gradually spread southeastwards during the week. The peak cold is predicted to occur late next week, with temperatures 20 - 35° below normal covering much of the eastern 2/3 of the country. As a result of these new model runs, the natural gas market has been soaring ever since early this morning, and is now approaching a five-year high of $6.

That five-year high had been topped as of Wednesday afternoon, with prices soaring to $6.25. That's understandable considering that in the past month, only 4 days have reportedly had below-average demand for natural gas in the United States.

Read more: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2014/02/polar-vortex-coming-once-again/8449/

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Huddle together for warmth...

[Inkfreak]

1. Upstate NY'er here.

Guess I'll be buying more pellets got the stove. $250 a ton and I'm already 2.5 tons into the winter. Of course we started using ours in October. I'm ready for spring...

[liberal N proud]

2. Damn, I am sick of this shit!

[giftedgirl77]

3. Noooooooooo....

It's a beautiful 75 here in SC today, I'm sick of winter & my body can't take it anymore.

[Scootaloo]

4. I think this is leaving "weather" and entering "climate"

[Laffy Kat]

9. Good one.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. Those legs barely clear some of the snow piles in Chi-town

I moved to the suburbs about 10 years ago. One thing I do not miss is the lack of parking. With snow, it is even worse.

[hrmjustin]

5. I just looked at the 10 day forcast for NYC and I want to cry.

[Purveyor]

6. This is insane! I've never experienced 'cabin fever' until this winter.

Can't do a damned thing outside when all you have are tunnels to walk about in. All but impossible to walk in this 2 foot of wet, nasty snow.

Dogs hate it, even my husky.

[hollysmom]

7. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

not until I dig out,. I have been housebound for 3 weeks. I hurt my back shoveling slush, that then froze and then we had snow on snow on snow - the other day when it rained in NYC, it snowed 4 inches here 10 miles out. I am running out of food (will have to eat in restaurant around the corner), but I want real food.

[RebelOne]

8. Damn! Damn! Damn!

Georgia has had more snow from the last 2 storms than we have had in the past 5 years. At that time, the whole state shut down. And I had four broken water pipes. I did all the right things to avoid that happening, such as letting the water drip in all the faucets, and I even ran the clothes dryer to pump hot air to the pipes underneath. I live in a mobile home and put a heater under the house. But those pipes could not handle single-digit temperatures.

I love the cold weather. And the snow here falls just enough to cover the ground, and is gone the next day. The past storms caused so much ice that there were auto accidents on all the roads. And trees toppled because of the ice.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. some reruns are just boring.

[KeepItReal]

12. It's like "Scorcher 6"

Who left the fridge open? - Tug Speedman

[FreepFryer]

19. Here we go again... again! (n/t)

[LiberalArkie]

13. Damn, heading towards central Arkansas AGAIN!!!

At least we have had a week of spring time weather.

[geomon666]

14. Are we not happy with this?

This is the future we as a society have given to ourselves through decades of unchecked industrialism and deregulation. The summer is going to be really fucking interesting.

[Delphinus]

34. Yes,

I'm curious about Summer too.

[In_The_Wind]

15. Wonder when I'll see my daffodils blooming in Ulster County.

[XemaSab]

24. They've been blooming for two weeks here in Northern California

It's going to be sunny and in the mid-70s all week.

This has been our "winter":

Freak snowstorm that drops 6 inches of snow overnight.

Sunny and warm for 7 weeks.

Torrential rain that drops 6 inches in a day and takes the percent average rainfall from 20% to 40%.

Sunny and warm for 3 weeks.

[In_The_Wind]

25. Somehow I'm beginning to think I live on the wrong coast.

I still believe that we are going to feel an early Spring this year. We're starting to warm up already. The nights are no longer single digit. The daytime highs are well above freezing. It's 49 degrees now with a low tonight of 34 and a 50% chance of snow flurries.


You have some weird weather going on out there this year. I'll grant you that one.

[XemaSab]

28. We're going to pay for it this summer

Hooboy.

[In_The_Wind]

29. I saw a thread suggesting ways of transporting water ...

from parts of the country with an abundance via refurbished pipelines to areas experiencing drought conditions. Mebbe it's time for someone to research and implement something like that.

[amandabeech]

36. Michiganders will lie down in front of the bulldozers building any pipelines.

However, I expect some of them will get out the hunting rifles.

That's the kind of opposition you can expect to any pipeline.

People will invite you to move to Michigan, however, and enjoy all the water right where it is now.

But remember to bring your snow shovel. Some of that water comes down as snow.

[Psephos]

38. Yep, that's *exactly* right.

Coastals have had a long run of taunting us "rubes" here in Michigan. S/he who laughs last laughs best.

[amandabeech]

41. She who laughs last gets to drink the water

without being flooded with it, at least most of the time.

[knitter4democracy]

52. Amen to that!

People can move here, sure, but if you expect us to allow our lakes to be drained so people can live in a desert, you don't know us very well.

[RedSpartan]

16. Take note of Alaska.

It's February.

[abelenkpe]

17. Yeah, send those blue bands to CA

If they contain water filled clouds please.

Take care east coast!

[Dollface]

20. Following is the Thursday weather report for mid and west Michigan

* A WINTERY MIX OF FREEZING RAIN, SLEET AND SNOW WILL BEGIN AROUND 6 AM AND MOVE NORTH.
* ICE ACCUMULATIONS OF A COATING UPWARDS TO A QUARTER OF AN INCH EXPECTED THIS MORNING.
* A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON.
* WINDS GUSTING TO 50 TO 55 MPH ALONG THE LAKE SHORE TONIGHT AND 40 TO 45 MPH INLAND.
* SNOW SQUALLS AND BLUSTERY WINDS OF 25 TO 45 MPH ON FRIDAY.
* POOR DRIVING CONDITIONS WITH WINTERY MIX DEVELOPING DURING THE MORNING RUSH HOUR. MANY SECONDARY AND COUNTRY BACK ROADS WILL BECOME TREACHEROUS.
* PONDING OF WATER ON MANY ROADS AND LOW LYING AREAS WITH SNOW AND ICE CLOGGED DRAINS.
* WIND GUSTS ARE LIKELY TO RESULT IN SCATTERED POWER OUTAGES AS A RESULT OF FALLING BRANCHES.

They forgot to mention the fog and possible thundersnow.

I like weather but seriously,

[louis-t]

26. Heard the thunder loud and clear at 11 am.

Then came snow and sleet.

[another_liberal]

21. (shouts of) "Get a rope!"

(followed by) "Hanging's too good for him!"

[Plucketeer]

22. While here in central California

We went from Fall to Spring with only a two-week Winter.Trees leafing out WAY ahead of time - flowers poppin' up everywhere - critters not sure of what's happening but playin' along anyways. We've got a crowd of hummingbirds well in advance of their usual return.
And we need RAIN! Oh God do we need rain! And I'm an atheist!

[YvonneCa]

23. LOL! Great description...

...and oh so true! It's 85 in my back yard with flowers everywhere. (Sorry non CA people who are truly suffering.) Birds returned in January. Daffodils bloomed in January and died last week...
But this summer with little water and 110 degree weather worries me.

[catchnrelease]

40. It's crazy here (80+ this week)

Here in So Cal yesterday I picked and ate the first of the RIPE boysenberries from our vines! They are usually ready around May. The apricot tree has already bloomed, been pollinated and the tiny apricots are forming. I'm worried that we will have a--what should be normal--cold snap and it will wipe out all of the setting fruit and flowers. It would be great if we would just have some rain now.

I also agree, I can't imagine what this Summer will be like here.

[Plucketeer]

45. We've got the same worry here

Fruit setting months ahead of schedule. And this after we lost ALL our citrus on the 40 such trees we have to the week and a half of low 20s nites!

[catchnrelease]

47. Oh no!

That's terrible. Our 'orchard' is just a few backyard fruit trees, so while disappointing it's not a serious loss. I assume that once you have lost that first set of fruit the trees will not bloom again this year? (Since I haven't experienced that so far, thank goodness, I've never thought about what would happen next. Our only citrus is a Meyer Lemon which seems to be ever-blooming.)

[Plucketeer]

50. It's worse than that

I've been too disgusted to count, but at least half the citrus trees were killed or severely damaged. In fact, you can drive around here and find whole groves of young trees that were wiped out by the cold spell. Between the cold snap and the drought, I'd be watching for big price increases in citrus and nuts for the coming year(s).

[catchnrelease]

51. Ah, I'm so sorry

That is much worse! To lose the trees themselves has to be devastating. It takes so long for them to start producing, I understand what you mean about prices being up for years. My husband and I drove to the bay area at the first of the year, via I-5, and could see that many of the orchards near the road looked bad, and that was before the freezes. I know how much my little urban garden means to me, I can't imagine how you feel when it's your livelihood.

[jakeXT]

27. Polar vortex chill exterminated 95 percent of stink bugs in Va. Tech experiment

This spring, you may see and smell fewer of those foul stink bug pests, and you can thank the polar vortex.

The punishing, prolonged blasts of arctic air this January proved too much for most stinkbugs to overcome according to Virginia Tech field researchers.

Each fall, Virginia Tech entomology professor Thomas Kuhar and his team gather stink bugs that congregate on the outside of buildings. The stink bugs are put into ventilated 5-gallon buckets filled with foam insulation tubes and then the buckets are stored outside for the winter, under a shelter. Each bucket contains about 100 stink bugs.

The insulated buckets simulated the overwintering locations of stink bugs. The bucket arrangements also help to keep the bugs in a dormant state of diapause while they await experiments in Kuhar’s Virginia Tech lab.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/02/20/polar-vortex-chill-exterminated-95-percent-of-stink-bugs-in-va-tech-study/

[vkkv]

30. probably means fewer slugs and snails, too.

Consecutive below freezing days here in Calif kills them off for a while.

[colsohlibgal]

31. I Am So Sick Of This

This has been the suckiest winter here in Central Ohio , snow bands moving in every 2 days and lots of brutally cold days for this area.

I know I'm quite tired of this polar vortex thing.

[durablend]

32. No mention of another possible Nor Easter?

Supposed to be a possibility for the east coast late next week.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY

[Lucky Luciano]

33. I'm ok with this. I like to be a witness to record breaking stuff.

The cold makes it more likely that we can break the all time record for snowfall in NYC of 75 inches from 1995-6. Right now were are around 57 inches. Only 18 to go!

It makes my 5 mile runs in Central Park a bit more brutal, but it's all good.

[gollygee]

35. NO!

I'm in Western MI in that really really dark blue part. And my kids have missed like 8 or 9 days of school already.

And we were finally getting a good melt going on.

[mackerel]

37. I was soooooo hoping to open this thread

and see California covered in every shade of blue.

[PeteSelman]

42. Whatever. I work outside, throw a few layers on and suck it up.

People are such wusses anymore.

[LiberalElite]

43. Whatever happened to the terms

"Cold Front" and "Alberta Clipper"? Not dramatic enough?

[former9thward]

44. Meanwhile in Phoenix

[clarice]

46. Attn: Global Warming...please hurry up. I'm FREEZING !!!

[GliderGuider]

48. So, how's this climate change thingy working out for y'all?

Aren't you glad it has nothing at all to do with weather?

[snooper2]

49. Sweet! Bring one more snow/ice storm to DFW please!