"Dramatic Weather Shift" Over Greenland, N. Pole Sending Arctic Chill Way South - Herald-Tribune

[hatrack]

EDIT

A dramatic weather shift in the Arctic is sending extremely cold air across the Southeast, including southern Florida.

The pattern, caused by unusually high pressure over the North Pole, creates a vast region of dry, sinking air over Greenland that blocks the Arctic westerly winds and shuttles them south.

"These blocking patterns often can persist for weeks on end, and that's what we expect to happen," said Jon Gottschalck, head of forecast operations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center. "This is one of the strongest we've ever seen."

Meteorologists call it the cold phase of the Arctic Oscillation and it is responsible for the plummeting temperatures here. In Sarasota, the temperature dropped to a low of 36 degrees early Monday morning, compared with the average 51 degrees. The high was only 52 degrees, 21 degrees below normal. Except for Thursday, high temperatures were forecast to remain below 60 degrees and the lows in the 30s.

EDIT

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100105/ARTICLE/1051063/2416/NEWS?Title=Weather-trend-means-chill-may-linger

[jpak]

1. This weekend's retrograde nor'easter brought warm *northerly* marine air in to Maine

as a result, it was warmer in northern Maine - on a northeast wind - than in southern Maine.

quite odd indeed

[phantom power]

2. It makes me wonder what effect (if any) arctic ice loss has on these systems.

[Jamastiene]

3. I'm shivering me timbers down here at night, but

with the Sun out during the day and lots of curtains pulled back, it gets nice and warm inside the house. At night, though, it is a cold that bites.