- Antarctic sea ice ‘behaving strangely’ as Arctic reaches ‘below-average’ winter peak Carbon Brief
- Antarctic sea ice near historic lows: Arctic ice continues decline Phys.org
- How scientists believe the loss of Arctic sea ice will impact US weather patterns Fox Weather
- Letters to the Editor: Climate change and an ice-free Arctic are our Frankenstein’s monster Yahoo! Voices
- Study warns growing threat could drastically alter Arctic in decade to come: ‘This would transform the Arctic into a completely different environment’ The Cool Down
Tag Archives: arctic
Antarctic sea ice near historic lows: Arctic ice continues decline – Phys.org
- Antarctic sea ice near historic lows: Arctic ice continues decline Phys.org
- Antarctic sea ice ‘behaving strangely’ as Arctic reaches ‘below-average’ winter peak Carbon Brief
- How scientists believe the loss of Arctic sea ice will impact US weather patterns Fox Weather
- Letters to the Editor: Climate change and an ice-free Arctic are our Frankenstein’s monster Yahoo! Voices
- Study warns growing threat could drastically alter Arctic in decade to come: ‘This would transform the Arctic into a completely different environment’ The Cool Down
After blaming West for waging a proxy war on Russia, Shoigu went to Arctic nuclear test site – The Independent Barents Observer
- After blaming West for waging a proxy war on Russia, Shoigu went to Arctic nuclear test site The Independent Barents Observer
- Russia Eyes Arctic Nuclear Site; Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu Surveys Military Installations Hindustan Times
- Russian Defense Minister Inspects Arctic Military Installations The Moscow Times
- Russia’s Defense Minister and head of Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation examine arctic testing grounds Meduza
- Russia launches military training of Northern Fleet Anadolu Agency | English
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Cat-size primate relatives lived in the Arctic 52 million years ago
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CNN
—
Analysis of fossils found in the far north of Canada has revealed that two previously unknown species of ancient near-primates lived above the Arctic Circle some 52 million years ago, according to new research.
The now-extinct creatures belonged to a part of the primate family tree that branched off before the ancestors of lemurs diverged from the common ancestors of monkeys, apes and humans, said study coauthor Dr. Chris Beard, a distinguished foundation professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas and senior curator at the university’s Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum.
The two sister species lived on what is now Ellesmere Island in northern Canada. They are the first known primatomorphans, or primate relatives, to have lived in latitudes north of the Arctic Circle, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.
The two species have been named Ignacius mckennai and Ignacius dawsonae.
“To get an idea of what Ignacius looked like, imagine a cross between a lemur and a squirrel that was about half the size of a domestic cat,” Beard said. “Unlike living primates, Ignacius had eyes on the sides of its head (instead of facing forward like ours) and it had claws on its fingers and toes instead of nails.”
When researchers analyzed the fossil fragments, the jawbones and teeth of Ignacius seemed different from other primatomorphans that lived in North America’s more southerly reaches.
“What I’ve been doing the past couple of years is trying to understand what they were eating, and if they were eating different materials than their middle-latitude counterparts,” said lead study author Kristen Miller, a doctoral student at the University of Kansas’ Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum.
The Arctic primatomorphans evolved special features in their jaws and teeth to chomp on harder foods, like nuts and seeds, as opposed to their preferred diet of ripe fruit. This physical adaptation was likely because for half of the year, the species lived in the darkness of Arctic winter, when food was much more difficult to find.
“That, we think, is probably the biggest physical challenge of the ancient environment for these animals,” Beard said.
These findings could also be used to understand how animals adapt and evolve amid periods of climate change — as with species facing the human-driven climate crisis today.
Researchers believe the primatomorphans descended from an ancestor species that trekked north from the more southerly regions of North America. Similar fossils have been found across Wyoming, Texas, Montana and Colorado, according to Miller.
“No primate relative has ever been found at such extreme latitudes,” Miller said. “They’re more usually found around the equator in tropical regions. I was able to do a phylogenetic analysis, which helped me understand how the fossils from Ellesmere Island are related to species found in midlatitudes of North America.”
The common ancestor of the two Ignacius species likely reached Ellesmere Island around 51 million years ago, Beard said. At the time, it was a peninsula jutting into the Arctic Sea from adjacent parts of North America.
Ignacius mckennai and Ignacius dawsonae are named in part after two of Beard’s former colleagues and mentors, he explained: the late paleontologists Dr. Mary Dawson of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh and Dr. Malcolm McKenna of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, both of whom worked extensively on Ellesmere Island.
During these ancient times, the Arctic Circle was a warmer, more hospitable place for life. Global warming had caused the region to be much warmer and wetter, with a swamplike environment. The warmer temperatures during this period likely encouraged Igancius’ ancestor to venture north.
“Winter temperatures may have gotten as low as freezing for short periods of time, but we know that there were hardly ever any sustained freezing temperatures because crocodilians have been found on Ellesmere Island, and they cannot survive long freezes,” Beard said. “In the summertime, temperatures reached about 70 degrees Fahrenheit.”
Despite the warmer temperatures, the primatomorphans still had to adapt to survive in their unique northern ecosystem. They grew bigger than their southern relatives, who resembled squirrels; such growth commonly happens in mammals living in northern latitudes because it helps them maintain the needed core body temperature, Beard said.
“(The findings) tells us to expect dramatic and dynamic changes to the Arctic ecosystem as it transforms in the face of continued warming,” Beard said. “Some animals that don’t currently live in the Arctic will colonize that region, and some of them will adapt to their new environment in ways that parallel Ignacius. Likewise, we can expect some of the new colonists to diversify in the Arctic, just as Ignacius did.”
Move over polar bears, there’s another top predator along the Arctic coast
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In coastal ecosystems around the Arctic peninsula, polar bears have long been considered the top predators. But a new study suggests that sea stars could be surprising contenders to rival the famous white bears at the summit of the local food web.
A food web is a sprawling map of ecological connections that combines all the different food chains within an ecosystem. Individual food chains contain primary producers, which derive energy from the sun or by recycling dead organic material; primary consumers that graze upon the primary consumers; and then secondary or tertiary consumers that prey upon all the consumers beneath them. But the organisms in one food chain can also have a place in another, or multiple others, so the best way to see how an ecosystem functions is to link these chains together.
In marine food webs, researchers often focus on pelagic, or open water, food chains that contain tiny, surface-dwelling plankton all the way up to large predators such as polar bears (Ursus maritimus), which often sit at the top of multiple food chains. But the seafloor, or benthic, realm is often overlooked in marine food webs because scientists believed it has no real top predators of its own.
But in a new study, published Dec. 27, 2022, in the journal Ecology (opens in new tab), researchers took a more in-depth look at a coastal marine ecosystem in the Canadian Arctic and found that the benthic component of the region’s food web had been majorly underappreciated. The research team created a detailed map of the various food chains surrounding Southampton Island, in the mouth of Hudson Bay in Canada’s Nunavut territory, and found that the benthic part of the web had just as many connections as its pelagic counterpart, as well as its own equivalent of the polar bear — predatory sea stars.
Related: Swarm of rainbow-colored starfish devour sea lion corpse on seafloor
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“It’s a shift in our view of how the coastal Arctic marine food web works,” study lead author Rémi Amiraux (opens in new tab), a marine ecologist at Laval University in Canada who was with the University of Manitoba when the study was conducted, said in a statement (opens in new tab). “We proved that the wildlife inhabiting the seawater and those inhabiting the sediment form two distinct but interconnected subwebs.”
The researchers analyzed data on 1,580 individual animals living in the Southampton Island coastal ecosystem to create the new food web. They found that the benthic and pelagic components each had a similar number of steps, or trophic levels, in their respective food chains.
Sea stars were a key part of the benthic food web, occupying various trophic levels, but one family, Pterasteridae, was consistently at the top of most individual food chains. The researchers discovered that these sea stars feed on a range of secondary consumers including bivalves, a group of mollusks whose bodies are protected by a hinged shell, sea cucumbers and sponges. This means Pterastidae sea stars were hunting on an equivalent scale to polar bears, which preyed upon walruses, gulls, beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) and ringed seals (Pusa hispida). The key difference between the polar bears and sea stars was the size of their prey.
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In addition to being among the most successful predators in the entire ecosystem, the Pterasteridae sea stars and polar bears also shared the ability and willingness to scavenge, which researchers believe has enabled both groups to thrive in the Arctic.
The sea stars opportunistically fed on dead pelagic organisms that sank to the seafloor, meaning they had to hunt less often. Similarly, polar bears can scavenge on whales that wash up dead, which can sustain them for weeks or even months, researchers wrote in the study.
The team believes that the new findings highlight the importance of seafloor food chains in many other marine food webs. Pterasteridae sea stars are found in almost all marine ecosystems, and if they are as successful elsewhere as they are in the Arctic, they could turn out to be one of the ocean’s most successful predators, researchers wrote.
Winter storm live updates: Arctic blast snarls U.S. holiday travel
Strong southerly winds ahead of the storm over the Great Lakes is funneling ocean water inland in portions of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coast. This is piling water against south-, southeast- and east-facing coastlines. Coastal flood warnings line much of the Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Maine coastline for water levels up to about 2 feet above normally dry land.
In New York, warnings are in effect for the Bronx, Northwest Suffolk, Northern Queens and Northern Nassau counties. The National Weather Service warns the flooding may result in “numerous road closures and cause widespread flooding of low lying property including parking lots, parks, lawns and homes/businesses with basements near the waterfront.”
Massive ‘bomb cyclone’ rain storm to be followed by rush of Arctic air
By Terry Eliasen, Meteorologist, WBZ-TV Exec. Weather Producer
BOSTON — It’s the most wonderful time of the year!!
But getting there this year. . . not so magical.
I am guessing you may have one more gift to buy or perhaps still need to make a run to the grocery store? Or maybe you are one of those lucky folks who are hopping in a plane, train or automobile in the next 24 hours? Welp. . . all I can say is, good luck, take it slow and stay calm!
There is a massive storm forming as we speak. Perhaps you have heard some call it a “bomb cyclone.” While the term seems like a load of hype, something meant to make headlines, it is rooted in truth. Bombogenesis occurs when an area of low pressure drops at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. This is something that typically happens during a powerful nor’easter once or twice a year.
Read more: What is a bomb cyclone?
This time, it is occurring to our west, with a storm heading up into Canada. And, while folks in the upper Midwest are getting all the blinding snow, we here in New England are on the “warm side” this time. Sounds like a nice place to be, but, as you will soon find out, we will have our own wild weather to deal with.
CBS Boston
First and foremost, let’s make sure we are all prepared for what’s NEXT!
If you have any inflatables or loose holiday items in your yard, you will need to secure them or bring them in immediately! Your 20-foot Santa will be somebody else’s lawn decoration otherwise.
While we don’t expect widespread power outages, it is still a good idea to make sure your phones are charged and the generator is ready to go.
And, if your home or yard is prone to flooding, check the gutters, storm drains and sump pump just in case – we are expecting 1-3″ of water.
CBS Boston
TIMELINE:
7 p.m. Thursday
The rain arrives, light to moderate, shouldn’t have too big of an impact on travel just yet. Winds start to pick up, gusting over 20 mph out of the east. Some wet snow is possible above 1,000 feet in central and western Mass., but it won’t last long.
CBS Boston
Overnight:
The rain becomes heavy around and after midnight. Between midnight and dawn, we get waves of torrential downpours and the winds steadily increase out of the south-southeast.
6 a.m. Friday
CBS Boston
A torrential, windswept soaking rain. Southeast wind gusts 40-60 mph and rainfall coming in sideways. Lots of giant puddles and hydroplaning hazards on the roadways.
CBS Boston
11 a.m. Friday
The rain becomes more scattered in nature with smaller lines of downpours here and there. We get a brief “break” from the strongest winds, although we will still have frequent gusts between 30-50 mph. At this point the worst is over, most of the rain has fallen, but we still have several more hours of scattered, gusty showers.
CBS Boston
This is also when the coastal flood threat is highest, between 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with the high tide rolling in. We will see minor coastal flooding in the southeast and southerly facing beaches with some pockets of moderate flooding and inundation.
CBS Boston
5:30 p.m. Friday
The rain tapers off by late afternoon and the cold, Arctic air starts to rush in. There may be a few snow showers or squalls with this wind shift and sudden temperature drop.
CBS Boston
The winds will shift to the west-southwest and actually pick up again, gusting 40-60 mph. For some inland folks, this will be the timeframe with the strongest winds of the day.
CBS Boston
Friday night will be all about the cold. The harshest air of the season thus far will rush in behind the storm. . . the wind gusts will drop overnight to between 15-35 mph, but that will be enough to make it feel like it is below zero by Saturday morning.
We are not all that concerned about a flash freeze given how strong the wind will be. The winds will work to dry things out very quickly, so most roads should be mainly dry as the colder air pours in. Just beware that there could be some leftover water in your driveway or deck that could ice up Friday evening.
CBS Boston
So, it won’t be a white Christmas for most of us this year…BUT, there is one spot that still has a shot. Believe it or not it is Cape Cod and the Islands! Late Friday night and during the day Saturday, there will be some ocean-effect snow showers that will be close to or over this area. It is possible that a light accumulation could happen down there. . . just hours before Christmas morning!
The Patriots game on Saturday afternoon will be frigid. Temperatures will be stuck in the 20s and wind gusts 20-30 mph will make it feel like the single digits!
And, finally, Christmas Day will be quiet and cold. . . less wind than Saturday but still enough of a breeze to leave a bite in the air.
CBS Boston
The WBZ Weather Team will keep you updated throughout the storm and the holiday weekend. Please stay tuned and stay safe! Happy Holidays!
Arctic blast threatens flash freeze Friday in D.C. and then subzero wind chills
Friday’s highest temperatures will come before dawn. It’s the weird kind of day that temperatures begin dropping on fierce winds once the sun is up and keep doing so until it goes back down. By Friday evening, dangerously cold wind chills near zero will grip to the entire region.
The Arctic front will carry very powerful winds into areas. The National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. Friday for potential wind gusts up to 50 mph. “Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down. A few power outages may result,” the agency warned.
A wind chill advisory is also in effect from 1 p.m. Friday until 10 a.m. Saturday. Wind chills as cold as minus-10 are expected in the metro area, with values closer to minus-20 north and west. Frostbite can strike exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes in these kinds of conditions.
While the focus is cold, the Arctic front could also deliver a little snow and the potential for a flash freeze as it moves by Friday morning — possibly creating areas of hazardous travel. The front will certainly bring the D.C. area the coldest Christmas holiday since at least 1989.
Showers along the Arctic front will sweep across the area between roughly 6 a.m. and noon Friday. Temperatures may cool quickly enough for some snow to fall as cold air spills westward.
The big story will be how fast temperatures fall. Here’s a timeline:
5 to 7 a.m.: Temperatures hover near 40 as the Arctic front races this way from the west. Winds gust upward of 40 mph while a few showers develop.
7 to 9 a.m.: The cold front punches through western parts of the area and rapidly progresses eastward to near the District. Temperatures fall quickly through the 30s. Showers may be locally heavy as the front passes, with even a small chance of some thunder and small hail. Winds gust upward of 40 mph with isolated tree damage and power outages possible.
9 to 11 a.m.: Front races through areas east of Interstate 95. Any lingering rain showers may turn briefly to snow as temperatures fall into the mid-20s to near 30. However, it’s uncertain how much, if any, snow will materialize. At most, a dusting could occur.
If it’s snowing as temperatures fall below 32 degrees and/or the pavement remains wet from earlier rain, slick spots could form on roads. However, if precipitation ends before temperatures fall below freezing, strong winds may help dry pavement, minimizing the flash-freeze threat. Wind chills fall through the teens, with winds gusting near 40 mph.
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Any snow should have ended and skies trend clearer. By 1 p.m., temperatures range from the teens to the 20s, northwest to southeast. Gusts are around 35-45 mph.
1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Temperatures fall off to the teens areawide by around sunset, under mainly clear skies. Wind chills could be within several degrees of zero by midafternoon, before dipping below zero areawide by nightfall. Winds are still gusting around 35 mph.
This is as strong a signal as I’ve ever seen in the flash freeze component of WSSI (which is currently capped at Moderate for that specific component). A little choppiness due to the time resolution of NDFD data, but about as large and continuous a swath as it’s ever produced. pic.twitter.com/Wh2tHXqVWI
— Alex Lamers (@AlexJLamers) December 22, 2022
If travel is a must Friday afternoon into Friday night, prepare for the possibility of being stuck in extreme cold and high winds. Carry a winter emergency kit. Temperatures are expected to be about 35 to 40 degrees colder than 24 hours prior, and that’s without the wind chill.
“[I]t will be dangerously cold,” the National Weather Service forecast office serving the region wrote. “Even into the metros we could see wind chills into the negatives Friday evening and into Friday night.”
By Saturday, we wake up to wind chills as cold as minus-5 to minus-20. Wind chills of minus-40 to minus-50 are possible in high elevations of West Virginia.
The general forecast for Friday into the weekend has trended colder in the past two days. The forecast now calls for lows in the single digits and lower teens. These are near-record lows for the date across the region.
Washington’s record low of 5 in 1983 is probably safe, but a temperature of 11 or lower would be as cold as it has been in December since 2000.
Saturday’s high temperatures are more likely to threaten records. They may struggle to surpass the low 20s, close to the Dec. 24 record of 23 for the District, set in 1989. Well north and west of the city, parts of the area may stay in the teens.
Winds blowing around 10 to 20 mph, with gusts around 30 mph through Saturday, keep wind chills in the single digits to near 10 at the most.
Conditions are similar but slightly milder for Christmas morning. Lows are mainly in the low and middle teens with wind chills in the single digits. Christmas Day highs should reach the mid- and upper 20s.
Both days are mostly to partly sunny, with perhaps an outside shot at a passing snow flurry.
Temperatures continue to plummet across the central US as arctic air pushes south and east this morning
CNN
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The major winter storm crossing the nation is causing dramatic declines in temperatures across the central US as arctic air pushes south and east.
Some highlights:
Casper, Wyoming
(Mountain time)
In less than 18 hours, from 7:40 a.m. Wednesday to 1:35 a.m. Thursday, the temperature dropped 70 degrees.
7:40 a.m. Wednesday: 28 degrees.
8 a.m. Wednesday: 3 degrees.
Casper dropped 25 degrees in just 20 minutes Wednesday.
1:35 a.m. Thursday: minus 42 degrees
6:00 a.m. Thursday: minus 35 degrees with a wind chill of minus 76 degrees.
LIVE NEWS: Winter storm and severe cold sweeps across the US
Denver
(Mountain time)
Dropped 65 degrees in 16 hours.
12:58 p.m. Wednesday: 50 degrees.
4:58 a.m. Thursday: minus 15 degrees.
The largest plunge came when temperatures dropped 47 degrees in just two hours Wednesday from 46 degrees at 3:58 p.m. to minus 1 degree at 5:58 p.m.
In pictures: Winter storm impacts the US
Amarillo, Texas
(Central time)
Dropped 42 degrees in six hours.
11:53 p.m. Wednesday: 41 degrees.
5:53 a.m. Thursday: minus 1 degree.
The current wind chill this morning is minus 7 degrees.
Wichita, Kansas
(Central time)
Dropped 36 degrees in nine hours.
9:53 p.m. Wednesday: 34 degrees.
6:53 a.m. Thursday: minus 2 degrees.
However the temperature dropped 20 degrees from 32 to 12 in just one hour between 11:53 p.m. and 12:53 a.m. Wednesday night.
Temperatures are still falling and are expected to bottom out near minus 4 later Thursday morning.
Kansas City, Missouri
(Central time)
Dropped 30 degrees in 6 hours.
11:54 p.m. (Wednesday): 32 degrees.
5:54 a.m. (Thursday): 2 degrees.
And temperatures are forecast to continue falling this morning, bottoming out near minus 7 by midday.
Oklahoma City
(Central time)
Dropped 34 degrees in 14 hours.
4:52 p.m. (Wednesday): 42 degrees.
6:52 a.m. (Thursday): 8 degrees.
The biggest plunge was 23 degrees in just 2 hours early this morning when temperatures dropped from 37 at 2:52 a.m. to 14 degrees at 4:52 a.m.
Temperatures are expected to bottom out near 4 degrees later Thursday morning.
Bomb cyclone blizzard to unleash Arctic blast, freezing temperatures
“Brief bursts of heavy snow, strong wind gusts, and rapidly falling temperatures will likely lead to sudden whiteouts, flash freezing, and icy roads,” the National Weather Service wrote. “Even in areas unaffected by snow, dangerous cold is expected.”
Nearly 70 million people are under winter storm watches or warnings in the Midwest, Great Lakes and Appalachians, and blizzard warnings have recently been hoisted in Minnesota.
Snow and strong winds could affect major airport hubs, including Chicago’s O’Hare International and the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County airports. The combination of snow and winds gusting over 40 mph will result in blowing and drifting snow that reduces visibility to near zero at times, particularly in a zone from western Kansas and Nebraska northward to Minnesota extending eastward through western New York.
“Whiteout conditions are expected … with travel becoming very difficult or impossible,” wrote the National Weather Service in Minneapolis. “This event could be life-threatening if you are stranded.”
Cities that could deal with blizzard conditions between Thursday and Friday — at least for a short interval — include Kansas City, Mo., St. Louis, Des Moines, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit and Buffalo.
In some places near the Great Lakes, including Buffalo, wind gusts could reach 50 to 65 mph, causing significant tree damage and power outages amid dangerously low temperatures.
Locations from the Rockies eastward that avoid snowfall will not escape near record-cold temperatures running some 40 degrees or more below normal. Wind chill watches, advisories and warnings affect about 90 million people, extending from the Canadian border to Texas and as far east as Tennessee, with subfreezing temperatures likely to plunge down to the Gulf of Mexico. In some places, temperatures will be the lowest in decades during the month of December.
Over the north central United States, actual air temperatures of minus-20 to minus-40 are expected, and wind chills could flirt with minus-60. The National Weather Service in Bismarck, N.D., is calling the cold “life-threatening.”
“The dangerously cold wind chills could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 5 minutes,” it wrote.
That cold will make it to the East Coast on Friday, abruptly arriving as a flash freeze that could send temperatures plummeting 25 degrees or more in just a few hours. Coming after a morning of heavy rainfall and perhaps a short burst of snow, the flash freeze may turn some roadways into treacherous sheets of ice, potentially leading to extremely hazardous travel on major thoroughfares like Interstates 95, 84 and 81.
In the Northeast, the same storm system — which will intensify so rapidly it will qualify as a weather “bomb” — will push water against the coastline, causing coastal flooding.
An upper-air disturbance, characterized by a pocket of high altitude cold air, low pressure and spin, will dive out of British Columbia and Alberta over the central Plains on Wednesday and Thursday. It will explosively strengthen a surface low pressure zone pushing across the Plains, transforming it into a powerhouse storm system that will sweep up the Ohio Valley. By Friday night, it’ll be cruising into Quebec and Ontario en route to the Hudson Bay.
The storm will rapidly intensify as a bomb cyclone, a designation given to the most intense mid-latitude weather systems. Its pressure will drop from 1003 millibars Thursday night near the Indiana-Ohio border to 968 millibars Friday night — which is the approximate pressure of a Category 2 or 3 hurricane — over southern Quebec. Mid-latitude storms whose pressure falls 24 millibars in 24 hours are considered meteorological bombs — this storm’s pressure is projected to fall 35 millibars in that time. The lower the pressure, the stronger the storm.
Since low pressure systems spin counterclockwise, the system will draw in a tongue of mild air on its eastern side. That will keep most of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast predominantly rain. The exception will be in the Appalachians, specifically the Alleghenies of western Maryland, western Virginia and eastern West Virginia, where cold air entrenched in the mountains will be difficult to scour out.
The National Weather Service is warning of 4 to 7 inches of snow east of the Allegheny front, in addition to a quarter inch of ice from freezing rain. This will occur the first half of Thursday. That’s just round one of the storm before the flash freeze arrives Friday — not just for mountains, but also areas toward the coastal plain — including Washington and Baltimore.
A major Plains and Great Lakes blizzard
Farther west, however, the Plains, Upper Midwest and even parts of the Mid-South, perhaps as far south as Nashville, will see snow — and for some, a lot of it. The jackpot, which could feature a foot or more, looks to fall in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, with a secondary maximum downwind of Lakes Erie and Ontario.
Even in areas that only see a few inches of snow, travel is expected to still be extremely dangerous because of high winds that will limit visibility.
St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha and the Twin Cities are under winter storm warnings, with a general 2 to 6 inches of snow likely to fall — lesser south, more north. West of Minneapolis, a blizzard warning is in effect; the combination of 40-50 mph winds and moderate to heavy snow could make for whiteout conditions during the height of the storm Thursday night into Friday, while the wind and cold could lead to wind chills below minus-30.
In Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis, a winter storm watch is in effect. That’s where confidence is lesser on just how much snow will fall. In the Windy City, totals will likely range between 3 and 6 inches, but will walk a steep gradient; accumulation will quickly climb as one drifts toward Michigan, with a foot or more likely falling in parts of the mitten.
In the storm’s wake, cold air blowing out of the west-northwest across Lakes Erie and Ontario could brew some lake-effect snows, although it’s not a classic wind direction for extreme accumulations, since it doesn’t blow lengthwise down the lakes. Instead, a foot or so is likely over the weekend, though meteorologists are still fine-tuning the details.
“Travel for the holiday weekend, including Friday, could be very difficult to impossible at times” through Monday, wrote the Weather Service in Buffalo.
Behind the storm, a plume of Siberian air will be shunted southward into the United States, lasting about 72 hours and affecting nearly everyone east of the Rockies. It will first creep across the Canadian border into early Wednesday, blasting south as a cold front that will drop temperatures 40 degrees or more in just under six hours.
The biting chill will blast into Denver on Wednesday night, dropping temperatures from 40 degrees to zero in just a matter of hours. By Thursday morning, it will be near minus-10 with wind chills around minus-30.
“Life Threatening Cold Arrives Late Wednesday,” tweeted the Weather Service office serving Denver. “We promise that’s not an exaggeration. This is likely to be the coldest day in 32 years in Denver so many people have not experienced a cold snap like this.”
Over the Dakotas, temperatures could dip to near minus-30 on Friday night. In Bismarck, they’ve been below zero since Sunday, and will stay that way until Christmas. Wind chills of minus-40 are likely. Breaking down in a vehicle without an emergency kit on hand could very quickly become deadly.
That cold will plunge southward, arriving in St. Louis on Thursday. Highs will peak in the mid-30s with snow, quickly falling to around minus-3 at night. Friday won’t climb above the single digits.
In Oklahoma City, Thursday won’t make it above 11 or 12 degrees. In the Texas Panhandle, temperatures could drop from highs near 50 on Wednesday to the teens by midnight. Locally, such fronts are known as “blue northers.”
The cold will blast all the way to the Gulf Coast by Thursday afternoon, transforming the ocean into a seemingly smoking lagoon. That will be due to “Arctic sea smoke,” or a unique type of fog which forms when frigid air blows over warmer waters.
Flash freeze in the eastern U.S.
The cold will reach the East Coast on Friday, but will do so abruptly. That will spell a danger for those driving on area interstates, particularly between Washington, D.C., and Hartford, Conn.
Temperatures on Friday morning will be in the 40s to near 50, with rain likely to fall as moisture swirls into the parent low pressure system to the northwest. As the cold front comes through around noontime, readings will plummet into the 20s, with temperature drops of 25 degrees or more likely in a three-hour window. At the same time, a very brief period of snow is possible.
Crews won’t be able to pretreat the roadways due to the rain, and any lingering moisture and puddles could quickly turn to ice. That could leave roadways highly treacherous. There’s some chance strong winds help dry roads before they can ice over, but pockets of dangerous travel are a risk.