Accuweather is calling for even more brutally cold temperatures through the Midwest in the next few days. The northernmost areas will have sub-zero temperatures through the day while the midsection will see "balmy" single digits. And it is going to be a very, very cold day for football on Sunday:
The Midwest Regional News story reports two shots of frigid Arctic air by Saturday will spread out of the northern Plains into the Midwest before reaching the East Coast and the Deep South Sunday.
The combination of cold air and frigid winds will produce potentially dangerous conditions for anyone venturing outdoors for extended periods.Motorists traveling across the northern Plains and Upper Midwest should prepare a winter emergency kit for their vehicle.
The Severe Weather Center lists the widespread wind chill advisories and warnings in effect from the Dakotas to northern Indiana.
International Falls, Minn., this weekend will live up to its nickname "The Icebox of America." Temperatures through Monday will fail to rise to zero, and overnight lows will be at least 20 degrees below zero with the wind creating RealFeel® temperatures of 40 degrees below zero.
RealFeel® temperatures overnight across the northern and central Plains include:
Flag Island, Minn.: -48°
Warroad, Minn.: -44°
Bemidji, Minn.: -43°
Devils Lake, N.D.: -41°
Spencer, Iowa: -33°It will be bitterly cold Sunday for both National Football League Conference Championship games. The RealFeel® temperature will be hovering around zero when the New England Patriots take on the San Diego Chargers in the early game at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass.
In the late game at the "Frozen Tundra", better known as Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants at kickoff will deal with an actual temperature in the single digits and a RealFeel® temperature near 10 below zero.
I just stepped outside a few minutes ago. It is currently a tropical 7° F under absolutely clear skies with virtually no breeze. It's going to be a three dog plus an electric blanket plus a Salamander** night tonight. In honor of the occasion, it seems fitting to think of warmer times. Ten Degrees and Getting Colder sounds pretty good right now. (Gordon Lightfoot song at that last link.)
** UPDATE: The Salamander reference is a joke, folks. Those are not something one uses in a tightly enclosed structure like a house.
Gaius, I hope you mean the electric kind! The ones I use on my job sites would kill a family dead. Kerosene needs a lot of ventilation. You know, like on the job where the house has walls but no windows, only plastic?
It is so cold that I actually worry that someone might use something that dangerous to try to keep warm. It really is brutal right now. It dropped 5 degrees in the few minutes since I posted the original entry.
So, building a fire with charcoal briquettes is wrong? Yes it is very wrong.
I do have a propane salamander that I have measured only 35 ppm of CO. That is still not good long term but it is useful to thaw out a frozen house.
My comment disappeared into the ether. Second try. 12 and overcast outside my house. 72 inside though. All I have for heat is an old A.Y. McDonald coal stove in the basement. No insulation in the attic so when the fire goes out it gets cold in here fast. The forecast isn’t for much worse than it has been here all week. At least we are not getting the below zero weather. There is a big difference between zero and 10 below. It’s been a hard winter. Continuous snow cover since about the 10th of December. I sure wish we would get a break.
We have a minus 5 degrees right now at 7 AM. It’s a moustache freezer out there. They are predicting that it will get up to 12 for a “high”.
And yeah, the snow and ice have not melted away since the first snowfall.
With the sun just coming up it has warmed up to a nice -13 right now, supposed to get up near zero once it warms up.
At least I do not have to snowblow today.
Yeah, snowblowing in subzero weather is horrible. Been there, done that.
Drudge linked an article from the Baltimore Sun about a global warming protest. In the article the author added a caution about the Drudge link. What follows is hundreds of comments ridiculing the event. They are hilarious.
I guess its hard to sell GW in the winter.
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bay_environment/blog/2008/01/global_warming_protest_snowed.html
If it is not a good idea to put a link in let me know, I’m laughing myself silly at the comments.
Not a problem. I just have the filters set so any link has to be approved before the comment shows up.