Cold Wave Crescendos with a Frigid Weekend

[Sanguine]

One of the sharpest cold fronts in recent years tore across the central and eastern U.S. this past weekend, leaving millions of Americans shivering in its wake. Packing wind chills below -50°F at times, the cold punch was a fitting climax to more than a week of off-and-on chill over large parts of the northern U.S. Extreme temperature contrasts were the norm with this front: for example, noontime readings across Georgia on Sunday ranged from 37°F with rain at Dalton, in the far north, to 83°F at Albany, in the far south. More than 1000 flights were cancelled on Friday and Saturday as bursts of snow struck in and near Denver and Chicago and a brief, high-impact round of freezing rain hit parts of the mid-Atlantic early Saturday morning. A horrifying 67-vehicle crash on ice-glazed I-95 in Baltimore, MD, killed two and injured more than 20 others, at least two in critical condition....

...A Texas-sized temperature swing
Grand prize for the most dramatic frontal passage goes to West Texas, where the cold air mass plowed south on Saturday in the form of a classic “blue norther” (sometimes called a Texas norther). A mesonet station about 6 miles west of Denver City, TX, reported a temperature drop of 36°F in just 10 minutes--from 21°C (70°F) to 1°C (34°F)--accompanied by winds of 40 knots (46 mph) gusting to 69 knots (79 mph). Thanks to Anton Seimon (Appalachian State University) for finding this nugget.

Temperatures across Texas at 4:00 pm CST Saturday ranged from 6°F at Dumas (nearby Dalhart sank to a record-low –8°F by Sunday morning) to a record-hot 92°F at McAllen. Midland set a record high of 80°F on Saturday afternoon, but by 11:59 pm CST, the city’s official temperature had plummeted to 18°F, just one degree short of the day’s record low! It was Midland's biggest one-day temperature spread for any date in records going back to 1930. More than a century ago, a blue norther on November 11, 1911 (11/11/11) managed to pull off the twin-record-in-one-day trick in both Oklahoma City, OK (83°F and 17°F) and Springfield, MO (80°F and 13°F). Both of these Oklahoma City records still stand...

https://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/cold-wave-crescendos-with-a-frigid-weekend

Pretty amazing weekend!

[Free Vulcan]

Temperatures across Texas at 4:00 pm CST Saturday ranged from 6°F at Dumas (nearby Dalhart sank to a record-low –8°F by Sunday morning) to a record-hot 92°F at McAllen. Midland set a record high of 80°F on Saturday afternoon, but by 11:59 pm CST, the city’s official temperature had plummeted to 18°F, just one degree short of the day’s record low! It was Midland's biggest one-day temperature spread for any date in records going back to 1930. More than a century ago, a blue norther on November 11, 1911 (11/11/11) managed to pull off the twin-record-in-one-day trick in both Oklahoma City, OK (83°F and 17°F) and Springfield, MO (80°F and 13°F). Both of these Oklahoma City records still stand...

Record hot and cold temps the same day! Surest sign of global warming I've ever seen! /s

[Lando Lincoln]

-14 degrees here this morning.  Delightful.

Those temperature swings in Texas are amazing.

[mystery-ak]

-14 degrees here this morning.  Delightful.

Those temperature swings in Texas are amazing.

I'm freezing!

[Free Vulcan]

Also happened to notice Sat. that in Missouri, the bootheel was about 75 degrees, while the NW corner was about 5 degrees. Pretty much like that everywhere.

[Applewood]

Saturday, we started out with freezing rain for several hours.  By afternoon it changed to rain as the temperature tose from the high teens to a high of 60 occurring close to midnight Sunday.  Then all day Sunday, the  temperature dropped, the rain changed back to freezing rain, then snow.  In the span of more than 24 hours,  we went from hazardous driving to flooding to hazardous driving again.  Right now it's 22 degrees.

A disc jockey once said, if you don't like the weather here, just wait five minutes.  It'll change. 

[Fishrrman]

Have there been any new reports from the Dakota Access pipeline protest, recently?

How's the weather in Cannonball, ND?