Over the past 72 hours, a smattering of low temperature records have tumbled across the Western U.S. where the month of October is currently tracking well-below normal — a scenario that’s now set to intensify, according to latest GFS runs.
Letting the weather maps do the talking, temperature departures of as much as 20C below the season average will grip the western half of the CONUS this week.
Tuesday and Wednesday are looking particularly troublesome as powerful mass of Arctic air is forecast to ride unusually-far south on the back of a weak and wavy ‘meridional‘ jet stream flow:
TUES, OCT 12:
GFS 2m Temperature Anomalies (C) Tues, Oct 12 [tropicaltidbits.com].
WEDS, OCT 13:
GFS 2m Temperature Anomalies (C) Weds, Oct 13 [tropicaltidbits.com].
The influx of polar cold will linger well into into the weekend, and will also threaten historic mid-October snow — particularly across the higher elevations of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado:
GFS Total Snowfall (inches) Oct 11 – Oct 27 [tropicaltidbits.com].
The Cheyenne and Riverton Offices of the National Weather Service (NWS), for example, have issued a winter storm watch this week for most of northern Wyoming and some areas in the southern and southeastern parts of the state.
The agency said up to 2 feet of snow is possible in mountain areas between Monday night and Wednesday.
Flurries have already been falling and sticking in many regions for the first time since spring, including Government Camp:
…AND EUROPE
Pervasive cold has been gripping much of the European continent, too, compounding the ongoing energy crisis.
According to the Slovenský hydrometeorologický ústav (SHMÚ) on Facebook, record cold has swept Slovakia.
Lows of -5.5C were registered in the mountain valleys, but unprecedented October cold was also noted in the East Slovak lowland. The Walnut Station, for example, logged -1.1C, while at many other stations, records have been broken, concludes the FB post.
And as with the Western U.S., the mercury is forecast to plunge even further this week.
Looking at the latest GFS runs, departures will sink some 16C below the seasonal average for many.
Here’s the picture for Italy and the Balkans on Monday, October 11:
GFS 2m Temperature Anomalies (C) Mon, Oct 11 [tropicaltidbits.com].
Zooming out, the continent as whole can expect further intrusions of Arctic air as the month progresses — the longer-range outlook is currently showing a truly frigid close to the month (excluding far southern regions):
GFS 2m Temperature Anomalies (C) Oct 23 – Oct 27 [tropicaltidbits.com].
In line with the descending cold, record snowfall threatens the higher elevations, particularly across the Alps, Scandinavia, and the northern UK:
GFS Total Snowfall (inches) Oct 11 – Oct 27 [tropicaltidbits.com].
BRITS BANNED FROM DRIVING IN COLD WEATHER
In the latest example of government overreach, drivers in the UK will soon face fines and penalty points if caught driving in “cold weather”.
Rule 229 specifically sets out what drivers should do before setting off in wintry weather.
Alongside a number of perfectly reasonable requests, such as making sure your windscreen is free from snow/ice, there is also the rule stating that drivers will now risk a £60 fine and/or penalty points on their license if caught driving in the snow.
Motorists could find themselves in trouble with their insurance provider, too–an accident in the snow would now constitute a failure to abide by the Highway Code, and so in turn could lead to the insurer withholding payout.
As if house arrests and mask/vaccine mandates weren’t enough over the past 18 months, Brits will now have to watch for flakes in the air before headed out — an odd rule to introduce during these days of “catastrophic global warming” and “no more snow”.
‘HALO CME’ IMPACT EXPECTED TODAY
This could be the first head-on CME strike of young Solar Cycle 25.
On Saturday, Oct 9, an M1.6-class solar flare in the magnetic canopy of sunspot AR2882 hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth — SOHO coronagraphs recorded the storm cloud:
This is called a ‘halo CME’ because CMEs heading directly for Earth seem to form a 360-degree halo around the sun, explains Dr. Tony Phillips of spaceweather.com. CMEs heading directly away from Earth can form a halo, too, but that’s another story.
So far this year, dozens of CMEs have missed Earth — many of them were near misses, provoking no more than minor geomagnetic unrest as they passed by.
This time, however, the sun is shooting straight.
And while a direct hit by this cloud on October 11 threatens a geomagnetic storm, “this is not the Carrington Event,” stresses Dr Phillips. Storm levels should reach no more than G2 on a scale that goes all the way up to G5, meaning satellites and power grids should easily survive the impact; saying all that though, given earth’s ever-waning magnetosphere (due to an intensifying magnetic excursion) combined with the fact that this CME risks coupling with a coronal hole stream, well, things could get a little more interesting…
We don’t have long to wait.
Impact is expected today:
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