A fierce cold wave engulfing the majority East Asia is busy felling long-standing records.
Low temperature benchmarks are falling across North and South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam, to name just five, with -28C (-18.4F), -19C (-2.2F), -4C (24.8F)–at sea level, 5C (41F) and 0C (32F) logged, respectively.
The Hong Kong Observatory issued both a ‘frost warning’ and a ‘cold weather alert’ on Sunday. While Taiwan’s -4C (24.8F), registered at Emei, was a nationwide record low for a non-mountain area, according to the Central Weather Bureau.
Sea level frosts have been suffered in China, a nation which has suffered historic cold in recent weeks.
While in Japan, the mercury in Hokkaido has plunged to -24.3C (-11.7F), with widespread frosts sweeping the likes of Honshu. Miyama, Kyoto observed -6.6C (20.1F) on Monday, the locale’s lowest December temperature on record (tying with 1980).
December 19 lows (JMA)
…FELLING ALL-TIME SNOWFALL RECORDS ACROSS JAPAN
Japan’s freezing lows are being accompanied by heavy snows.
“Jaw-dropping” totals battered swatches of the country through Monday.
Over just a 24-hour period, a whopping 231 cm (7.6 ft) buried Niigata Prefecture, 193 cm (6.3 ft) fell in Amori, 170 cm (5.6 ft) in Niigata, 154cm (5 ft) in Hokkaido with 148cm (4.9 ft) accumulating in Fukushima — all much heavier than originally forecast.
A host of all-time records have been broken, including in Tadmi, Nagaoka and Kaneyama, and also a December-record, in Hijiori:
More snow is on the way.
Freezing temperatures are also driving into the Tropics.
Stay tuned for updates.
HISTORIC SNOW IN MOSCOW
Following the impressive dumpings of the past seven days, more heavy snow descended on the Russian capital on Sunday, disrupting traffic, delaying flights and leaving sidewalks buried.
Parts of Moscow have seen snow pile up over a foot high, something not usually observed until the end of February, according to the Fobos weather center; the previous years such mid-Dec depths were reached were back in 1989 and 1993.
Some 119,000 workers and over 12,500 vehicles were deployed to clear the snow, according to Moscow city authorities, as an intense single-day snowstorm event not seen in decades –as far back as 80 years according to some reports– gripped the city.
“It’s a snow Armageddon: in Moscow … you can’t walk or drive,” state-controlled Channel One said in a report.
Sidewalks were left completely covered in snow with snow-clearing equipment prioritizing roads to ease the heavily congested traffic. Air traffic was also impacted, with many flights either delayed or cancelled across Moscow airports.
CHRISTMAS FREEZE: EXTREME COLD/SNOW TO BLAST NORTH AMERICA OVER THE HOLIDAYS
An extreme Arctic blast is on course punish hundreds-of-millions of Americans this week, from Washington to Florida, with record-low temperatures for many and a dangerous blizzard readying to hammer the Great Lakes (again).
There is even a Winter Storm Warning for Hawaii, with 14 inches of snow forecast on Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea.
The intensity will be reminiscent of the February 2021 event that stressed energy grids, most notably in Texas where multiday power grid failure resulted in the deaths of at least 702 people.
‘Winter’ is already gripping practically all of North America–barring Southern Florida, and the cold is getting extreme, too. The Yukon, Canada –for example– plunged to -47C (-52F) on Sunday, at Pelly Ranch; while -34C (-29F) was logged at Peter Sinks, UT.
‘Falling iguanas for Christmas’ will be the story in Florida later in the week, as the churning mass of Arctic air deep into the Sunshine State, delivering December frosts to not only the Panhandle but also parts of Central Florida, possibly even Orlando itself.
Looking elsewhere, the Dakotas should brace for a dangerously cold and snowy festive period.
Bismarck is already on pace to set a winter snowfall record.
The city’s official snow total from the most-recent storm was 20.3 inches. The 10.4 inches that fell on Tuesday alone set a city record for the date, with the moisture in the snow breaking a benchmark that had stood more than a century.
The capital city added 3 inches on Wednesday, 4.1 inches on Thursday and 2.8 inches on Friday. This makes it 46.5 inches of snow since the onset of fall, which is three times more than normal and already, according to NWS data, a new record for Oct 1 – Dec 31, besting the 45.8 inches from 2008 (solar minimum of cycle 23) with additional inches expected this week.
The cold will also be challenging, and will last throughout the holiday.
Daily highs in Bismarck are forecast to hold below zero (F) Monday through Friday, with overnight lows reaching the -20s (-29C to -35C) late in the workweek, with the wind chill plunging into the -30s (-35C to -40C).
Temperatures that low can freeze exposed skin in a matter of minutes.
The polar air arrives as an earlier storm system in the NE gradually winds down after burying parts of the region under two feet of snow. More than 80,000 customers in New England were still without power as of Sunday morning.
The next polar front will bring “extreme and prolonged freezing conditions”, the NWS said in a special weather statement Sunday.
The federal Weather Prediction Center has warned of a “massive expanse of frigid temperatures from the Northern Rockies/Northern Plains to the Midwest through the middle of the week, and then reaching the Gulf Coast and much of the Eastern U.S. by Friday and into the weekend.”
By Thursday night, temperatures will plunge as low as -10.6C (13F) in Jackson, Mississippi; and around -15C (5F) in Nashville, Tennessee; while up north, in Montana, life threatening wind chills of -45.6C (-50F) are possible — not a typo.
GFS 2m Temperature Anomalies (C) Dec 18 – Dec 25 [tropicaltidbits.com].
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