Temperature Swings

2013-01-26 17:29:00.000 – Steve Welsh,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist

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After a dusting of snow last night the morning started out very pleasant with temperatures between 5 and 10 below zero and just a light 20 mph breeze from the NW. The views were very pleasant although it’s a shock to see how little snow is left around the higher peaks with lots of rocks and sedge showing along with large patches of ice. Looking at the extended forecast it looks like we’ll be well above the freezing mark on Wednesday with rain likely too. January has certainly been a roller-coaster of a month with regard to the temperatures up here – last shift we hit 48 degrees, the start of this shift -35 and in a few days we may be back in the 40s – pretty impressive temperature swings.

I would also like to take this opportunity to dispel any rumors you may have heard about it being ‘too cold for us to go outside’ the other day or that it ‘was so cold that the thermometers broke’. Both of these rumors that have been going around are nothing more than that. In the grand scheme of things it really wasn’t that cold on Wednesday being some 8 degrees warmer that the record low for that day. It’s also interesting to see where the -35F we reached on Wednesday stacks up to extreme low temperatures recorded in each State – as you can see most have at some time experienced temperatures lower than we did the other day. As for wind chills well that’s another story.

Steve Welsh,  Weather Observer/IT Specialist