Snow Showers Today, Sunny Saturday

Did it strike anybody else that December's weather was more... weathery than usual? A succession of storms drove three 50 degree temperature swings last month and one more 50 degree drop that started on Sunday and bottomed out yesterday. Curious, we calculated the standard deviation of day-to-day high temperature changes for all Decembers since 1971. Sure enough, last month, with a standard deviation of 11.2 degrees, turned out to be the most variable in 25 years, and third most variable since 1971. For the record the most variable December in our data was 1982, with a standard deviation of 12.4 degrees. The least variable was the very boring 1974, in which 21 days were within five degrees of normal.

On to the future! Today is already warmer and more gray than yesterday. A bit of white may fall from the sky this afternoon while the temperature should hold steady in the mid 30s.

The clouds and snow are from the trailing edge of an Alberta Clipper that is passing well north of the city today. Once that disturbance is out of the way the skies should clear for the weekend. Tomorrow should be sunny, cool and breezy. The high will again be in the mid 30s but the wind will make it feel ten degrees cooler. The wind dies down on Sunday, which should start sunny but may involve rain showers by evening.

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By Joe Schumacher in News on January 2, 2009 11:41 AM

Comments [rss]

Shinobi Shaw

GLOBAL WARMING (although they are calling it 'Climate Change' these days because it's convenient is a complete fraud.

The world naturally cools and warms in cycles (such as the high warm period of the Middle Ages) it's natural.

The world has been cooling since 1998 (gradually) and we are heading towards a Global cooling period.

THEY are using Global Warming as a scheme to TAX people with CARBON TAX (taxing your car emissions to even ridiculous things such as Cow flatulence) and also for people to buy CARBON CREDITS directly from the Private Central Banks themselves.

snoopydog

THE CHART IS BULLSHIT! The straight line "average" is just that, an average between the highs and the lows. So of course there will straight lining of the temperatures. If anything there might be a slight rise in the minimum temperature at the latter part of the month.

The world has been warming since the last "little ice age." Western Europe experienced a general cooling of the climate between the years 1150 and 1460 and a very cold climate between 1560 and 1850 that brought dire consequences to its peoples.

What brought about that cooling? Less dinosaurs? Less Latin Americans? Less eating of fast foods? Less use of plastics and internet connections? Smaller cars? Switching to low tar cigarettes? So f you people about global warming trends and look at the bigger picture.

pete

Have fun with Global Warming (extreme temperature changes/extreme weather).

snoopydog

The average person can't do anything about the weather, but I've said it before, and I'll say it again. It's about time for the US to invade Canada and stop these Alberta clippers. Without them we would be fine.