Coldest Day of the Year

Morning wind chills from weather.com

It isn't a creaking door or a Wilhelm scream but there is a Sound effect this morning. A Long Island Sound effect that is. The temperature difference between the waters of the Sound and the air above is large enough, and the wind is flowing in just the right direction, that a few snow flurries may fall over the eastern end of the island.

Closer to home, it is cold in the city. Not as cold as a bizarrely inaccurate Post article (who would have guessed?) would have us believe, but still cold enough to form a thin layer of ice on the Hudson. This afternoon's high will be a sunny, brisk 18. With the breeze the wind chill will run about ten degrees cooler than the actual temperature. The cold spell continues tomorrow when the afternoon high will only reach the low 20s. However, Saturday may have a midnight high temperature as an Alberta Clipper (and, might we just say, we are getting tired of typing Alberta Clipper this winter) pulls warmer air into the region.

The latter two-thirds of the holiday weekend are likely to feature a mix of clouds and snow. The cold will also loosen its steely grip. Right now it looks like the best chance of snow will be Sunday, but the Clipper may touch off a few showers through Monday morning. Highs Sunday and Monday will be near freezing. That's still about five degrees below normal during the climatologically coldest days of the year.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Joe Schumacher in News on January 16, 2009 11:39 AM

Comments [rss]

breaknight

HaHa ides of march!

Smacked down by J. Schumacher. Keep your hyperbolic angry white man conservatism out of the weather report!!!

ides_of_march

"Climate change" - what the enviro-socialists call "global warming" in the freezing cold winter to avoid looking like the agenda-driven crackpots they really are.

Joe Schumacher

Actually, substituting "climate change" for "global warming" was first suggested to the Bush administration by conservative political consultant Frank Luntz in 2002 because he believes the former sounds less alarming. Luntz now accepts the fact that the earth is warming and that humans are primarily responsible.

gothamistgal

Wow the coldest day of the year??? AMAZING!

Too bad there have only been 16 days so far this year.

So tired of people acting like winter has OH-EM-GEE NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!!!!!!!

Joe Schumacher

It was a joke. Today is actually the coldest day in nearly two years (Feb 5, 2007: hi-18 lo-8).

gossipgirl

I laughed.

jaycjay

"bizarrely inaccurate Post article"

What's bizarrely inaccurate about it? Eight sentences, I've read them all, and not one seems either bizarre or inaccurate.

Joe Schumacher

It's inaccurate because he's reporting that "Last night's temperatures plummeted to 5 degrees" when the low was actually 10 degrees. Then he says today's high will be 11 when AccuWeather, which appears to be his source for the forecast, was calling for a high of 20. AccuWeather is saying tomorrow will cool to 8 but the article says 2. Those numbers are all inaccurate and I would say bizarre because he's making them up rather than taking 30 seconds to verify them.

kane

I thought the same thing.

ma bell

yeah really. to me the gothamist saying this brings to mind an old statement saying something about a pot and a kettle. we get it...you don't like the post. no need to lie