Wind, Wind, Wind

Offshore Wind Turbines Making Clouds

Here's a great article from Sierra Club on Denmark's amazing use of wind power.

Denmark - Wind Energy Leader

Philae's Accomplishments

Philae Lander
Image Courtesy - ESA

Excellent summary of the Philae lander's discoveries on comet 67P during its short life there.  Article courtesy of Scientific American and Conversation.

Philae - 60 Hours

Touchdown!!

After an amazing journey, ESA's Rosetta Probe has planted its lander Philae on the surface of Comet 67P.  Check out the resources below:

- ScienceDaily.com article - ScienceDaily - Rosetta

Huge Bering Sea Storm

Stormy Bering Sea
Image Credit - USCG

Well, it's official.  The remnants of Typhoon Nuri have morphed into the most powerful storm in recorded history to affect the Bering Sea and Alaska.

AccuWeather.com has an excellent write-up of this massive storm.
AccuWeather - Bering Sea Storm

Icthyosaurs

Icthyosaurs
Image Credit - Scientific American

Recent big discovery of an amphibious icthyosaur.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141105131939.htm

Nuclear Fusion

Here's an intriguing article from Discover Magazine on nuclear fusion.
Fusion Breakthrough?

Bardarbunga Eruption

Image Credit - Daily Mail, UK

Iceland's Bardarbunga volcano is producing Iceland's largest eruption in several centuries.  Click the link to an excellent video from ScienceDaily.com.

Bardarbunga Eruption - Science Daily

The Wasp

Here's a picture of Typhoon Vongfong from the ISS.  Vongfong translates into English as, "The Wasp."  It's been wreaking havoc in the Mariana Islands and Okinawa.  Mainland Japan is next.

Typhoon Vongfong

Video from the ISS of Supertyphoon Vongfong

Here Come the Glorious Colors of Autumn!

Autumn Foliage - Reading, VT
Image Credit - Reading Government

Autumn is my favorite season.  The colors and the crisp weather have a lot to do with that.

Here's a great article from NOAA on the 'true colors' of autumn.

NOAA Article - Autumn Foliage Colors

Amazing video from Japan

Mount Ontake erupted in Japan on Saturday, September 27 (yes, today).  It just took place much earlier due to the time differential.

I saw this video first on Accuweather.com.  Awesome and scary at the same time!

Pretty amazing!

Two totally unrelated topics...

Two totally unrelated topics today...

1. This humorous article just caught my eye a few minutes ago.  I thought it appropriate since we've been learning about topographic maps.
How Flat Is Kansas?


2. 76 years ago, yesterday, September 21...The Great Hurricane of 1938 slammed into Long Island.  It caused massive damage in central & eastern Suffolk, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.  Here's a great summary by the National Weather Service.
NWS - Hurricane of '38

The Immense Sahara Desert

Image Credit - Wikipedia

Fascinating article here about the Sahara Desert.  Some new climate model runs suggest that the Sahara Desert may be as old as 7 million years.  Its origins could very well be linked with plate tectonics activity.

Read on for more info...
Smithsonian Magazine - Sahara Desert

Tropical Weather in the Desert Southwest?

Image Credit - NASA

Well, not really.  However, the remnant low of Hurricane Odile, the storm that whacked Cabo San Lucas, and all of its associated moisture are slowly making their way through the US desert southwest.  This heavy rain event followed quickly on the heals of the flooding rain from Hurricane Norbert.

Here's a linked article from Accuweather.com.
Accuweather - Flooding Rain in the Southwest

Icelandic Lava Flows

Map of Major Icelandic Volcanoes

Here's a great article and images from NASA's Earth Observatory website.  The current eruption in Iceland is in a very remote area.  The weather has been miserable, hampering attempts to image the area via satellite.

NASA Earth Observatory - Bardarbunga Eruption

California Drought and Groundwater

Follow the link to a superb article on NOAA's website about the current severe, no extreme, California drought and the amount of groundwater withdrawal.  It's not a pretty picture.

NOAA Drought Article

Here on Long Island, we all need to exercise extreme care when utilizing our precious groundwater resources.

Here's a stark reminder about the California drought's severity:

Shasta Reservoir, CA

Volcanic Eruption in Iceland

Bardarbunga Volcano, Iceland
Image Credit: Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program

Here's a pretty good summary from Accuweather.com of the eruption in Iceland
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/volcano-erupts-iceland-orders/33055466

And from the BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-28977773

And from ABC
http://abcnews.go.com/International/stunning-video-shows-birds-eye-view-iceland-volcanic/story?id=25172611

One interesting thing...the Icelandic volcanoes are so close that, with some regularity, a major eruption at one can trigger an eruption at another.

School is almost here...

Northern Parkway on Long Island
Overpass for Routes 106/107

It's hard to believe, but here in NY the beginning of the school year is fast approaching.  Time to end the summer 'blogging hiatus' and get back to work.

Here's a link to Chris Burt's, Weather Underground's weather historian, regarding last week's ridiculous rain event here on Long Island.

Weather Underground - Chris Burt

ENSO and El Niño

Sea Surface Temperatures.  Image Credit - NOAA

Follow the link to superb article about the various effects of El Nino from NOAA:

NOAA Climate - El Nino

And a NASA video:

Here's a link to a new article posted on Scientific American's webstie regarding the relationship between this potentially strong El Nino and the fire-ravaged areas of the western United States.
Scientific American - El Nino and Severe Flooding Potential

Amazing Tornado Video

Follow the link to an article from Accuweather.com.  The article has amazing an tornado video from North Dakota today, Tuesday.

Accuweather - North Dakota Tornado

One Year Ago Today...

Before and After Pictures of Moore, OK.  May 20, 2013

Image Credit - LA Times

Moore, OK.  May 20, 2013.  The second EF-5 tornado to hit the Oklahoma town in 15 years was bearing down on the city.

Click to an inspiring article on Accuweather.com about the rebuilding efforts there.  The decision to rebuild - to rebuild stronger and greener - mirrors the efforts of tiny Greensburg, Kansas, which was 95% destroyed by an EF-5 in May, 2007.

Accuweather.com - Moore, Oklahoma


On an unrelated note...here's a great little article on the origin of the word "basalt"
About.com - Basalt

Tropical Cyclone Migration

Don't only animals migrate?

Image Credit - National Geographic

That's what we usually think of when we think about migrations.

Meteorologists have discovered that the average location of maximum tropical cyclone intensity has shifted poleward since 1980.

Image Credit - NOAA/GOES

Click to the NOAA article containing the details...
NOAA - Cyclone Migration

Where has all the rain gone?

Dry marina in California's Folsom Lake
Image credit - NY Times

Although we're not feeling it here in the Mid-Atlantic and New England area of the United States, many areas of the country are feeling the water pinch.  Especially the southwest and California.

Click to the linked article from NASA's Earth Observatory.
Earth Observatory - US Drought

Very Cool Slideshow...

Image Creidt - NOAA

I linked to an awesome slide show at Scientific American.  The animation, the last slide, of number of tornadoes per month, is superb.

Enjoy...
Scientific American

Ganymede - Larger Than Some Planets, But Still a Moon

Fascinating, absolutely fascinating article about Ganymede.  Not only is Ganymede Jupiter's largest satellite and one of its 'Galilean Moons,' it's larger than Mercury.

Read on for more about its ocean...
Science Daily - Ganymede

Mississippi Dams

Image Credit - US Army Corps of Engineers.  The image shows the 18 dams and locks on the upper Mississippi River.  These dams and locks were built to create a fully navigable river channel.

Earlier this year, when we spoke about river deltas and the problems facing them.  One such problem is hydroelectric and flood-control dams.  These structures trap sediment on their upstream side.  It's estimated that only about 10% of the total sediment entering the water in the Mississippi Watershed actually makes its way to the delta.

Heres a linked article from New Scientist indicating that the Mississippi Delta, home to a large population and a significant oil & NG exploration industry, will have enough coarse sand for centuries to come.  Of course, the amount of silt and mud dropped as soon as the dams were constructed.

Interesting premise...
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25438-mississippi-dams-arent-to-blame-for-flood-risks.html#.U1U3xfldV8E

A New Island Forms - Plate Tectonics in Action!

Image of Surtsey appearing south of Iceland in 1963.  Image credit - Wikipedia


Check out the linked article on NASA's Earth Observatory about a new island that appeared in the neighborhood of Japan, right next too an island that formed in the mid-1970s.

Earth Observatory - New Article

Einstein and Gravity

I don't know if you caught the mentioning of a huge discovery in cosmology - the discovery of "gravitational footprints" of inflation in the universe's earliest moments.

Here's a great piece from Discover.com about it.

Out There

« Defending Giordano Bruno: A Response from the Co-Writer of “Cosmos”Battle of the “Cosmos,” Round 3 »

On His 135th Birthday, Einstein is Still Full of Surprises

By Corey S. Powell | March 14, 2014 1:31 pm

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Update: The breathtaking announcement that cosmologists may have found the gravitational fingerprint of the Big Bang adds a lot of support to the theory that the universe began with a runaway phase of expansion known as “inflation.” That theory builds on the idea that empty space is full of intense energy fields–an idea that in turn traces its roots back to a factor that Einstein called Lambda in his pioneering cosmological explorations from a century ago. It is one more illustration of Isaac Newton’s famousquote about standing “on the shoulders of giants.”

You would think by now we would have exhausted the mysteries of Albert Einstein. As perhaps the most famous scientist in history, nearly every idea he expressed and every thing he did has been studied, commented on, written about. Yet on his 135th birthday (born March 14, 1879) there are still new details coming out–details that offer insight both into the workings of Einstein’s mind, and into the biggest mysteries of the cosmos.

Albert Einstein in 1921, caught (as usual) in mid-thought. (Credit: Ferdinand Schmutzer)

One big Einstein shocker was unearthed recently by Irish cosmologist Cormac O’Rafferty while digging through the Einstein Archives at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. There he found a completely overlooked manuscript–undated, but probably from 1931–that showed Einstein trying to create a model of the universe that satisfied both his scientific insights and his philosophical inclinations. The manuscript, entitled “About the Cosmological Problem,” envisioned a universe that expands but that (through a clever trick of physics) never really changes.

In 1917, Einstein made his first attempt at constructing a physical model of the universe. Actually, I should say that he made the first ever attempt at building a physical model of the universe; nobody before had the mathematical or conceptual tools to venture there. Einstein had just published his General Theory of Relativity, and wanted to see what would happen if he applied his new ideas about space and time to the cosmos as a whole.

He soon realized that his equations naturally predicted either an expanding or contracting universe, contrary to both to the astronomical understanding of the time and to his preferred view of the order of nature. So Einstein added an extra factor, which he called Lambda, that would counteract gravity and allow the whole system to stay beautifully in balance. Then in 1929, Edwin Hubble uncovered evidence that the universe is, in fact, expanding, and Einstein quickly abandoned Lambda.

This part of the story is well known. It just turns out to be wrong.

The Unknown Einstein

O’Rafferty discovered that, 14 years after his first cosmological paper, Einstein was still experimenting with Lambda and still trying to figure out how the universe could remain in some kind of perfect balance. Amir Aczel gives some excellent background to the story in his recent blog post.

Why Einstein thought that the universe should be in balance is significant. In keeping with his overall principle of relativity–that nature looks the same to all observers–Einstein believed in the “cosmological principle”: that the universe is homogeneous, overall, so that it appears the same from any location in space. But he was also drawn to a deeper version, the “perfect cosmological principle,” which holds that the universe should also look the same from any location in time. Obviously that cannot happen in an expanding universe…or can it?

How Einstein tried to solve the problem is also really interesting. He imagined that, as space expands, new matter appears out of nowhere to fill the new empty space. The two processes balance out, so that the average density of the cosmos never changes. The well known Steady State model of cosmology, proposed in 1949, is very similar to Einstein’s abandoned (and never-published) theory. Not until the 1960s, when the evidence for the Big Bang and the finite age of the universe became truly persuasive, was the Steady State model discredited.

Say, did you notice that I mentioned Einstein’s idea of matter appearing out of nowhere? That seems to contradict conservation of mass, doesn’t it? Yes, but remember that our modern understanding of dark energy is equally paradoxical. As space expands, it creates more energy, which causes the expansion of the universe to accelerate. Energy from nothing.

Since mass and energy are equivalent, the current accepted reality is no stranger than Einstein’s model. The answer may lie in a deeper understanding of the energy fields that permeate seemingly empty space (or, from a different perspective, in the relationship between the actual and potential energy of the cosmos).

Yesterday and Today

All of this is old history, except that it isn’t. It has important new lessons about how Einstein’s mind worked, and about how he can help guide the greatest thinkers of today.

In the familiar Einstein biographies, many writers claim that he called the creation of Lambda his “biggest blunder.” Recently, astrophysicist Mario Livio showed that Einstein probably never said that. The newfound cosmology manuscript backs up Livio’s argument. (See also my book, God in the Equation.) Far from disowning Lambda, Einstein kept experimenting with it.

Lambda can be interpreted as an energy field in space. Today it is regarded as an early formulation of dark energy, the enigmatic force causing the expansion of the universe to speed up. But Einstein showed that it could be interpreted as a matter-creation field as well.

The Einstein manuscript demonstrates how the great master, then in his 50s, kept asking questions and kept trying to go farther. It also exposes the limits of his abilities. Einstein’s true blunder was not invoking Lambda. His blunder was not going far enough in following his own instinct to question everything.

If Einstein had trusted fully in the equations of General Relativity, he could have seen that his theory predicted an expanding universe (even with Lambda) way back in 1917, a full decade before the first observational evidence. Later, he could have seen that Lambda also allowed for the possibility of an accelerating universe, six decades before astronomers confirmed that.

The same story turns up in many other places as well. Einstein could not embrace the full weirdness of the quantum theory that he helped create. He could not believe in the physical reality of black holes, even though the idea emerges directly from General Relativity.

None of this is to belittle Einstein. Very much the opposite: The wide array of scientific concepts he launched are testimony to his prodigious ability to ask fundamental questions and follow them to their logical conclusions. It would do us all well to be so curious, so searching, so relentless. But even Einstein had his limits. Even he could not always transcend his doubts and preconceptions.

It’s good for us to keep that in mind on Einstein’s 135th birthday. We are only human and, like Einstein, will all have our blind paths and failures of nerve. What we can do in response is the same thing he did: Stay open to new ideas. Seek out deeper explanations. And go as far as your imagination will take you

When the earth beneath your feet begins to move...

Image credit - CNN

Folks in a Washington (state) village had a significant landslide come crashing through their town.  Sadly 3 people are known dead with others missing.

The likely culprit seems to be heavy rain - one factor that we discussed making these events more likely.

CNN - Washington landslide

Accuweather article - Washington Landslide

Dust Storm

Phoenix Haboob.  Image credit - dailyherald.co.uk

The Arabic word for a dust/sand storm is haboob.  Well, we just finished up learning about desert environments and wind erosion when I saw on the Accuweather.com website:

Accuweather - Texas Haboob

So, you think we've had a lot of snow this year?

Image Credit: www.city-data.com

Yes, we've endured a snowier than average winter (about 2.5x the average).  It's been cold.  While that may be true, our snow totals are paltry compared to this interesting article from NBC.  It ranks these cities/towns by average annual snowfall (> 1,000 population).

NBC - Snowiest Cities in America


Here's a link to the current list of snowiest cities in the US (> 100,000 population)

http://goldensnowglobe.com/current-top-10-snowiest-cities/

Oh, and by the way...I just read earlier this morning that the town of Redfield, NY (located on the Tug Hill Plateau), has piled up 312" of snow so far this winter!

Trilobites Long Gone...

Image Credit - Wikipedia

Follow the link to a great article in the NY Times Science Times about trilobites.  We talked about them during our earth history unit.  And a long long time ago, they ruled the seas.

NY Times - Science Section - Trilobites

Great Lakes Freezing

Lake Superior Ice Caves - Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.  Image Credit - CBS News

The Great Lakes are covered in more ice now than at any time since the mid-1990s.  See the linked NOAA article for details.

One interesting note...Lake Ontario has the lowest surface % covered by ice.  That's due its relatively low surface area to volume ratio.

NOAA Climate - Great Lakes

The Giant Keck Telescopes - How Does One Clean Them?

Here's a link to an informative article and video on some very delicate maintenance to be performed on the mighty Keck Telescopes.
Keck Telescopes - Maintenance Video

The Ugly Side of Coal Use

Image credit - Wikipedia

We generate a lot of electricity by burning coal here in the United States.  Estimates range from 37% to as much as 50%.  The numbers have changed recently due to the huge amount of fracked natural gas being produced.

Despite the ugly side of coal, one cannot ignore that it is an abundant domestic energy source that provides a lot of economic activity in the United States.

Here's an update on a coal ash spill that occurred a few years ago as well as a very recent one.

Scientific American - Coal Ash Article and Video

Here's a link to a Sierra Club article on coal ash.
http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/coalash/map.aspx

MODIS - Behind the Scenes

Images credit - NASA.

MODIS...you've probably never heard of these instruments before.  Yet, they are two of NASA's workhorse satellite sensors.  They ride aboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites.

By the way...who says NASA is dead? NASA is alive and well.

Accuweather.com has an excellent description of their capabilities here:Accuweather - MODIS Article

Here's the link to NASA's homepage for it: NASA - MODIS Homepage  Great stuff here.

Severe Drought in California

Current US Drought Monitor.  Courtesy of NOAA, USDA, et. al.
US Drought Monitor Homepage

California and several other western states are facing dire water situations with this increasing drought.  Two articles from the NY Times highlight the difficulties.

This first article appeared in yesterday's Sunday Times.  NY Times - Current Drought

There is evidence that California's climate has been relatively wet for some time.  This second article appeared in 1994 in the Times.  NY Times - Ancient Megadroughts

Geothermal Energy - Another Alternate Source

Geothermal Resource Map.  Image Credit NREL.gov

Iceland enjoys the hazards as well as the benefits of being part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as well as sitting above a mantle plume.  Certainly there are associated dangers.  But one of the perks is an almost limitless supply of geothermal energy.

Read on for some information on a novel technique of harnessing even more of this resource.  Some geologists estimate that the United States has substantial reserves of geothermal power.  That remains to be seen, but it an interesting idea.

Scientific American - Iceland Geothermal

Avalanche Near Valdez, AK

Valdez, AK.  Image Credit: City of Valdez

A large avalanche has dammed the Lowe River near Valdez, AK.  Valdez is one of the snowiest sea level cities in the world.  The avalanche and resulting backup on the upstream side of the snow dam have blocked the Richardson Highway, the only road access to Valdez.  While we're shivering here in the northeast, Alaska has had relatively balmy weather on the ridge side of this huge jet stream plunge.  It's the warmer than average weather in Valdez that has destabilized the upper layers of their massive snow pack.

Read on for more information from Accuweather.com: Article - Valdez, AK

Christ the Redeemer Statue, Bsrazil

A number of days ago the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil was damaged by an intense lightning storm.  Work has already been undertaken to repair the damage.

Read on for more from the Weather Underground


Also, a recent significant development - California has declared a drought emergency due to the severe lack of snow and rain this winter and the previous two.
California Drought Emergency - Environment News Service

Historic Cold

Now that the news folks have gotten a hold of the term 'polar vortex'...oh boy.  Below is a solid explanation of the weather feature responsible for this intense outbreak of Arctic air.

Article courtesy of Weather Underground, Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog.

By: Dr. Jeff Masters, 4:33 PM GMT on January 07, 2014

+34

A remarkable Arctic cold blast--the most severe since 1996 or 1994 in much of the U.S.--is smashing daily low temperature records across the Midwest, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast today. The counter-clockwise flow of air around powerful Winter Storm Ion, a 961 mb low centered just east of Hudson Bay at 9 am EST, is pushing frigid air from northern Canada deep into the U.S., bringing freezing temperatures as far south as Central Florida. Strong winds of 15 - 25 mph are accompanying the cold blast, and have brought dangerously cold wind chills of -30°F or lower to at least nineteen states. The coldest winds chills on Tuesday morning were over Southern Michigan, Northeast Indiana, Northwest Ohio, and Southern Ontario. The temperature in Detroit bottomed out at -14° on Tuesday morning--their 16th coldest day in recorded history--and the wind chill hit a remarkable -41°. The high temperature in Detroit on Tuesday is expected to remain below zero; the city's list of days with a high temperature below zero is a short one, with only three such days in recorded history. The cold air has eased some in Chicago, which had a low temperature Tuesday morning of -11°. Chicago's high temperature hit -1° on Monday; the noontime temperature on Monday was a remarkable -14°F, the 7th coldest noontime temperature ever measured in the Windy City. From the 10 EST TuesdayNWS Storm Summary, here are the coldest wind chill readings observed so far in the cold wave:

Comertown, MT: -63
Rolla, ND: -60
Glenwood, MN: -56
Summit, SD: -56
Waupaca, WI: -56
Ironwood, MI: -54
Mount Mitchell, NC: -50
Dubuque, IA: -49
Moline, IL: -46
Toledo, OH: -45
Ingalls Field, VA: -45
Valparaiso, IN: -44
Canaan Heights, WV: -44
Brownlee, NE: -43
Clarion, PA: -42
Oakland, MD: -41
Jamestown, NY: -38
Garden City, KS: -33
St. Charles, MO: -31


Figure 1. A frigid morning in the Windy City: Chicago seen from the air on January 7, 2014, after the low temperature hit -11°F. Image credit: Hank Cain

Worst weather of the day: Buffalo, NY
My vote for worst weather of the day goes to Buffalo, New York, where heavy snow was falling at 9 am with a temperature of -6°F. West winds of 24 mph gusting to 33 mph created a dangerously cold wind chill of -32°, and a wind gust of 60 mph was recorded at 3:26 am. West-southwest winds blowing along the length of Lake Erie are creating an epic lake effect blizzard in the Buffalo region, which may see snow accumulations of up to three feet before the storm ends on Wednesday. An ice jam has also formed on the Niagara River, leading to issuance of a flash flood warning for low-lying areas along the river.


Figure 2. A cold day on Lake Ontario. Sea smoke is visible over the lake in this shot taken three miles west of Pultneyville, NY, on January 7, 2014. The outside air temp was 1°F. Image credit: wunderphotographer JACKMAY52.


Figure 3. A cold day in the Great Lakes: Arctic air flowing over the Great Lakes on January 6, 2014 creates bands of lake-effect snow snows over and in the lee of the lakes. Image credit: NASA.

Weather whiplash in New York City
New York City is enduring a classic case of weather whiplash due to this week's wild weather. Freezing rain on Sunday morning caused a Delta flight to skid off a runway at JFK airport. But on Monday morning, a surge of warm air riding northeastwards in advance of Winter Storm Ion boosted the temperature in the Big Apple to 55°. The cold front associated with Ion passed though the city Monday afternoon, allowing the low temperature on Tuesday morning to plummet to 4°, beating the record for the date of 6° set in 1896.

The culprit: cold air from Canada and the polar vortex
In the winter, the 24-hour darkness over the snow and ice-covered polar regions allows a huge dome of cold air to form. This cold air increases the difference in temperature between the pole and the Equator, and leads to an intensification of the strong upper-level winds of the jet stream. The strong jet stream winds act to isolate the polar regions from intrusions of warmer air, creating a "polar vortex" of frigid counter-clockwise swirling air over the Arctic. The chaotic flow of the air in the polar vortex sometimes allows a large dip (a sharp trough of low pressure) to form in the jet stream over North America, allowing the Arctic air that had been steadily cooling in the northern reaches of Canada in areas with 24-hour darkness to spill southwards deep into the United States. In theory, the 1.5°F increase in global surface temperatures that Earth has experienced since 1880 due to global warming should reduce the frequency of 1-in-20 year extreme cold weather events like the current one. However, it is possible that climate change could alter jet stream circulation patterns in a way that could increase the incidence of unusual jet stream "kinks" that allow cold air to spill southwards over the Eastern U.S., a topic I have blogged about extensively, and plan to say more about later this week.


Video 1. I appeared on Democracy Now this morning to discuss the cold wave, the polar vortex, and possible linkages between climate change and wild jet stream behavior.


Figure 4. From wunderground's Jet Stream page, we see the large dip in the jet stream over the U.S. responsible for this week's extreme Arctic air outbreak.

Siberians agree: North American winters are impressive!
The last time I experienced weather this cold was on January 18, 1994. I walked across the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor that evening in bitter cold temperatures of ten below zero, driving winds, and lake effect snow--which the road salt had absolutely no effect on. I made it to Hill Auditorium to hear a concert by the Siberian throat singers of Tuva. After performing one of their songs that was sung in their native language, the singers explained through a translator that the lyrics described the story of their epic voyage that day from Dayton, Ohio northwards on I-75 to Michigan in a blinding snow storm with visibilities near zero and intensely cold temperatures. Their vehicle spun out into the ditch, but they were able to push it out and make it to the concert on time. "Siberia is known for its brutal winters," the translator said, "but North American winters are just as impressive!" The next morning the temperature bottomed out at -20° in Detroit, the third coldest reading in city history.

Winter storm Christina (formerly Hercules) pounds the UK with huge waves
The winter storm (dubbed "Hercules") that hit the U.S. last week morphed into a massive 950 mb low pressure system to the east of the UK on Monday. The storm, called "Christina" by the Free University of Berlin, generated huge waves of up to 8 meters (27 feet) that battered the southwest coasts of the UK on Monday, causing damaging coastal flooding, according to the BBC. Huge waves from the storm also battered Portugal, injuring four and damaging about two dozen cars. The unusually contorted jet stream pattern associated with Christina pulled warm air to the north over Western Europe on Monday. According to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera, Amsterdam had its warmest January day on record Monday: 14°C (57°F), and the temperature hit a sizzling 26.2°C (79°F) in Murcia, Tocino Bridge Station, Spain--not bad for the core of winter!