An arctic invasion - Feb 10 - Day 1

Darkness settles in on a clear Feb evening! Wait! Up there in the corner! Is that Uranus?

'It seems to me that just about all winter long we've been spared harsh temperatures here in North America while the folks living in Europe have been getting it dished out to them big time! But, are we overdue for a change in the climate guard?' Well, time will tell...

The weather service is forecasting for two events over the next couple of days; a blast of honest to goodness arctic air from the North Pole and wintry precipitation, most likely in the form of sleet or freezing rain. Should make for an interesting time, if you're a weather nut like myself!

The Arctic Express!

From Canada to my doorstep in no time!

Right on cue, and in line with the National Weather Service forecast, we had an arctic front slam its way past my little southwestern Missouri town of Forsyth in the early afternoon hours of Friday, February the 10^th. (You can most always tell when a front has a pant-load of cold air by the speed at which it makes it from the Canadian border to my front porch)! Starting at 2:30 PM, I kept an 'ad-hoc  spreadsheet' which produced the graph seen below. The winds, which accompanied the front, picked up out of the north and were relatively constant from that point on until Saturday morning when they had calmed down just a bit. The average speed was about 5-7 mph with gusts to 13!

Wonder what caused the temps to briefly flat-line?

Shortly after six pm, the downward temperature spiral hit the freezing mark and then continued creeping on down. (Not sure why there was an hour long pause in the trend just prior, however). About this time, dusk was falling and the sky which had been overcast, cleared! (Not very good signs as they indicated some 'radiational cooling' might occur as a result). Sure enough, by 1AM we were flirting with 19°F. and the rate of temperature loss was at about 1° degree Fahrenheit per hour.

The next morning dawned partly cloudy and very cold at just 14°F above zero by 7AM. Those pesky arctic winds were also still in play, coming resolutely out of the north (abet more slowly). Mornings like this reminded me of living in Chicago when it got so cold your hands would stick to the car door handle! So, this was not a day I'd normally want to venture out, but I did anyway. I wanted to go have breakfast at a local eatery, so I bundled myself up, got into my Jeep and made the trek into town. I'll tell you right now, it felt every bit as cold as I imagined it would!

Hot food is the order of the day!

Hey! A man's gotta eat! Right?

I arrived at a restaurant named Charlie's Steak Ribs and Ale in Forsyth, Mo. at about 8AM to find just a few patrons also having breakfast. I remembered, then that it was after all a Saturday morning and most folks didn't need to get out of bed. The food was good, however, and did I mention it was hot! In short order, it was time to pay my tab and depart!

Back out on the streets, the traffic was light. Typical for an early weekend. I got home, in short order, and checked my gauges to find the temperature had gotten all the way up to 16°F!

Gonna be a hot one, I thought! Well, at least I'll have time to run to the grocery store and stock up today before things get really nasty on Sunday.

[end of day 1]