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First Below Zero Day In NYC Since 1994


bluewave

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This is one of the most impressive cold shots in recent history, and your post was all "meh"

Yeah. It may not have been historic in his backyard, but as he likes to remind the forum all the time, its not all about one's backyard here. This was a very impressive, and in some places historic, cold shot. Considering the el nino and other factors, "mehing" it because you got below zero last year too (in the coldest february in almost a century) is silly.

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Yes! I'm ecstatic too! I just went outside without a coat on to embrace the cold. It felt great.

 

The key was after midnight, the flow at 850mb and 925mb turned much more due northerly. That greatly helps to reduce any mixing and downsloping, so we were more able to fully utilize the cold air aloft. That was our cooling mechanism after the 850mb temperatures peaked (850mb temperatures actually rose several degrees throughout the night) and is why we were able to drop so quickly after 1:00am, despite no more true CAA aloft. 

Is that due northerly flow how we reached -14 in 1917-18 and 1934?

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The only reason I thought there was a shot this time was the air mass trajectory. The overwhelming opinion of most meteorologists though was that it wouldn't happen. The previous ones all mostly came from the west minus 2004. 2004 should have done it but I want to say we had 2 things go wrong, the day time high got very warm due to downslope flow behind the clipper and there were mid level cloud decks in the evening that slowed the cooling a bit. I think if we had a 50/50 low off Canada NYC may have had a shot at -3 to -6 or so because the core of the cold would have come more towards us.

From what I recall in 2004 warm air actually wrapped around the 50/50 low so temperatures rose on strong northerly winds, by way of the ocean off Labrador.

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Yeah. It may not have been historic in his backyard, but as he likes to remind the forum all the time, its not all about one's backyard here. This was a very impressive, and in some places historic, cold shot. Considering the el nino and other factors, "mehing" it because you got below zero last year too (in the coldest february in almost a century) is silly.

Yeah it's pretty rare for the city to be lower than places like Somerville and Morristown although with snow cover inland areas would have been much lower I think.

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Yeah. It may not have been historic in his backyard, but as he likes to remind the forum all the time, its not all about one's backyard here. This was a very impressive, and in some places historic, cold shot. Considering the el nino and other factors, "mehing" it because you got below zero last year too (in the coldest february in almost a century) is silly.

Agree. Most of suffolk county was between 0 and -5.

Incredibly impressive with CAA.

When Montauk hits -2 it's an historic cold snap, period.

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i would think way back then the heat island effect would not be as great as it is today.. that would also help to lower temps back then and of course no climate change factored in like it is today...

The heat island only comes into play when we talk about radiational cooling. When cold air comes in on a strong wind/CAA the UHI is virtually eliminated as a factor.

Last night was basically determined by latitude and longitude and not surface type. Remote places in PA were quite a bit warmer than Midtown Manhattan because they were too far west.

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This is one of the most impressive cold shots in recent history, and your post was all "meh"

All that I said was that the combination of the wind and cold was what really made it feel so brutal. I realize 0 degree territory is historic at the park but in terms of sensible weather it feels the same at 0 as it does 5-10. You add in the wind and it becomes life threatening.
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