Jan 18-25 Cold Wave

[cyclone77]

Only -4 for a high this afternoon.  Pretty hard around here to get a below zero high temp with zero snow on the ground, but we did it.  Pretty impressive.  

Lowest wind chill hit -38 early this morning.

[Danny8]

13 hours ago, Malacka11 said:

Tell me I'm not tweaking... I noticed on this mornings dawg walk that climbing planes from O'Hare sounded comparatively hifi. Even from definitely a few thousand feet up you could hear tarmac-style turbine whine, yk that more shrill sound, echoing loudly off of adjacent apartment buildings quite literally the way it sounds in a terminal.

I actually had a hard time finding them because the higher frequency sounds making it farther down are ofc coming when the plane is directly above you, which my monkey brain was not computing properly with how loud the sound was. Even with a clear sky, I just wasn't looking for hoes that far up and was therefore surprised when I realized.

Ig I'm just shocked that if it's as simple as cold air = denser = transmits delicate high frequency sound waves better, that it makes such a massive difference between say 20° and -9° compared to 20° and 80°. 

Just saw your post but I had been thinking the same thing all day! Planes definitely sounded different to me as well. I’m about 10 miles east of ORD

[sbnwx85]

14 hours ago, Malacka11 said:

Tell me I'm not tweaking... I noticed on this mornings dawg walk that climbing planes from O'Hare sounded comparatively hifi. Even from definitely a few thousand feet up you could hear tarmac-style turbine whine, yk that more shrill sound, echoing loudly off of adjacent apartment buildings quite literally the way it sounds in a terminal.

I actually had a hard time finding them because the higher frequency sounds making it farther down are ofc coming when the plane is directly above you, which my monkey brain was not computing properly with how loud the sound was. Even with a clear sky, I just wasn't looking for hoes that far up and was therefore surprised when I realized.

Ig I'm just shocked that if it's as simple as cold air = denser = transmits delicate high frequency sound waves better, that it makes such a massive difference between say 20° and -9° compared to 20° and 80°. 

Planes landing at South Bend go right over where I work. When I was leaving I thought we had one coming right at me. I looked up and it was normal altitude, but the cold air must make the sound travel more efficiently. I thought I was going crazy but glad I’m at least not alone.

Down to -6 now. HRRR has a low of -13 with snow pack and clear skies it is certainly possible. Record today is -17.

[frostfern]

GRR is sitting at -16.  Daily record is -20.  All time is -24.  There’s some -20s showing up in more rural areas nearby though.  It seems like higher dewpoints are holding temperatures higher some places.  

It’s hard to get extreme lows here in West Michigan as normally westerly flow off the lake doesn’t diminish until the coldest core of 850 temps has passed.  This is kind of a rare setup where the 850 cold pool is stalling directly overhead with light winds.