I will post the link so you can see the charts in the Gazette, but the jist of the story is printed below.
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/this-february-was-the-coldest-on-record (you can copy & paste it, to take you directly there)
This February was the coldest on record
Commuters brave the cold as they wait for the 211 Bord-du-Lac bus, on Monday Feb. 16, 2015 at the Lionel-Groux metro station.
It wasn’t your imagination. This February really has been the coldest ever.
With an average temperature of -14.7 C, it beat February 1979 — when the average temperature was -13.6 C — as the coldest Montreal has ever seen.
Blame it on the West Coast, which had a strong high-pressure system that caused a peak in the jet stream. “The jet stream rose in Western Canada and brought arctic air down to the eastern coast,” said Adrien Julien, a meteorologist at Environment Canada.
The Gazette analyzed historical weather data going back to 1953 to find just how cold this February was according to the past. The chart below illustrates this.
Last month, we reported that January 2015 was colder compared to recent years, but not so bad when looked at a longer time scale. This February, however, bucked this historic trend. Oddly enough, temperatures were above normal in January almost everywhere else on the planet.
A widely-circulated report by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that January 2015 was the second-warmest on record (after 2007, when there was an El Niño event in the Pacific Ocean). However, Quebec and New England were among the few land areas that saw cooler than normal temperatures that month.
“When the February data comes out, it will be even worse,” Julien said.
Compare this February to the past record-holder, in 1979. Although daily temperatures were lower than present at the start of that month, it got much milder towards the end. Not this year.
This month has also had strong winds, which, combined with the low temperatures, added to the misery with wind chill days. If you average out the wind speeds for the whole month, it comes to 18.3 km/h. 1979 is not too far behind, with an average wind speed of 17.6 km/h.
The wind chill is measured every hour, but only when the temperature is below zero. Because of this, calculating an average wind chill for a whole month can be deceptive, as it doesn’t take into account these above-freezing moments.
Nonetheless, it can be useful for general comparison with past winters. As the chart below shows, the median wind chill for February 2015 was exactly the same as 1979: -23 C.
An interesting pattern emerges when wind chill temperatures in February are averaged out for each hour across all years. The coldest temperatures seem to happen around 7 a.m., and pull back around 4 p.m., providing a handy indication of when to avoid stepping outdoors. This pattern makes sense, Julien said.
“The lowest temperature in a day usually occurs after sunrise. It takes some hours before the sun heats up the earth,” he said.Source for all charts: Environment Canada
3 comments:
Getting a bit of a reprieve in Toronto. Today it's only -6C and sunny. There is hope.
Les, I'm sure Vancouver is disgustingly mild.
BobB
As mild as a New York City Salsa..........but I'm in Victoria ,where it isn't 'disgustingly' mild like in the 'Big Smoke Vancouver'..........just mild.
Cheers ! LAF
You will soon be hot enough with those great eastern Canada summers & the BBQ's going full steam ahead.
Make sure you enjoy it Les.
sunny here today and hovering around the freezing mark. But the sun makes a lot of difference. No BBQ today, but soon I hope.
BobB
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