Weather Stories: Cold waves (that you've been under) to (climate, snowfall, warmest)
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Hi everyone. I think anyone here has an interesting story to tell about an exceptional cold wave that hit your country, state, city, etc. so, share it with us. I'll start it posting about an amazing cold I've been under, it was on late July 2007. As you'll see, temperatures aren't that great in comparison to northern countries but, if you take into consideration I'm talking about Brazil, you may reconsider your opinion...
Going back to July 2007, we had 2 important cold waves. The first one maybe was the worst in south region and Argentina, where places such as Buenos Aires had seen snow for first time after decades. But, to São Paulo, the second one was most important and freezing.
From July 15th, high pressure over Brazil lost intensity and allowed cold air incursion through Chile and Argentina. On last week of July, a powerful cold front with massive cold air behind penetrates Brazil. Here in São Paulo, an exceptional rainfall was observed. We had near 2 inches of rain in 2 days, more than month average. After that it comes. Here's how:
July 27th
Low: 49 High: 62-Scattered clouds July 28th
Low: 49 High: 51-Drizzle July 29th
Low:44 High: 51-Scattered clouds July 30th
Low: 42 High: 59-Clear
I want your attention to the higs recorded. That's quite rare here, we are under 23º27' south, a tropical site and I had never felt such a cold in afternoon before. That was the worst cold wave I've ever felt and, after that one, we never had similar cold to shake off our bodies.
Obs: Snow was only observed at Uruguay border on that occasion, 1,200 miles far south.
Jan 20: High: 23 Low: 8 (already below normal)
Jan 21: High: 15 Low: -21
Jan 22: High: 2Low: -22
Jan 23: High: 12 Low: -3 (8 inches of snow)
Jan 24: High: 8 Low: -9
Both the coldest daytime high and coldest night I experienced. Won't forget. Was bitter and nasty. Though this January we got a -20°F night.
I don't remember this particular cold wave, but it was pretty long There were a couple days with highs of 12 F here. Probably one of the lowest daytime highs I've personally experienced.
I've posted before about one afternoon in January 2009 going into a shopping centre in Germany and it was -4C and snowing, already probably the coldest I'd ever seen at that time of the day, and when I came out 20 minutes later the same thermometer said -13 and it was clear blue sky, an impossibly abrupt change in this country. The next two days had highs around -10 and lows around -20, far far colder than anything I'd ever seen before and probably the coldest I ever will see.
I've posted before about one afternoon in January 2009 going into a shopping centre in Germany and it was -4C and snowing, already probably the coldest I'd ever seen at that time of the day, and when I came out 20 minutes later the same thermometer said -13 and it was clear blue sky, an impossibly abrupt change in this country. The next two days had highs around -10 and lows around -20, far far colder than anything I'd ever seen before and probably the coldest I ever will see.
Those temps. are more likely to Moscow.
Another story about cold I remember: It was early october 2003, spring beginning down here, and I went to the southern state called Rio Grande do Sul, and stayed there for a weekend on a mountain region. Warming had already appeared and days were nice to walk out of home. Something like 24C. But, at night I presenced a fast dropping of termometers. I didn't have ways to check it but, certainly by 11:00pm, it was under 10C, my parents and I inside a car shaking our bodies in wait for some relatives. And at dawn, we got frost so, night may have set 3C. Very big range of temperatures.
The first week or two of January 2010 was the most recent and memorable cold wave. Having winter days in the 40s isn't too uncommon, but the fact that those were the warmest temps for over a week was quite uncommon. The most interesting part was when temperatures dropped below freezing on the evening of the 7th and didn't get back above freezing until the 10th.
To compare, average temperatures during this period are 55/35F (13/4C).
Pipes ended up bursting in Jackson soon after this cold wave. Old, barely maintained pipes plus the freezing temperatures caused them to burst, leaving the city without water for almost a week. I can imagine a heat lover wanting to call this area's climate warm temperate (or omitting the "warm" entirely) rather than subtropical if (s)he was around during the cold wave.
Well, I cannot but recall the 2007 wave that ricardo pointed out. For me, as a cold-lover, it was awesome!
In fact, since I was a teenager, I had been observing the weather conditions every winter, hoping that maybe one day it snowed! I remember back in 1994 we were very close (it was raining at noon with just 4 C (39 F), and it looked like the temp was dropping!) but it was a fail: by evening, temperature rose instead of drop!
So, on July 9 2007, I was working at home (despite the fact that it was national holiday here), and again I thought "This may be the time"... it was like 4 C (39 F) at noon and drizzling. I remember me in the backyard trying hard to see the little raindrops, forcing my sight to recognize at least a trace of snow!... I didn't, but 2 hours later my brother called me on the phone and told me "there's sleet in some areas of the city, turn the TV on". So I did, and then I looked into the street from my window and this time a I saw it... it came in batches of little "grains" that fell slower than normal raindrops. Suddenly again, the same old rain! and again the little flakes... it was just incredible! And at one moment, a glorious moment, the sky fell with tons of "snowflakes"... this time they were falling quickly first, but as they reached lower altitudes, they "slowed down"... They were more apart from each other than the first time... and it was a long stretch of time... it was like 5 minutes... and again they stopped!... Up to that point I was more than happy and satisfied with my first-seen "snowfall" ever! But the fact is that the snowfall went on for hours! Till midnight...
And you can imagine that this was the topic of the day, or of the month here...
You just had to see people's faces in the streets... it was amazing.
Sorry for the long post...
Perhaps, those who are used to seeing snow every year cannot understand what a snow event in a place where it never snows means.
Having been my first year in Colorado, anything I experienced this winter was going to be the coldest. But February 1-8, 2011 was the coldest spell I experienced. It snowed all 8 days straight, one day's high was below zero, and the lowest temp for the season/year was on the morning of Feb. 2nd. Here it is:
Date TEMP °F HI/LO TEMP °C HI/LO
Feb 1 -4/-13-20/-25
Feb 2 5/-16 -15/-27
Feb 3 28/-4-2/-20
Feb 4 37/163/-9
Feb 5 39/264/-3
Feb 6 26/10 -3/-12
Feb 7 39/8 4/-13
Feb 8 8/-4-13/-20
Feb 9 19/-11-7/-24
Two more days were in the 30s, and by the 3rd day (12th) we hit a whole week in the 50s/60s for highs.
Here in Vancouver... for me I remember it was December 2008. That was a particularly cold and snowy month...
Cold wave started on December 15th and continued all the way to December 24
Here are the highs and lows at the airport for that period of time:
December 15: 1.0C/-8.4C
December 16: -1.4C/-8.7C
December 17: -1.0C/-3.0C
December 18: -1.7C/-8.7C
December 19: -4.3C/-10.9C
December 20: -5.3C/-15.2C
December 21: -1.2C/-6.6C
December 22: 1.7C/-6.5C
December 23: -2.3C/-11.7C
That -15.2C was the 2nd coldest temperature ever recorded at Vancouver International Airport... the city itself saw the 4th coldest temperature ever recorded at -9.0C
We also had a monthly total of 89.4cm of snow. This amount is almost twice the entire amount of snowfall that Vancouver normally sees in one whole year...
This is definitely a cold snap that I'd rather forget
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