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Old 11-20-2011, 01:19 PM
 
Location: Yorkshire, England
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cjg5 View Post
I don't understand the question. The interior is currently colder than south-central, as is usual in the winter. It's also currently colder than the north slope, which is also usual in the winter. In the summer it's usual for the interior to be warmer than both south-central and the north slope. The interior receives very little oceanic moderation, whereas the rest of Alaska is ruled by it.
I understand that it's normally colder inland there, but where is this extra cold air coming from now that's causing these record lows? Here colder air would generally come from the north or east (winter/early spring only), but there a northerly wind would supposedly mean less cold air coming in off the ocean, so what sort of set-up does the interior of Alaska need to get such below average temperatures?
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Old 11-20-2011, 01:56 PM
 
Location: Seattle, Washington
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ben86 View Post
I understand that it's normally colder inland there, but where is this extra cold air coming from now that's causing these record lows? Here colder air would generally come from the north or east (winter/early spring only), but there a northerly wind would supposedly mean less cold air coming in off the ocean, so what sort of set-up does the interior of Alaska need to get such below average temperatures?
My guess is that under mostly clear skies and the winds that recently went through, that Alaska has probably experience a lot of radiational cooling, possibly more so than usual. This would mean very cold temperatures, and because the sun is already at such a low angle for such a short period of time each day, there's not much warmth to be gained from it right now. Alaska will have to wait for a mass of warmer air to move in to get out of this cold rut, which will most likely push all that cold air into Southern Canada and portions of the lower 48. Just a guess, could be completely wrong.
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Old 11-20-2011, 01:59 PM
 
Location: College, AK
20 posts, read 25,607 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ben86 View Post
I understand that it's normally colder inland there, but where is this extra cold air coming from now that's causing these record lows? Here colder air would generally come from the north or east (winter/early spring only), but there a northerly wind would supposedly mean less cold air coming in off the ocean, so what sort of set-up does the interior of Alaska need to get such below average temperatures?
not really a phenomenal record breaking event! The record low on Wednesday was -39 some years before, now it is -40, so not really a huge meteorological event like some people are trying to make it out to be. The all time record low for November of -54 F has still not been broken yet. The unusual thing about this winter is that the cold wave came in the middle of the month, not towards the end. No places will ever see temperatures year round that hover around the average. Alaska is either warmer or colder than the average . You can't expect temperatures to be around the average, as said earlier. The average, as the word suggest, is essentially a middle of the road reference point between the two extremes. Several years ago, we had a really warm winter that was 25 degrees above the average. And in 2009, the winter was 10 degrees colder than the average.
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Old 11-20-2011, 02:03 PM
 
Location: New Jersey
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It's always impressive when records are broken.
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Old 11-20-2011, 02:05 PM
 
Location: College, AK
20 posts, read 25,607 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cjg5 View Post
I don't understand the question. The interior is currently colder than south-central, as is usual in the winter. It's also currently colder than the north slope, which is also usual in the winter. In the summer it's usual for the interior to be warmer than both south-central and the north slope. The interior receives very little oceanic moderation, whereas the rest of Alaska is ruled by it.
His question basically asks why the cold weather is a rare event, at this latitude? This November is certainly not an extreme case, but it's one of the eleven coldest Novembers we've had, since 1956. We've had 11 other Novembers that were colder on average, but no records breaking on any particular day
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