Originally Posted by :
Yes, it has been plenty cold lately, but the frigid air that has kept the mercury below zero the past four days won't make it into the record books.
Even another full day Monday with below zero temperatures won't be enough to make the cold snap one of the 10 longest in Twin Cities weather history. The mercury briefly ventured into positive territory on Thursday when it touched 1 degree, diminishing the chances of the arctic outbreak moving onto the top-10 list of extended periods below zero.
"We would have had a chance [at a record]," said Assistant State Climatologist Pete Boulay. If it were not for that 1 degree reading, "we would have had a good streak going."
The temperature remained at zero or below for 130 hours from Jan. 22 to 28, 1897, the tenth longest on record. The record for 186 hours Dec. 31, 1911 to Jan. 8, 1912, according to the Minnesota Climatology Office.
Temperatures have remained at or below zero for at least four consecutive days in the Twin Cities 27 times since record keeping began in 1873, Boulay said. The most recent streak was 27 years ago.
"It is hard to get on the list with such a long span of records," Boulay said.
The mercury hit minus 4 degrees on Sunday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, missing a record for the lowest high temperature for Valentine's Day by one degree. The lowest high temperature recorded on Feb. 14 was minus 5 degrees in 1920.
"That was a record I was not sad about not breaking," said Chris O'Brien, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Chanhassen.
But other places have set records. Temperatures bottomed out at minus 50 degrees east of Ely on Sunday morning, setting a Valentine's Day record. That was followed by a minus 46 degree reading Monday morning.
Other chilly readings on Monday included minus 42 degrees north of Hibbing in Celina, Minn., minus 39 degrees in International Falls and minus 33 degrees in Cambridge and Princeton.
The Twin Cities didn't reach a forecast record low of 25 below zero. The temperature bottomed out at minus 17, O'Brien said.
"The urban heat island was really cranking last night," he said.
Temperatures will slowly moderate throughout the week and have a shot at cracking the freezing mark by the weekend. Once the thaw begins, a return to the deep freeze is unlikely, O'Brien said.
"This should be the worst of it," O'Brien said. "As we get into February, it's harder and harder to get the cold air."
I don't understand the power outages if no power lines are down. It costs WAAAY more to cool ur home when its 100 than it does to heat your home when its -5. I can show you my electric bills to prove it. And its not even close. Never had a rolling power outage in the summer. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
I'm surprised you aren't getting some of the power from our massive windmill farms.
We've got thousands of them here and the power company sells it to other grids as surplus. Our power comes from a coal plant.
They wanted to build one on a pretty good chunk of our farm. Then a whooping crane that obviously got lost and fell in with some sandhill cranes that flew over. Fucked the whole thing.
And then the EPA shut down an expansion of the coal fired plant that is one of the cleanest in the nation l, despite prior approval. That would have brought more, really freaking good jobs to the area.
Originally Posted by BWillie:
I don't understand the power outages if no power lines are down. It costs WAAAY more to cool ur home when its 100 than it does to heat your home when its -5. I can show you my electric bills to prove it. And its not even close. Never had a rolling power outage in the summer.
