Metro Detroiters have earned a bragging rights with this latest arctic blast. We've had temperatures down in the single digits below zero this morning, colder that many places famous for their harsh winter weather.
This morning, Metro dipped to -4 degrees. Lapeer, the coldest city in our area, bottomed out at -8 degrees. Flint Bishop Airport was down to -10 degrees and Midland made it down to 16 below zero! Our wind chills ranged from -15 to -30.
Conversely, folks waking up in Alaska were getting off easy! Temperatures in Barrow, Alaska fell to 1 degree this morning. And Barrow is north of the Arctic Circle! Cold Bay, Alaska stayed in the upper 30s with a low of 38 degrees. And remember, these are low temperatures! Highs in some Alaska cities were in the 40s Thursday.
This is what's called teleconnection or a connection over distance. Think of the the atmosphere as a giant balloon. If that balloon is squeezed in one spot, the air doesn't disappear, it is moved from one location to another. So when arctic air is displaced and plunges south into the Great Lakes, the milder, more seasonably cold condition don't disappear. They are shifted or moved somewhere else. In this case, the warmer weather is back out to our west, bathing Alaska and western Canada in, what is for them, warm and pleasant weather.
But there are places colder and less hospitable that anything America as to offer. Oymyakon, Russia, one of the coldest permanently inhabited places on earth had a temperature pf -58 degrees overnight with a forecast high of -52. So on second thought, forget those bragging right I talked about. Let's just be thankful it wasn't worse!
