The common cold isn’t the only cold to watch out for.
While heavy downpour in Southern California triggered devastating mudslides that caused the deaths of seventeen Californians, icy weather blasted parts of the eastern and central United States, starting in late December and carrying into January. Several record-low temperatures were recorded across the eastern half of the U.S., from places like Waterloo, Iowa, to Buffalo, New York. These cities and many more struggled through their coldest late-December to January stretch ever.
The recent Atlantic winter storm, named Winter Storm Grayson, relentlessly pounded the East Coast and caused power outages in New England. Grayson is the strongest Atlantic winter storm in the last four decades.
Blizzard storms and high winds led to temperatures colder than those on Mars; temperatures in New England and other parts of the East Coast recorded temperatures in the minus 50s, and wind chills brought those temperatures down to minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit in early January. Powerful winds of 60-70 mph blasted power lines, homes, and people, forcing many inhabitants to stay inside for the holidays. On top of that, coastal flooding progressively worsened in places like Boston, where tidal levels topped an all-time record set in 1978.
The arctic outbreak was fueled by a phenomenon known as a “bombogenesis,” a rapidly-intensifying cyclone which drops the atmospheric pressure and brings with it severe weather conditions.
A bombogenesis is defined as a rapid drop in atmospheric pressure of 24 millibars or more in 24 hours; Winter Storm Grayson set a record magnitude of 59 millibars in 24 hours. Grayson went on to hammer eastern Canada after devastating the U.S., bringing wind gusts up to 106 mph in Atlantic Canada.
Bringing temperatures colder than those on Mars, this year already feels out of this world.
PC: Creative Commons