With the end of this cold snap in sight, here is an update of the standardized daily temperature anomalies plot through Friday. Every day since Nov 10th has been below normal and yes indeed, Monday was the most anomalously cold day of the year; the mean temperature of -35F was 2.29 standard deviations (SD) below normal, just edging out May 2nd, which was 2.26 SD below normal. The warmest day relative to normal was September 21st; at 2.13 SD above normal, it's the only day this year to be more than two SDs above normal. A cold snap trivia question: Friday was the 14th consecutive day with a maximum daily temperature 0F or lower. What's the longest consecutive streak of days a maximum daily temperature 0F or lower in Fairbanks?
Unfortunately Chris Swingley has not updated his website with annual summaries since 2006 (http://swingleydev.com/weather/2006_summary.php), but it does appear that in 2006 there was an almost 3-week period in Jan/Feb when the temp did not go above 0. So historically, would a month do it?
ReplyDeleteDana TM,
DeleteVery good guess. I'll post the answer on Monday. :)
Rick
I have some data in front of me (so I'm cheating and won't give it away) but it looks like there have been several spells close to but not exceeding 30 days. However I see one cold snap prior to the Weather Bureau era of 42 days in length... is the pre-1929 Fairbanks data at all credible? I grabbed it from the NWS Juneau climate database.
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