Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Canadian Wind Chill

Chilly weather is continuing in the Alaskan interior for now, but a consideration of current conditions about 1500 miles to the east provides some interesting perspective.  This morning the town of Baker Lake, Nunavut, reported sustained winds of 40 mph along with a temperature of -38 °F, which equates to a wind chill of -82 °F.

What's remarkable is that Baker Lake is close to sea-level (elevation 18 m), in a region of relatively subdued topography, and is about 35 miles south of the latitude of Fairbanks.  It is doubtful whether any low-elevation sub-Arctic observing site in Alaska has ever observed such a combination of cold and wind - though I imagine it may occasionally happen in regions of terrain-channeled flow in the southeast.

Here's this morning's upper-air sounding from Baker Lake (courtesy of U-Wyoming) and a table of hourly surface observations (courtesy of Weather Underground).  Amazingly, the wind chill is lower at the surface than at 500 mb.



8 comments:

  1. Finding the Arctic: History and Culture Along a 2,500-Mile Snowmobile ...By Matthew Sturm

    A great read about a group of scientist/adventurers that travelled from Fairbanks to Baker Lake by snowmachine in 2007. Just in time for another spell of cold.

    Gary

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    1. Gary, thanks much for the recommendation. I'm always on the lookout for a good Alaska read.

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  2. According to Environment Canada, the lowest purported wind chill in Canada is a staggering -107°F in Kugaardjuq on January 13, 1975. The temperature was -58°F and the wind speed was 35 mph.

    http://www.ec.gc.ca/meteo-weather/default.asp?lang=En&n=5FBF816A-1

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    1. That's quite unfathomable. Worthy of Antarctica, I dare say.

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  3. What I find suprising is that radiosonde showing temperatures so warm from 400mb and up. I was reading recently that areas of stratospheric warming often have areas of tropospheric cold below them. I wonder if this is a good example. Either way, I'm glad I don't live in northern Canada with such Antarctic conditions. The occasional 40 below is enough for me.

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    1. Eric, that type of stratospheric warming is typical. Once you hit the tropopause and move into the stratosphere, the atmospheric chemical composition changes and the temperature rises – primarily due to the presence of ozone (O3). Plus there's the whole chemtrail thing too. :)

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    2. Perhaps it Is how low the tropopause is, being arctic air and all. And I remember looking at some Fairbanks radiosondes and the upper levels didn't seem as warm but maybe they were. I forget all of this basic stuff too easy.

      Perhaps those rare stratospheric Mother-of-Pearl clouds are created by HAARP?

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