Baby, It’s Been Cold Outside … and Hot
by Bill Chameides | January 28th, 2011posted by Erica Rowell (Editor)
Permalink | 6 comments
How does January 2011 stack up?
For lots of us it’s been very cold. For others not so much. And for others still, it’s been downright hot, well, relatively.
Here’s a preliminary look at what’s been going on in a few locales.
Maximum average temperature for the month of January at selected locales
All values in degrees Fahrenheit.
| Locale | Long-term Average | Preliminary Average for January 2011 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin Schönefeld Airport |
37.2 | 39 | Warm |
| Chicago O’Hare International Airport |
29.6 | 26.2 | Brrr … |
| Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada Airport |
-8.5 | 11.5 | Veritable heat wave |
| Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville International Airport |
64.2 | 60 | Brrr … well, sort of |
| London Gatwick Airport |
45 | 45 | Eh |
| New York City Central Park |
38 | 34.6 | Brrr … |
| Nuuk, Greenland Godthab Airport |
23 | 28 | Veritable heat wave |
| Seattle Sea-Tac Airport |
45 | 46.1 | Warm |
| Washington, D.C. Reagan National Airport |
42.5 | 39.9 | Brrr … |
| Yakutsk, Russia Airport |
-35.3 | -31 | Veritable heat wave |
Those of us on the East Coast have been shivering in our boots, but most of our friends to the north are probably wondering what happened to winter.
________________
SOURCES
Note: For all January 2011 numbers, preliminary year-to-date average maximum temperatures were accessed on January 27 or 28, 2011.
Berlin: Jan 2011 data; long-term data (long-term averages are based on period 1971-2000)
Chicago: Jan 2011 data; long-term data (long term averages are based on period 1971-2000)
Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada: Jan 2011 data; long-term data (long term averages are based on period 1971-2000)
Jacksonville, Florida: Jan 2011 data; long-term data (long term averages are based on period 1971-2000)
London: Jan 2011 data; long-term data (long term averages are based on an unspecified period)
New York: Jan 2011 data; long-term data (long-term averages are based on period 1971-2000)
Nuuk, Greenland: Jan 2011 data; long-term data (long term averages are based on period 1961-1990)
Seattle: Jan 2011 data; long-term data (long term averages are based on period 1961-1990)
Washington, D.C.: Jan 2011 data; long-term data (long term averages are based on period 1971-2000)
Yakutsk, Russia: Jan 2011 data; long-term data (long term averages are based on an unspecified period)
filed under: climate change, faculty, global warming, Statistically Speaking, temperaturesand: Berlin, Canada, Chicago, climate, Florida, Greenland, London, New York, Russia, Seattle, Washington, D.C.
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Bill… Doing a bit more research I find your “veritable heatwave” choice of Nuuk, Greenland to be very interesting, if somewhat puzzling. Only 500 miles to the west, across the Davis Strait in Canada, at Pangnirtung, Nunavut (~66°N) the temperatures are dramatically colder. For this January, the average maximum temperature in Nuuk, as you point out, was +26°F. But it was a much colder +10°F in Pangnirtung. No heatwave there this year, a relatively few miles away? Source: http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/71826.html Also, just across the Davis Strait, and southwest at latitude 57°20′, is Okak Bay, Labrador. The maximum average temperature at Okak in January of 1780 was measured at +35°F… 231 years ago. Source: Google: “thermometer at Okak”
Ken: my point exactly.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/ -.01 anomaly. Coldest month since 2008.
How does January 2011 stack up? It’s not unique, hot or cold. Chicago, IL…. Brrrr!! Chicago, IL, 2011, Avg. max. January temp. 26.2°F Chicago, IL, 1940, Avg. max. January temp. 16.4°F Chicago, IL…. Heat wave Chicago, IL, 2011, Long-term avg. max. January temp. 29.6°F Chicago, IL, 1933, Avg. max. January temp. 36.9°F Chicago, IL, 1921, Avg. max. January temp. 32.6°F Washington, DC…. Brrrr Washington, DC, January 2011. 39.9°F Washington, DC, January 1940. 24.8°F Washington, DC…. Heat wave Washington, DC, Long-term avg. max. January temp. 42.5°F Washington, DC, January 1932, 46.7°F Yakutsk, Russia…. heat wave Yakutsk, January 2011, -31°F Yakutsk, January 1932, -30.8°F Yakutsk, January 1925, -28.7°F Yakutsk, Russia…. Brrrr!! Yakutsk, Long-term avg. January, -35.3°F Yakutsk, January 1931, -60°F Source: WORLD WEATHER RECORD volumes edited by H.H. CLAYTON http://www.archive.org/details/worldweatherreco031542mbp http://www.archive.org/details/worldweatherreco031950mbp
Ken: Again, thanks for the weather reports. Point was not the specific extremes but the spatial variations of the extremes. I guess you didnât get the point; perhaps you had to be there.
BILL: I guess I did miss the spatial variation point… from the global perspective. All your selections were in the northern hemisphere. My point was that similar wild extremes occurred during the warming in the 1930s… in the same places. Was I there? Actually, I WAS there… in Jacksonville in January 1935. I was born there that year. The 1935 January max was 81°F and the mean January max in 1935 was 66°F… plus 2.2°F from your 64.2°F long-term average. It was warm. This year, 2011, the average January max in Jacksonville was only 73°F and the average max, as you noted, 60°F. In 1948 the January max was 79°F and the average January max was 61°F, Brrr… well sort of.