Northeast U.S. left out in the cold in Earth’s warmest winter on record

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Which reminds me: there's snow in the forecast for the DC region tonight.

Northeast U.S. left out in the cold in Earth’s warmest winter on record

Capital Weather Gang

By Angela Fritz March 18 at 3:49 PM
@angelafritz



Temperature departure from the 1981-2010 average in degrees Celsius in February 2015. (NOAA)

This winter was the warmest on record, and last month was the second warmest February on record, says NOAA. But you wouldn’t guess it if you live in the eastern U.S., where temperatures ran well-below average in February.

Across the globe’s land and oceans, February was 1.48 degrees above the 20th century average. But in pretty much the entire eastern half of North America, it was a much colder picture — and strikingly similar to what the region saw in February 2014.

“In February 2015, cooler to much-cooler-than average conditions overtook the entire eastern half of the United States and the eastern third of Canada, with some record cold pockets seen around the Great Lakes region and part of northeastern Canada near Hudson Bay,” writes NOAA. “In stark contrast to the eastern United States, the western United States was encompassed by record warmth. The warm-cold pattern over the country has been observed over much of the past two years.”

[KittyWampus]

1. I live in NorthEast and it was unusually cold and snowy. People kept saying "Polar Vortex".

Global air patterns are shifting?

It looks like the jet stream going up the east coast either took a sharp left turn or fizzled out and couldn't quite make it any further north-northeast.

[HereSince1628]

2. The problem was well north of the lower 48

Warm air in Alaska and Greenland caused the cold air of the northern vortex to dip south...

Both those northern 'hotspots' are supported by warming northern oceans so it looks like this could be more common going into the future.

[KittyWampus]

3. thank you for your comment.