11/12/19

Record November Cold Wave Refuses To Budge From the Record Book - Updated

With record lows expected Wednesday morning, November 13th across Southeast Lower Michigan, it still seems that the 7-day potent cold wave (and most of the records) that hit the region way back in 1880 will remain intact. The records (rec lows and rec low maxs) occurred a bit later in the month and extended from November 17th - November 25th 1880. 

Originally; the record low temperatures were in a 6-day stretch until a few years ago; when on November 18th, 2014 the mercury fell to 11 degrees and superseded (by date only) the 11 set in 1880. By the way; that cold snap back five years ago has some similarities to our present one...read about it here.
 

Record November Cold Wave Holds Steadfast For Well Over a Century

 By: Bill Deedler, Southeast Michigan Weather Historian (originally written Nov 2006 and updated with new information 11/12/2019)

Nothing in Southeast Michigan ’s record books has anything close to the record cold wave that occurred so early in the cold season than way back in the late 19th century in November 1880, or 139 years ago! The bitter cold surges blasted Southeast Lower Michigan from the 17th to the 25th from the Arctic region and engulfed much of the country. The Arctic chill came down in the form of two impressively strong Arctic high pressure systems (see maps below) for mid winter, let alone mid November. 

Below is the record chart for that period that contains both the record low maximums and record lows that occurred during the November cold wave which left five days of consecutive record low records that have not been touched since! The three degree reading on the 21st and zero on the 22nd have yet to be superseded by colder temperatures in the entire month of November. A zero (or below) record low does not appear in Detroit ’s record lows for another 10 days when a -2 was recorded on December 2nd, 1976!    

Again, not only is the cold impressive but the seven record low maximums and five consecutive record lows have not been breached since this cold wave!  So what caused this bone-chilling cold so early in the season, what did the weather maps (or best representation of) look like so far back? Let’s take a look at copies of the archaic weather map records from Nov 18-23, 1880 which shows the couple of mammoth Arctic high pressure systems that affected much of the during the period.  


NOVEMBER 1880 COLD WAVE


 
Date                                                                                   Rec Low Max                                Rec  Low                                                               
17
48
34
41.0
70/1953
22/1880
56/1931
13/1959
18
48
34
41.0
73/2016
18/1880
56/2015
11/2014
19
47
33
40.0
68/1985
22/1880
58/1985
9/1880
20
47
33
40.0
70/1942
25/1914
57/1913
12/1880
21
46
33
39.0
67/1913
12/1880
56/1931
3/1880
22
46
32
39.0
69/1913
16/1880
57/2010
0/1880
23
45
32
38.0
69/1931
21/1880
57/1931
8/1880
24
45
32
38.0
62/2001
17/1950
53/1966
7/1950
25
44
31
38.0
63/2001
23/1880
50/1908
10/1950



                                        NOVEMBER 1880



As of 7AM - Thu  Nov 18th  Note the first big chunk of cold dense air is well reflected by the exceptionally high pressure for November (not to mention over the southern states) in eastern Oklahoma of 30.78" /1042.MB/  (just at the bottom edge of our map).  This massive Arctic high made its way south out of the Northern Plains and as a result, temperatures across much of the region were in the single digits and teens. 





As of 11PM - Nov 19th   By late Friday night, a new surge of Arctic air is beginning to show its face here as a new low pressure trough enters the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Region. Note, temperatures haven’t had a chance to recover much from the first bitter cold blast!


 
As of 11PM - Nov 20th   The second surge of fresh Arctic air continues advancing across the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley as general high pressure holds over the southern states. 



As of 11PM - Nov 21st   A second, duplicate strong high pressure appears on our map, once again by way of the Northern Plains and expands south and east into into the Upper Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes. Low pressure troughing holds sway over the relatively warmer waters of the Great Lakes (estimates of water temperatures in the mid 30s to mid 40s). Temperatures have plummeted below zero already in the Upper Mississippi Valley by late Sunday night.



 As of 11PM - Nov 22nd   A huge bitter cold high pressure lies spralled across the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes with a central pressure of 30.85" /1045 MB/! The public continues to be greated by record cold as the Thanksgiving work week commenced across the nation. The 30.85" was a record high pressure at the time (and may be yet) for Cincinnati, Ohio. Besides our own,  numerous other record lows were attained with the passage of these Arctic highs. 



As of 11PM - Nov 23rd  The large high pressure moves ever so slowly east with the central high pressure now over the mid Atlantic States. 

Evidently this was not the first notable November cold snap that engulfed the region so early in the weather record days. The following was taken from the 1880 Monthly Weather Review:  

"The passage of of this area was marked by minimum temperatures for the Lakes region, the Atlantic States,  the Ohio, Upper Mississippi and Lower Missouri valleys. They occurred from seven to eight days earlier in the month than the remarkably low temperatures of 1875. The most notable temperatures observed at the Signal Service Stations were Washington, 12.5;  Philadelphia, 10;  St. Louis and Louisville, 8;  Pittsburg, 4;  Buffalo, 3;  Chicago, 1;  Erie, Detroit, Sandusky, Grand Haven and Des Moines, 0;  Champaign, -3;  Alpena, -4;  Columbus, Indianapolis, Keokuk and Milwaukee, -5;  Port Huron, -6;  Marquette, -9."
 
As mentioned, all the Detroit records should remain intact 139 years later and I wonder how many others are still around at other offices? 

Yes; I know the Winter Outlook seems overdue now that we got clobbered by snow and now cold. I look to release it within the next week (which is generally the time-frame). One of the most gratifying results found thus far in the analogues was the amount of snowy and cold Novembers -right on cue!


Making weather fun while we all learn,
Bill Deedler -SEMI_WeatherHistorian


 

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