All is Quiet on New Year's Day

Obviously, when the temperature is able to bottom out at -5°F (here in Etters), all is quiet and still on New Year's morn.  Yesterday afternoon, I made a proclamation to my lovely bride that I felt that we'd drop below 0°F by morning.  Of course, she mandated the site be KMDT; you know, the official NWS climatological site for Harrisburg, PA.  So at 5 am, I read to her the official NWS observations starting with York, PA (KTHV).  Now, in case you are not aware, the Thomasville airport serves as the York, PA weather data site.  The location of this airport sits out along route 30 about 7 miles west of downtown York.  There is minimal human development in the vicinity of the airport in what is largely an agricultural area and thus, great radiational cooling is able to occur under clear skies and calm winds.  The graphic below depicts optimal radiational cooling conditions.  It also shows our 1st Full Moon of 2018 occuring at 9:24 pm this evening!

With the Saturday snowfall of just under 5" at my humble abode and a slightly lesser amount around York, the thermometer at 5am was a genuinely gelid -9°F at KTHV!  But my wife quickly asked, "OK, that's nice, but what is it at Harrisburg?"  Below is a screen shot of the 5am obs in central PA...

With the air moving from the NW at 6 mph, this prevented the coldest air to settle at the surface whilst in York, a calm wind made for optimal cold air collection!  However, 2 hours later, KMDT officially dropped to below 0 bottoming out at -2°F.  Here is the 7am screenshot of the obs when KMDT dropped below 0°F...

Also this am, I was perusing the NWS website and was just taken back at how widespread the watches and warnings were for dangerous cold and anomalous cold...take a look...

And the apparent temps across the northern plains were simply brutal; freezingly frigid at best!  Ouch!

And this cold is forecast to persist for the next couple of weeks...1st 5 day anomaly...

And the 2nd 5 day anomaly...Farm Show week looks to be quite cold!

By the way, still watching a very powerful ocean storm developing later this week with some uncertainty as to its exact path...still not writing off a shift closer to the coast.

But either way, an even slightly colder shot of the arctic is poised to invade on Friday with gusty NW winds from the land of Nunavut!  Saturday morning likely to be at or below 0°F in these parts....Brrrrr...

OK...off to Lancaster County for pork and sauerkraut over a bed of mashed spuds!  Nothing changes on New Year's Day!  U'all know what's coming...U2!  Enjoy...

Stay warm; I'm out!

Smitty

AA:  Coldest New Year's minimum temp at KMDT since the climatological records began in 1888!  Likely to see another sub-zero day or two before moderation of this arctic cold by middle of next week.  Happy New Year my friend!