Deadly and destructive cold...

Meteorologist Rich Apuzzo

Maybe I’m more sensitive to it than most, but when I stepped outside this morning I noticed that it was slightly darker than recent mornings at the same time.  I know that the sun is rising a little later every day as we drift toward autumn, but today was the first day that it actually seemed a little darker, and that has me thinking about colder times ahead…but how much colder?  Here are a few stories from around the world from the past week.  From the BBC:  “Almost 250 children under the age of five have died in a wave of intensely cold weather in Peru”.  “This year, freezing temperatures have arrived almost 3 months earlier than usual.”  From CBC news: “Temperatures dropped to a record low in Prince Edward Island overnight Tuesday (July 7 into July 8) with reports of frost throughout the province (in southeast Canada).”  “…a meteorologist with Environment Canada said that to his knowledge, frost has never been reported before in July in Prince Edward Island.” 

There have been individual record cold days in Chicago and Central Park, New York and New Zealand had the coldest May on record.  In addition, the Potato Famine disease (Late Blight) is striking potato and tomato plants from Maine to Ohio and it’s threatening commercial and organic farms according to Reuters news, and according to Meg McGrath, a plant pathologist at Cornell University’s extension center in New York, “Late Blight has never occurred this early and this widespread in the United States.”  The destructive disease can spread rapidly in cool, moist weather, infecting an entire field within days.  The bottom line, which is causing me increasing concern every day, is that we’re seeing much colder weather in both hemispheres and its effects on humans and agriculture.

Closer to home, we will get a taste of that cooler weather later this week as another round of unseasonably cool weather heads south from Canada late this week.  The month of July is already running around 135 degrees below normal and based on my forecast through the weekend, we’ll be more than 200 degrees below normal by Sunday and heading for an all-time record cold July!

Before the cooler air arrives, we’ll have high pressure over the plains and Midwest today and tomorrow with abundant sunshine and highs in the low 80s today and the mid 80s tomorrow.  A strong storm crossing southern Canada on Wednesday will first bring warm and more humid air into the Tri-State on Wednesday, but will then push much cooler air southward behind a strong cold front Wednesday night and Thursday.  Highs will hold in the mid 80s (at best) on Wednesday as scattered showers and thunderstorms develop ahead of the cold front, but the rain should end by early Thursday with highs in the low 80s on Thursday. 

After that, a strong flow of air from Canada will keep us cool into the weekend with highs in the 70s Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and lows in the 50s!  We may even have lows in the upper 40s just north of here.  In fact, this morning there were lows in the 30s in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota!  Beyond this weekend, I see no significant warming through the end of July, and we may have yet another blast of cooler air in the next 10 to 14 days.  Want heat?  Head to the southern plains…they’re baking in 90s and 100s with no relief in sight.  Enjoy this beautiful weather!
 

Rich Apuzzo, Chief Meteorologist

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