We’ve started to warm up and it’s about +8F now. We’re supposed to hit +28F tomorrow, which would be a nice change, but warming to +39 by Monday is a little worrisome. At least they should be able to get the side streets clear.
We’ve got a few inches of snow so I hope the garlic doesn’t freeze out; also have some crocuses and tulips etc. I put in last fall. We’re supposed to get quite a bit of snow tonight so that could help insulate against the swings.
got 10in. and the winds blowing like hell. waiting for it to calm down some before snow blowing. wish i had a cab on the Mahindra. at least i got a tractor and not a snowblower, might get -0 tom. night. forecast is -3f. we’ll see. it’s got to be the latest we’ve gone in a winter without getting below 0. had windchills below several times but not air temps. plenty of snow protecting my plants. it can stop now.
forecast changed to -7 tonight and -25 windchill advisory for the next 2 days.
I should say that “polar vortex” is a common meteorological term that us meteorologists have given to arctic region upper level lows for a long time. The media latched onto the term in the last decade and now it’s part of the hype machine. You can still get arctic air and record cold even without the PV moving over your head. Actually I’d argue that it’s more common to see record low mins without it since record mins tend to occur under strong surface high pressure systems with calm wind and clear skies for optimal radiational cooling conditions. Just thought I’d throw that $0.02 in.
A PV overhead in zone 9 would be pretty extreme. 
More snow and ice and blizzard condition tonight. I wish it was April now. Cabin fever kicked in. Might as well looking at my indoor plants and dream of Spring.
Tony
Good to have some experience on the subject post!
Too many put their faces into tv or their smart phone and eat up the morsel they dish out today…PV sounds like a learned term to them I guess.
I’ve noticed weather.com radar display is increasingly inaccurate for predicted weather patterns. It is displaying clouds sliding off to the east or southeast when actual air patterns are moving north-northeast. Some idiot is getting paid to write the algorithms and has not figured out how bad his code is performing.
We got about 6.5 inches of snow here in southern TN. It is melting rapidly tonight with temps of about 35 degrees. A light drizzle earlier this afternoon sped up the process. Back in the deep-freeze tomorrow night with forecast down in the low teens.
Depends on what you mean by “overhead” and don’t forget about West Coast zone 9 areas! When it got down to 14.7°F here in (newly) zone 9 Seattle last week, there was a pretty impressive arctic air mass aloft even though at the surface it was moderated a bit by our usual maritime influences.
You need some ground protection mats, swamp mats, or some used mine belt.
61 and rainy yesterday. Not typical. Usually in the 40’s. Some of my apricot branches are show white on the buds. Oh my!
I think they mean the term polar vortex has been misappropriated. As by definition it can only happen over the poles if I understood correctly what was meant. Meaning it would be odd to see a zone 9 in the pole, not that it can’t get cold in a zone 9. Especially our two newly appointed zone 9s
My understanding is that the “vortex” itself is just the direct manifestation of the Coriolis Effect. The Earth is spinning, therefore the fluid shrouding its surface also spins. The polar air mass is cold because the poles are the coldes place, duh, but that cold is confined into a more or less discrete mass by the jet stream, a warmer and more strongly rotating air mass. The delta that produces that strong jet stream is the product of ocean surface temperatures. When the delta gets weak, the jetsream cavitates or breaks up and the polar air mass spins out from its rotating center like a dervish’s gown. So in a sense, the media use is correct in that when the polar air arrives you are “in the polar vortex” so to speak. Nevermind that the vortex is omnipresent.
I haven’t owned a TV in my adult life, so Im somewhat insulated from the nonsense that many endure. I realized a long time ago how much its tailor made to engage your base emotional responses. What amazes me is how many people are bothered yet continue to watch despite that. It’s almost reminiscent of drivers who angrily narrate their traffic encounters. Maybe that urge is another base emotion that media manages to key into? Or maybe in many cases its more like rubbernecking: no matter how grotesque (or in the case of the news, underwhelmingly pantomime) you can’t help but look…
There are usually a few tropospheric polar vortices at any one time. Again, they are just upper level lows in the arctic region. When the pattern is conducive for it, they can move southward into lower latitides. Like any upper level low in the northern hemishpere, they have large scale cyclonic (counter clockwise) flow around them. The true PV doesn’t dip into the lower 48 often although pieces of it can. Sometimes they phase into other shortwave troughs and cause major storms.
IIRC, the event that triggered the first media hype was the January 6-8, 2014 cold wave. The PV was up near the Canadian border while the coldest core of air at 850mb rotating around it through WI/IL/IN/OH. This isn’t Day After Tomorrow nonsense. The core of the coldest air can often be away from the heart of the upper level low. And where that core of the cold through moved through temps plummeted…even during the day thanks to the low sun angle.
So maybe it’s a moot point. That 2014 cold shot was associated with the PV, but meteorologically speaking, we would say the PV is in southern Canada, the core of the coldest temps is in the Midwest/OH valley, and there’s a sprawling high over TX with surface ridge axis extending northward up along the continental divide.
The Jan 85 cold shot was similar, but the heart of the PV actually dipped into the lower Great Lakes region and the airmass was a little colder with widespread -35 to -40C 850mb temps over the Midwest/Lakes. The cold went south into Texas well south of the PV, but that’s pretty common down there as the arctic airmass undercuts the relatively warmer mid level temps east of the divide. I think everyone in TX here knows what a blue norther is. 
Anyway…not trying to cause a stir. Just pointing out a technicality that most of us mets make fun of when we hear the term Polar Vortex thrown around. It gets tied in a lot with climate change now, but it actuality I’d argue we see their intrusions into the lower 48 less than in previous decades.
Excellent.
Been about 39 years since Cincinnati OH had the coldest reading of -35 in all 50 states.
I’m sure if they had had the same hype over PV then, it’d have been on
every talk program and social media. But, calculators still cost $100 back then…
maybe not by then…but you get the idea.
Good info…I also get tired of the hype of the uninformed,
pseudo-experts in the media.
I bought a TI30 calculator in 1978 for $32. It is memorable because I used it for trig class in college.
I was on the hunt for some but was unable to source any. Folks who I know that have used them have borrowed them from others who I dont know, so it would have been a big favor to ask. The machine was a rental so ai was loathe to invest much into it. Any ideas where such an item might be acquired? I imagine theyre pretty spendy. but worth their weight in unobtanium if you need em. I’ll probably buy a telehandler next time I need one for an extended amount of time. I had nearly $25k, more than 1/2 the cost of a nice used one into the rental.
There is a place that sells mine belt near me in sections. I think this is it but not 100% sure. If it is them, it would be sold by the ton.
I looked in the bulk bins at the local food co-op, next to the granola, but they were fresh out
We’d be breaking out our shorts and tank tops up here in NH for those temps! 
