Althouse: The vortex.

January 4, 2014

The vortex.

"Astonishing."

34 comments:

Anonymous said...: Spirograph.

From Wiki:

A Spirograph is a geometric drawing toy that produces mathematical roulette curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids.; 1/4/14, 6:35 AM
Anonymous said...: Sting Art.

From Wiki:

String art, or pin and thread art, is characterized by an arrangement of colored thread strung between points to form abstract geometric patterns...; 1/4/14, 6:36 AM
Anonymous said...: (String, not Sting. 4:30 in the AM here).; 1/4/14, 6:37 AM
Anonymous said...: Mood Ring.

From Wiki:

A mood ring is a ring which contains a thermochromic element, such as liquid crystal. The ring changes color in response to the body temperature of its wearer. The color is said, by some proponents, to indicate the emotional state of the wearer.

The mood ring was created in 1975 by two New York inventors, Josh Reynolds and Maris Ambats, who bonded liquid crystals with quartz stones set into rings...

I Think I Woke Up in the Seventies This Morning.; 1/4/14, 6:43 AM
campy said...: So now are you wingnutz ready to give up your planet-killing SUVs and embrace Holy Mother Gaia?; 1/4/14, 6:44 AM
virgil xenophon said...: BEWARE!!! GLOBAL WARMING! GLOBAL WARMING!

(BTW, In meteorological terms those representational pressure lines are known as "isobars."); 1/4/14, 6:44 AM
Anonymous said...: Joan Miró.; 1/4/14, 6:52 AM
Sam said...: Cool , yes (pun intended) astonishing, no.; 1/4/14, 6:53 AM
Largo said...: Zuul lives in Toronto?; 1/4/14, 7:34 AM
Tank said...: Lotta true believers in the comments there.

Here in NJ it's seven.; 1/4/14, 7:49 AM
Stephen A. Meigs said...: The article is a little misleading. Typically the air mass over a pole is a high pressure system. Cold air is denser, which typically makes for higher pressure since gravity tends to equalize atmospheric height between different places. A polar vortex, according to Wikipedia, tends to be around the polar high [but not actually on top of the pole]. It says that in Canada it's most often over Baffin Island.; 1/4/14, 8:02 AM
PB said...: Another article written by someone born yesterday. with the advent of the technology that allows us to detect and track such things, simple minds assume everything is new and unprecedented. Nowhere in the article does it mention that this won't be breaking any records for cold temperature.; 1/4/14, 8:45 AM
Humperdink said...: Numerous comments from other websites lay the blame for this on AGW. "You see, we told you so. Extreme weather."; 1/4/14, 8:45 AM
MadisonMan said...: @virgil, you fail.

Isobar do not appear on a 500-mb surface. You are looking at height contours.

Madison is about to break a record: the longest number of days between successive -5 F highs. The last one was in 1996 -- 18 years ago (almost).

The previous long span was 11 years.; 1/4/14, 8:47 AM
MadisonMan said...: @Stephen Meigs, you need to read up on the hypsometric equation.

The polar vortex is an upper air feature not to be confused with a surface high pressure system that is found underneath it.

All the cold air seems to be over the US this winter. We have friends who went to St. Petersburg over break -- no snow, no frozen canals, just misty and 45. Bleak weather for such high latitudes. You really need snow cover to lighten things up. Can't ski around Helsinki either, or much in Norway.; 1/4/14, 8:51 AM
MadisonMan said...: I could talk about the weather all day, but parental duty calls. Time for a Kid Sporting Event!

(I'm old school -- apologies for saying mb instead of hPa).; 1/4/14, 8:55 AM
Darrell said...: The Left is calling this "climate collapse." That is supposed to make you turn the keys to everything over to them. "Kooky" will be along soon to tell me that there is no Left anymore.; 1/4/14, 9:19 AM
Anonymous said...: The Important stuff: Gonna be a cold game in Green Bay :); 1/4/14, 9:26 AM
Meade said...: Apparently, Bob was wrong - some of us DO need a weatherMadisonMan to know which way the wind blows.; 1/4/14, 9:27 AM
Humperdink said...: @Darrell. You are exactly right. Every single item on the left's agenda has the same goal. Turn over the keys of the kingdom to us. It is never the stated goal, however.

As an aside, DeBlasio was just handed the keys to NYC. This will be interesting to watch.; 1/4/14, 9:28 AM
Rusty said...: So. No sex outside, then?

I've been bustin up old air conditioners, refrigerators, an aerosol cans for at least ten years now.
I WANNA SEE PALM TREES ON MICHIGAN AVENUE, GODDAMN IT!
I'm beginnin to think this "global warming" stuff is fulla shit.; 1/4/14, 9:44 AM
lemondog said...: Only This; 1/4/14, 9:55 AM
Sorun said...: It's almost like visiting the North Pole without leaving home.; 1/4/14, 10:38 AM
Anonymous said...: Colonoscopy, Vaguely.; 1/4/14, 11:06 AM
SteveR said...: They went all in with Global Warming and have been walking it back ever since.; 1/4/14, 11:27 AM
Wince said...: Even the witches are bundling up their tits and going home.; 1/4/14, 1:43 PM
Rusty said...: OpenID betamax3000 said...
Colonoscopy, Vaguely.

Believe me. When you get one it won't be vague.
Wanna see the pictures?; 1/4/14, 1:48 PM
jimspice said...: Steve, nobody's walking anything back. 2013 looks to enter the books as the 7th warmest on record. Australia saw it's warmest year ever recorded. The U.S. wasn't even colder than average.; 1/4/14, 2:20 PM
Jaq said...: When you say things like "The seventh warmest year on record" and don't talk about the trend, it makes one wonder. Stupid rhetoric like that is what is driving the people you guys need most, graduates in STEM, away from your cause.

And BTW, AR5 is a walk back.; 1/4/14, 2:27 PM
Lnelson said...: Can't believe no one has asked where Al Gore's global warming speech is this weekend.; 1/4/14, 2:55 PM
Paul said...: God's punishment for listening to Al Gore and voting for Obama is here!

Least it seems that way.

Hope for change in 2014.; 1/4/14, 4:37 PM
Stephen A. Meigs said...: @MadisonMan

I suppose you are right. Though this is a low pressure system, the definition of polar vortex apparently is more concerned with low upper-level air pressure, which the graphic demonstrates definitively.; 1/4/14, 5:37 PM
WhoKnew said...: Temperatures not seen since the mid-nineties. whoop-de-do. It was colder for longer in Madison in the late 70's. I remember an entire January when it never got above 10. This is only supposed to last 4 days. And of all of these short time events are nothing in terms of the time scales that climate moves in.; 1/4/14, 9:24 PM
Unknown said...: Not walking it back --- because its a religion not science…

***3Global Sea Ice at Record Levels. Al Gore and John Kerry 5 years ago predicted that 2013 would be ice free in the arctic. You probably haven’t heard that the exact opposite came true. 2013 is currently at the second highest volume of sea ice ever recorded and will probably break the all time record before the season is over.

http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/global-sea-ice-area-second-highest-on-record-for-date-closing-in-on-all-time-record/

****Since we’ve been keeping count the Polar Bear population is estimated at a record high of 20k to 25k. 5,000 are expected to be born around the New Year in Russia alone.

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/5000_polar_bears_expected_to_be_born_around_New_Years_999.html

***2013 Was The Least Extreme U.S. Weather Year Ever. 2013 shatters the record for fewest U.S. tornadoes, 15% lower than previous record. 2013 also had the fewest U.S. forest fires since 1984.

****No Global Warming For Over 17 Years. The RSS monthly global mean lower-troposphere temperature anomalies for November 1996 to October 2013 had shown no global warming for exactly 204 months – the first dataset to show the full 17 years without warming specified by Ben Santer as showing the models got it wrong.

http://www.climatedepot.com/2013/12/18/no-global-warming-for-17-years-3-months-a-monckton-analysis/; 1/5/14, 7:06 PM