Coldest March Ever in Mid-Atlantic!
UPDATE 3/7: The ice concentration on the Great Lakes went up to 92.2% yesterday. Wow.
UPDATE 3/6: The winter temperature departure map is out:
UPDATE 3/6: We have a news story about the Lakes Ice. In regards to the Snow Cover map discussed below, USAToday weather tweeted this info: "It's possible [data is wrong], but David Robinson (of Rutgers University) says 'The NIC maps are generated by trained meteorologists... primarily using visible satellite imagery. They also look at surface weather obs, where clouds may obscure the surface.'"
UPDATE 3/6: USA Today also says: "As of Tuesday, North America is covered by the third-highest amount of snow this late in the season since records began in 1966, according to NOAA's U.S. National Ice Center." The map below shows even higher coverage yesterday - 50.9% - all but two continental states, Georgia and Florida. I think some of the "snow" in the Deep South could be bogus, caused by freezing rain or sleet reports there on Tuesday (the satellite would not have been able to see the ground yesterday due to clouds).
UPDATE 3/5: Great Lakes Ice Coverage is now at 91.0% which makes it #2 most ice per @USATODAY. The previous record was 95% in 1979. You can see 2014 animated below. Niagara Falls has also had extremely heavy ice this week, though it has not "frozen over" as this article suggests. The pictures, however, are beautiful.
Also check out this excellent article by Capital Weather Gang, that has some unique graphs and maps of this winter's "deep freeze."
Fox DC says "Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport broke a 141-year-old record low temperature, reaching 4 degrees F. The National Weather Service said the low reached early Tuesday broke a 5-degree record set on the day in 1873. It was also a record low for the month of March."
Other stations that had never (in recorded weather history anyway) seen a morning this cold in March included Atlantic City, N.J., (2 degrees), Charlottesville, Va., (1 degree) and Dover, Del., at 6 degrees. There are more records in our news story.
The HRRR model estimated that 33 states were below zero this morning (see above), with that backed up by actual METAR observations for more than 25. Even my station here in State College, Pa., hit zero (again) this morning (more Centre County & Penn State winter records).
The worst was in Canada; La Grande, Quebec, fell to -51 F, the coldest in the last month! Even the South didn't escape; this will be one of the coldest Mardi Gras on record (especially when you consider the 1899 record was set three weeks earlier!). It was 26 degrees this morning with bridges icing up this morning in the state:
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