Extreme weather may have some seeking spring

Winter doesn’t begin officially until late Friday, but many residents of this weather-battered nation are already hoping for an early spring. Over this last week, extreme weather has made headlines across much of the Eastern U.S.

Along the Canadian border, temperatures plunged to near minus-30 degrees earlier this month. Heavy snows fell in the northern Great Lakes region and parts of New England, with 1 to two feet being reported.

Where the Arctic cold collided with the record warm temperatures in the Southeast and moist flow from the Gulf of Mexico in mid-December, a hard shell of ice more than an inch thick brought down power lines, broke tree branches and turned streets into virtual skating rinks from Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin southward through Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and extreme northern Arkansas.

Nearly 600,000 Oklahoma homes and businesses went without electricity when power lines snapped under the weight of thick layers of ice and the resulting falling tree branches. That power outage was being described as the worst in state history.

In the Midwest and the Great Plains, utilities in Missouri at midweek reported approximately 170,000 homes and businesses without power. Neighboring Kansas had more than 100,000 customers in the dark. In many seriously affected areas of the central U.S., the National Guard supplied much-needed generators to nursing homes, shelters and other institutions.

Farmers are becoming increasingly worried about their already drought-damaged 2007-08 winter wheat crop being “choked to death” by thick layers of clear ice. Wheat prices are at all-time high levels and still climbing as Ma Nature continues to take an ever-increasing toll.

What’s causing all this extreme weather? Well, blame it on La Niña, a much cooler sea-surface temperature event in the waters of the Pacific Ocean and an extremely cold and snowy Siberia this harsh fall.

As temperatures in Siberia in late November and early December plunged to as low as minus 60, and the snows began to pile up, the huge dome of frigid Arctic air quickly deepened and expanded, first into northern Eurasia, and then later eastward through Alaska, much of Canada and at least the northern two-thirds of the U.S., including our part of the country in the Inland Northwest earlier this month.

We’ve seen a series of storms parading through the Inland Northwest for most of December. In order to receive snow rather than rain, we need to mix in some of that frigid Arctic air. Normal high temperatures at this time of year are near the freezing mark. Readings have moderated a bit this week, but there should be enough snow for that white Christmas, assuming it doesn’t get too warm or windy between now and Christmas Day. There’s also the chance of snow Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Longer term, another round of warmer-than-normal temperatures is expected around New Year’s Day, but readings will not be as mild as they were earlier this month. Then, more cold and snowy weather arrives the second week of January as the cooler-than-normal sea-surface temperature event, La Niña, continues to direct Pacific storms into our area.

The coldest weather of the winter season is expected in mid-to-late January as temperatures may plunge to near or below zero, even in the lower elevations.