Anne Not Quite In The Water

Remember the polar vortex? Remember how cold it was this last winter? Remember that Internet meme, where crazy people were throwing boiling pots of water into the cold air and watching it freeze before it could hit the ground? Well, its back! Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water again. Check out this recent ten-day NOAA temperature forecast.

Does it look familiar? This is the forecast for what is normally the hottest week of the year. While this coming week’s cold snap may still send you running to the nearest roaring fireplace, it is nowhere near as cold as last winter’s weather was, but both seasons cold weather origins are the same. The same basic large-scale weather pattern has been settled in over North America for months now, and it even has a name: the ridiculously resilient ridge.

When I visited Michigan’s UP last week a topic of frequent and vehement conversations was last winter’s polar vortex. A remnant of this winter weather phenomenon is this summer’s colder than average lake water temperature. That being said, according to NOAA last winter’s average temperature in the Midwest was only one degree Fahrenheit colder than normal. Face it folks, we’ve just gotten soft and use to warmer than normal winter weather that is being caused by global warming. Worldwide the first five months of 2014 were collectively the fifth warmest such period globally since records began.

The Midwest’s winter was a temporary cold blip in a small corner of the Earth. We just happen to live here. On the other hand, this summer cold snap makes the normally sizzling Saint Louis summer weather downright pleasant this year.