In a post earlier this week I talked about the source of all the cold air that has been affecting the US this month. The source region for the frigid air was northern Russia and Siberia. This week NASA posted their October 2014 climate summary, which showed that the earth as a whole was the warmest on record. This agreed with independent data from the Japan Meteorological Agency and the University of Huntsville (AL)’s satellite record. However, in spite of the all-time warmth, there was a cold pool of temperatures in northern Russia which most likely contributed to the early build-up of snow cover in that area. That record snow cover led to the development of the cold air which eventually blew into the US earlier this month. As in the past, not all areas of the globe are expected to show the same trends in temperature and precipitation over time, and these (interesting to me) differences drives the weather which affects us on shorter time scales. You can read about the latest climate summary from the Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Post by clicking here.
