#southern cold

[mahoganygold213]

Naya Kotko Photography

[newstfionline]

It’s so cold in the South, the 64-degree Gulf of Mexico is literally steaming

By Angela Fritz, Washington Post, January 17, 2018

It’s a deep freeze in the Deep South.

Temperatures dipped below zero in Texas, and New Orleans dropped to a temperature that hasn’t been recorded since the Macarena was a No. 1 hit and Nintendo 64 was the hottest thing. In a few locations, this morning’s cold was more intense than anything since 1989, and quite frankly I’d rather not date myself too badly by saying what was in style then.

For some kids--even millennials--in the South, this morning was the coldest of their lives. Grimace.

Temperatures were so cold Wednesday morning, in fact, that the 64-degree Gulf of Mexico was literally steaming. Meteorologists call it “sea smoke” but it’s the exact same science as a boiling pot of water or your steamy breath on a cold day. Cold, dry air meets warm water; water evaporates into air until it can’t hold any more; water vapor condenses and steam forms.

Sea smoke is fairly common on, say, the Great Lakes during winter. It hardly ever happens over the Gulf of Mexico.

In Eastland, Tex., the temperature dropped to minus-2 Wednesday morning. It’s the coldest temperature North Texas has experienced since 1989, according to the National Weather Service.

New Orleans dropped to 20 degrees, which is the coldest since the big cold air outbreak of Feb. 5, 1996. That winter was exceptionally cold across the Lower 48, east of the Rockies. Multiple waves of Arctic air blasted the South and set all-time cold records from Minnesota to Louisiana to the capital. Minnesota actually set a new state record in that outbreak--minus-60 near the town of Tower. Needless to say, all of the public schools across the state were closed that day.

[thefeistymidget]

Southern freeze

Sometimes I hate living surrounded on all sides by water. My mom just grounded me to the parish because people can't drive on icy roads around here, causing a 14 car pile up on one bridge, an 8 car pile up on another and another bridge is already shut down due to the ice. Plus, most of the roads are nice and icy.