Polar Vortex on a Polar Coaster

I am compelled to look at the official weather forecast for this winter.  That's because Polar Vortex is in the title.  What about the Polar Coaster that was predicted just a few weeks ago.  Add to that - Global News tells us to brace for Game of Snows, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac. With this many catchy titles, I wonder what the  Weather Channel's official forecast looks like.  Let's check it out. It is visually very compelling: The weather map is brilliant colours - a big deep blue circle in the middle of the country, a light blue circle that surrounds it which includes Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton and For McMurray, a third green circle, and finally two red circles.  You can imagine that red is above normal for average temperatures.  Then there are charts for snowfall/precipitation.   Their headline on the Polar Vortex is to get ready for a classic Canadian winter.  That sounds like we have a polar vortex every year. The Great Lakes  are a concern. Why is that?  Water levels are well above normal - so there would be flooding in spring if there is a cold and snowing winter. The overall map shows a pattern or warmer temperatures all along the North American west coast, and below normal in the majority of the east and central portions of North America.   You can see the Weather Network maps HERE.   I expect it to be a cold winter when I compare this year's snow in mid-November with last year. Here's a picture from last year at the same time.  We can look to the promise of spring below - the weeping cherry tree on Niagara Street, in St. Catharines.

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Beer Deliveries in Chiberia

The polar vortex is at both poles.  It weakens in the summer and strengthens in the winter.  Whose summer and whose winter - aren't they reversed?  I find that the Antarctic polar vortex is more pronounced and persistent than the Arctic one.  Yikes! The headlines say parts of the US are colder than Antarctica amid 'Polar Vortex'.  The bbc.com had these news topics: Chicago has renamed itself "Chiberia" Chicago police say people are being robbed at gunpoint of their coats, especially Canada Goose jackets, which cost $1,100. Beer deliveries in Wisconsin have been hit, too, as brewers delay shipments for fear their beverages will freeze in the trucks. "Beastly Blast of Winter" is another headline Niagara Falls is a scene from the movie "Frozen" - the video coverage showed everything with a few inches of ice. I found this headline from the NPC Daily, an anti-Trump organization: Trump condones Polar Vortex because he wants America to be more like Russia - more collusion  Here's the story and Trump's tweet that says this HERE.   The coldest place in the world will be Surgut Russia at -39.5 F then Yakutsk at -38.6F and Winnipeg follows at -38.2F.  It's a race between Canada and Russia as to who will get the top medals for coldest in the world!  The Canadian news is comparing Winnipeg's freezing cold temperatures with Mars.  Winnipeg wins naturally.  And the comparison with the west coast:  Flowers are blooming in the west and snow is pummelling the east.  West coast wins on that one! Today's images were chosen by a random number generator - the first is rust on a Silverton rail car, and the second a model at the Sundance Museum in Florida.  They share the number 6534.

The Solar Day

Solar Day

This was one of the Polar Vortex images from last year.  The temperatures were so low that frost built up in complicated patterns on the conservatory glass.  These pictures were taken at the end of the day when the sun was low over the escarpment and starting to set. 

The image has been processed with a new filter available from Topaz Labs named 'Glow'.  It creates squiggly and electrified lines.  

I hadn't thought of this before - if we lived in the southern hemisphere today will be their summer solstice.  The solstice has a time occurrence - this year 11:03pm UTC when it seems to stand still at the Tropic of Capricorn and then reverses its direction.  

So this picture celebrates the Solar Day and the return of the sun thereafter.