Very cold air was becoming established across the interior of Alaska during the last few days of December 2008. AWIPS images of the 4-km resolution GOES-11 10.7 µm IR channel (above) showed large areas exhibiting very cold IR brightness temperatures (colder than -40º C, darker blue color enhancement) which were... Read More

Unusually cold temperatures were experienced across much of the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region during  the month of December 2008 — as of 21 December, monthly temperatures were 6.4º F below normal at Milwaukee WI (their low that morning was -5º F), 7.2º F below normal at Chicago IL... Read More

A significant snowfall event occurred over the Desert Southwest region of the US on 17 December 2008 — as much as 30.0 inches of snow was reported at Wrightwood in the mountains of southern California (just northeast of Los Angeles), and Las... Read More

Even though very cold arctic air had invaded much of the north-central US  (minimum temperatures on the morning of 15 December were -33º F at Havre, Montana and -28º F at Bottineau, North Dakota), the deeper man-made lakes (created by dams) along the Missouri River remained unfrozen on 16 December... Read More