*** Paul Piorek is editor and publisher of Paul's Local Weather Journal for southwestern Connecticut ... Paul is the on-air meteorologist at WICC 600 AM and 107.3 FM ... Paul is a New York Emmy award winner (2007), five-time Emmy nominee, and four-time winner of the Connecticut Associated Press Broadcasters' Association award for Best TV Weathercast (2006, 2008, 2009, 2012) ... Paul was voted Best Local Television Personality by the readers of Fairfield County Weekly Magazine (2012) ... Paul was inducted into the Housatonic Community College Hall of Fame and received the Distinguished Alumni Award (2012) ... The local weather journal is a two-time winner of the Communicator Award of Distinction (2012 & 2013) ... Paul is currently a full-time teacher of Earth Science and Mathematics in Fairfield ... Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulPiorekWICC ...

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Stretch of Brutally Cold Weather Continues Into Fourth Week

This has been one of the coldest Winters in recent memory. In fact, today was the 21st straight day at Bridgeport with a colder-than-normal average temperature. The last day which featured an average temperature above normal happened January 25. All but 13 days this calendar year have been colder-than-normal. I took this photo of the Sun reflecting off the window at the base of the steeple of my church this afternoon.

 
Adding insult to injury is the current spell of dangerously cold weather. Today's high temperature at Bridgeport was 23 degrees, which occurred at 12:23 a.m. EST. The mercury dropped through much of the day. However, the gusty Northwest winds produced wind chills of -10 to -20 degrees today. The peak wind gust at Bridgeport was 51 miles an hour, and the peak wind speed was 36 mph. The average wind speed today was just over 20 mph.


February has been especially harsh. Every day this month has been colder-than-normal, including the last two days, which featured daily average temperatures of 19 and 14 degrees below normal, respectively. The average temperature at Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford this month is 22.1 degrees, which is a whopping 9.2 degrees below normal. The highest temperature this month is 36 degrees, which happened February 10 and 12.


The record low temperature for tomorrow, February 16, at Bridgeport is four degrees, which was set in 1987. I believe we'll break the record fairly easily. The coldest temperature thus far this Winter at Bridgeport is two degrees, which occurred February 3. This will most likely be the coldest night of the Winter. Take a look at the following graphic, produced  by the National Weather Service office in New York. Please click to enlarge.


Stay warm.

Paul