Thursday, January 30, 2014

5 Mind-Blowing Facts about the Polar Vortex

As the polar vortex finally loosens its grip on North America, we thought it’d be fun to look back on some of its most interesting highlights.
At one point, some Canadian cities were colder than Mars
According to the NASA, the daily high temperatures on Mars ranged from -25 to -31C as of December 21st (the latter being the coldest daily high recorded since the rover landed in Aug. 2012, says the Ottawa Sun). Not too bad when you look at Winnipeg, Manitoba, Saskatoon and even Ottawa:
·         Winnipeg - low of -37 °C (January 6)
·         Manitoba – low of -40 °C (January 1)
·         Saskatoon - low of 36.8 °C (January 6)
·         Ottawa – low of -28.1 °C (January 3)

It broke a low temperature record in South Central Ontario

Hamilton’s cold temperature record was set at a blistering -24 °C! According to the CBC, ”For people scurrying to work across frozen downtown sidewalks, that temperature felt even colder as frigid winds gusting up to 60 km/h made it feel as cold as -41 C (the all-time wind chill record is -43 C, set on Jan. 19, 1994).”
At one point, all 50 US states had at least one area reporting below-freezing temperatures

The Telegraph reports that “all 50 of America’s states recorded temperatures below freezing at some point on Tuesday [January 7th]“. Even the sunshine state dropped below zero!
Planes in Chicago were grounded due to frozen jet fuel

It can be tough to keep a flight when it’s cold enough for jetfuel to freeze. As many North Americans already know, the 2014 polar vortex caused massive transportation issues in practically every means of travel. In fact, between January 3rd and 4th alone, CAA South Central Ontario fielded over 12,000 service calls! Down south in the states, the disruption is said to cost the US economy a whopping five BILLION dollars.
It had its own hashtag


The National Weather Service created #Chiberia (a combination of Chicago and Siberia) to collect info about the storm from residents. Pretty smart thinking!

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