BRRRR! 1/16-17/09: GLOBALLY, ONE OF THE COLDEST NIGHTS IN DECADES!

TAMPA:

With clear skies and lighter winds, temperatures fell quickly overnight. This morning, temperatures ranged from the low to mid 30s along the Nature Coast to the mid-upper 30s farther south. Officially, at Tampa International it was 37 degrees this morning! Brrr!

YORK, PA:

Depending on where the temperature was measured, we might have set a record for cold early this morning.

The National Weather Service recorded an overnight temperature of 1 degree below zero. (That's 18.3 degrees Celsius, for the metric minded.)

Here is where it gets complicated.
The previous record for this date, reported at the York Airport in Thomasville, was 4 degrees above zero, set in 2003. But Aaron Tyburski, a meteorologist for the weather service in State College, said those records only go back about 15 years.

CHARLOTTE:

Uptown Streets Bare On Coldest Night In Years

With temperatures dropping into single digits Friday night, the streets of Uptown Charlotte were nearly empty.

Several businesses said without a doubt, business suffers when it gets this cold.

“The street is empty right now, and usually when you come down on Friday night it’s packed,” said Kelly Stranburg.

Greg Ruffino, manager of Ri Ra’s Irish Pub, said people are just more attuned to stay inside when it’s this cold. “I don’t want to leave the house. I don’t want to come into work; just like anyone doesn’t want to go out and see a movie or what-not,” he said.

TORONTO:

Toronto’s coldest night of the year, sans power

Now I know why they picked a balmy summer night to have Earth Hour. Losing your power on the coldest night of winter -- a kind of Enforced Earth Hour -- is no picnic.

Last night at 10 p.m. I was merrily making lunches for the kids, the kids were asleep, my wife was upstairs in the office on the computer, when suddenly the house made a small "whoooh!" like a sigh, and went dark. The furnace, which had been roaring to compensate for the icy -15C outside, abruptly shut off.

Out the window, our street, which is near Dovercourt and Dufferin streets, was dark: the houses and streetlights were off.

I called a friend nearby. Her lights were out, too.

My wife came downstairs and we took a candle to the basement, where we found a box of candles. The temperature in the house began to drop.

I called the National Post office in Don Mills. "We have power," an editor told me.

We flicked on the radio. "The power is out, from Bloor to St. Clair." Ummm, sorry, 680 News, we're freezing here too, quite a bit south of Bloor Street.

As the thermometre continued to plummet, both inside the house and out, I started to worry. Instead, we just put an extra blanket on each of the children, put on long underwear under our pyjamas, put an extra blanket on over our duvet, blew out the candles, and went to sleep.

"This is how people used to do it," said my wife.

PHILIPPINES:

Metro Manila residents yesterday felt the extra chill as the temperature dropped to 18.1 degrees Celsius, the lowest to be recorded in the metropolis so far this year.

Based on records by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), the lowest temperature in Metro Manila yesterday registered 18.1 degrees Celsius at 5:45 a.m.

Yesterday’s temperature is the lowest to be recorded so far as it surpassed the earlier lowest temperature record at 18.2 degrees Celsius on Jan. 4. However, the lowest temperature for this northeast monsoon season remains at 18 degrees, which was recorded last Dec. 20.

...Yesterday’s minimum temperature in Baguio City was at 8.4 degrees, a little higher than the other day’s 7.5 degrees, the lowest so far this year in Baguio City.

Based on PAGASA records, minimum air temperatures at the Port Area in Manila were at 15.7 degrees on December 3, 1992; 14.5 degrees Celsius on Jan. 11, 1914; and 15.6 degrees on Feb. 18, 1920.

As for Davao, the unsurpassed lowest air temperature was at 16.2 degrees Celsius, recorded on Dec. 24, 1918; 17.2 degrees Celsius on Jan. 10, 1912; and at 16.1 degrees Celsius on Feb. 3, 1962.

For Cebu, the lowest air temperature was at 19.8 degrees Celsius on Jan. 21, 1997 and at 20 degrees Celsius, both on Feb. 16, 1904 and Dec. 28, 1996.

As for Baguio City, meanwhile, the unsurpassed minimum temperature was at 7.6 degrees on Dec. 13, 1991; 6.3 degrees on Jan. 18, 1961; and at 6.7 degrees on Feb. 1, 1963.

THAILAND:

Thais are donning scarves, farmers are scrambling to save their rice crops and snakes are freezing to death.

That is all because temperatures in this normally balmy country have dipped to their coldest in a decade.

MAN-MADE CO2 HAS INCREASED EVERY YEAR SINCE 1850, BUT TEMPERATURES HAVE NOT; THEREFORE, AGW = BS.