I'm not saying that it's incredibly cold outside...

[Orrex]

but I've got this ingot of metallic hydrogen on my porch that just won't melt.

:scared:

[Blue_In_AK]

1. I feel your pain.

We had those kind of temperatures for two weeks up here - -30 or so here in Anchorage, down to -65 in the Interior -- and, in fact, that is Alaska's arctic blast that you're feeling now. With us, after almost two weeks of subzero temperatures, the Pineapple Express suddenly blew in, laying down a layer of water on top of the deep ice, creating chaos for drivers, closing the city. Now it's mid-40s, rainy, with very high winds, gusting to 105 mph near the mountains.

Do the midwest states get tornados, blizzards or thunderstorms from that kind of weathern pattern, or is the Chinook local to the west coast?

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Chinook is local to West coast..actually Ore, Wash and I guess Alaska.

I know from Wash.
East of The Mississippi, same thing happens when warm Gulf of Mexico air collides with Northern cold air, then you get the strong storms, tornadoes.
Interestingly, our usual storm fronts run from SW to NE line from around coast of Louisiana up towards Kansas, then get blown east to us.
Except in hurricanes which is a whole other ball game.

The storms that come in over the Pacific and hit the West Coast are as strong as a hurricane, no one thinks of it that way, tho. I have ridden out 120 mile gusts in the Pac. NW.

[Blue_In_AK]

7. I know we get some serious wind up here

every year. This is a very usual pattern for January, the very cold, still high pressure that just sits here for days and days, and then all of a sudden the wind blows in from the south and wreaks havoc. Some years there has been quite a bit of damage, but it never gets reported on the national news. The only time you hear about Alaska's weather is when it's heading down there. :)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. Strange here

in Northern Virginia, just across the Potomac from DC.

Right now it's 18 degrees. That's fairly freakish for this area. Winds are bad, too. Deadly wind chill out there. We got weather advisories tonight. Bring in your pets, check on the elderly, wear a hat.

It'll warm up some for the Inauguration, but it's still gonna be chilly.

[silverojo]

3. ROTFL! Good one! - n/t

[Historic NY]

4. Just hit -2 here in NY north of the city.

[efilon]

5. - 17 here in Eastern Iowa

I think the high today was -1

[pauliedangerously]

8. Neg 17 in the Twin Cities right now...

I shoveled REALLY fast yesterday.