For some unknown reason, we often get strange low temperatures here at the edge of three counties and four cities, at Eight Mile and Napier. We have frosts and freezes a bit ahead of the forecast, so I was not too surprised when the mercury began to drop on February 15th. But at 9 PM, when other places were barely reporting zero, we had 18.3 degrees below zero. I called this in to WWJ, because it was so strange, but one could feel the air burning the skin, even just walking out to the shed. I prepared to stay up to watch the phenomenon.
At 10:25, I recorded 20 below. At 11:08,minus 22 was the lesser of two thermometers, the second reading past -30 Celsius, which is about 22 below. (One was on a board with a pile of snow, the other, lower, was on wire in the air a couple feet off the ground) It eased up to about 19.8 at midnight, which I checked because I wanted to see the record for February 16th. I got 22.5 below at 1:30 AM, and 23 at 1:54. When I went for a nap after 2, it was 22, and when I woke up again at 5:30 it was also -22.
Ann Arbor, which is a few miles southwest, recorded 12 below, their record for the date. The all time low ever recorded in Ann Arbor was 22 below. But I’ll bet that night, it was even colder in Salem, out behind the shed.
I think the polar vortex was passing right overhead, or something. We are in a bit of a valley between Northville and Chubb road, and the storms, on Doppler, seem to part as they come along eight mile heading north-west. But there is nothing that would make sense of these strange lows.
mmcdonald77 