Halloween storms and upcoming time change
Halloween arrives on Thursday and the weather will be dry for the area “trick-or-treaters.” Prior to Halloween, more snow showers are possible across the region today. Then, conditions should be mostly dry and cold until rain and snow are expected to increase across North Idaho by the middle of next month.
It’s certainly going to be chilly on Oct. 31. High temperatures in the Coeur d’Alene area should be close to 40 degrees, well below average, so bundle up the trick-or-treaters as readings will be into the low to mid 30s shortly after the sun goes down and into the upper 20s by 8 p.m.
Temperatures are really going to be cold in the nation’s midsection this week. Lows will drop to below the zero mark across the northern Rockies. Readings will be in the single digits and teens and from eastern Montana across the Great Plains and the Upper Midwest. Morning lows will be below the freezing mark all the way down into north-central Texas, not typical of late October.
The rare early season snows continued to fall across the Inland Northwest as storm systems have been “backing up” from Montana rather than coming in from the Pacific Ocean. Last Saturday, Cliff measured another 1.3 inches of snow, taking our seasonal total to 4.2 inches. During a typical year, Coeur d’Alene would see a trace of snow or one storm that produces around an inch in October. This year, we’ve had two storms that have produced over an inch of snow each, plus the one in September, very unusual indeed.
October has already seen some extreme weather in Idaho and across the rest of the country. It has been one of the coldest Octobers in history across parts of the Pacific Northwest, the Rockies and the north-central U.S. And, more frigid weather is expected into early November.
One of the most famous storms on Oct. 31 occurred in 1991. It was known as the “Halloween Blizzard” that brought snow and ice to the Upper Midwest. Snowfall totals on that Halloween day in 1991 were nearly a foot in some areas as Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., reported 8.2 inches of snow. Residents in Duluth, Minnesota had thundersnow, a thunderstorm with snow rather than rain. By the time the storm was finished on Nov. 3, nearly 37 inches of snow was measured in Duluth.
Conditions were also very treacherous across southern Minnesota and Iowa south of Interstate 90 as a major ice storm swept through those regions. As much as 2-3 inches of ice was measured before the precipitation changed to snow.
A different type of storm slammed into the Earth’s magnetic field from Oct. 19 through Nov. 7 in 2003. Called the “Halloween Storms of 2003,” enormous explosions on the sun’s surface sent billions of tons of subatomic particles toward our planet. The solar flares resulted in disruptions and even some damage to orbiting satellites. There was also a power outage in Sweden that lasted for about an hour and there was an increase in the Aurora Borealis, the northern and southern lights. The storms were so strong that the northern lights could be seen down into Florida.
We also can’t forget the time change this upcoming Sunday. On Nov. 3, most U.S. and European residents will move their clocks back one hour to Standard Time. I’m assuming that many of us will enjoy the extra hour of sleep. On the flip side, however, it will be getting dark even earlier thanks to the time change. And, our daylight hours will continue to decrease as we head toward the Winter Solstice, the first day of winter, on Dec. 21.
We’ll have to wait until the second week of March before returning to Daylight Saving Time. One big reason the clocks are returned to Standard Time in November is to provide school children with more light. Without the time change, they would be going to their classes in the dark as the sun would be rising later in the morning.
More than 60 percent of the countries in the world stay on Standard Time throughout the year. Daylight Saving Time is not observed in Hawaii, Arizona, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Somoa and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands.
There are time zones in other countries that don’t follow the same pattern like North America. For example, China has a single standard time and the country has five geographical time zones. Their official national standard time is called Beijing Time in China, and China Standard Time internationally.
Most time zones across the globe are offset by hours when compared to Coordinated Universal Time, or Greenwich Mean Time located at 0 degrees longitude. However, there are locations where time zones are offset by 30 or 45 minutes. In Canada, there is the Newfoundland Time Zone that is currently 4 hours and 30 minutes ahead of the Pacific Time Zone. In Nepal, their time is 12 hours and 45 minutes ahead of us. Just like the weather, time zones are unusual too.
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Contact Randy Mann at randy@longrangeweather.com