Temperature difference across China on Feb 18

[harleyb]

Amazing!

From the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ak-records

Extract:
"China’s Xinjiang region, in the far west of the country, experienced record-breaking low temperatures of -52.3C on 18 February, surpassing a 64-year-old record for the region. The figure was just shy of the lowest national temperature of -53C, which was recorded in the Heilongjiang region in January last year.

The extreme weather has caused big disruption after the lunar new year celebrations, with blizzards and ice leaving people stranded on roads and railways. On the same day, Badu in the south of China recorded a maximum temperature of 38C, meaning there was a staggering temperature difference of 90.3C across the country. This is the largest temperature contrast ever recorded for a single country, surpassing the US in January 1954 by a whole degree Celsius."

[Nev]

^ Yes, that's an amazing contrast in temps...

Slightly OT, but worth noting that article also mentions a very rare tropical cyclone (aka tropical storm) off the coast of Brazil this week. TC Akará is only 1 of 3 TC's to have formed in the south Atlantic in the last 14 years. The only recorded TC to have ever reached hurricane strength in south Atlantic (or about Cat 3 on the BoM scale) was Hurricane Catarina in 2004.

Also this week, Indonesia was struck by its strongest ever recored tornado.
If you ignore the silly cover pic and title, below is a pretty good 10 minute collection of the numerous videos taken of that event:

[Simon Culling]

Russia recorded a contrast of nearly 86°C on 8th December 2021 - with a low of -61.1°C at Delyankir in the Sakha Republic contrasting with a high of 24.5°C at Shatoy in the southern republic of Chechnya.

https://twitter.com/ScottDuncanWX/statu ... 7919277060

[ryant1234]

Which Badu in South china is this? I go on Wikipedia and find 3. It's weird The Guardian which is trustworthy, is the only source for this and somewhere further south like Hanoi in Vietnam tends to be quite cool at this time of year. South China and North Vietnam get pretty cool winters for the latitude.

I dont deny abnormal winter temperatures after what happened in South America last year, but shouldn't there be some other relatively warm temperatures recorded on Feb 18th in South China?

[Nev]

^ Yes, apparently there were also quite a few other local Feb high temp records set in south China, Thailand, South Korea and Japan last week.

China ECMWF temp anomaly map - 2024 Feb 18.png

Source: https://twitter.com/yangyubin1998/statu ... 56/photo/1

Edit: I think the map below is more accurate location-wise going by the China Railway Map...

China temp map - 2024 Feb 18.jpeg

Source: https://twitter.com/WxNB_/status/175922 ... 88/photo/1