Midwinter chill for portions of northern hemisphere as Los Angeles wildfires dominate weather news

We’re passing the midway point of winter in the Lower 48 and much of the northern hemisphere. Right on target, portions of the top half of the globe are reaching minimums for the season and Arctic air is readying further invasions southward. This as rare midwinter fire weather extremes remain entrenched across Southern California.

Weather watch

Another round of extremely critical fire weather. Californians are reeling from historic fires, and the next round of brutally high winds is ramping up Monday. The Weather Service has launched Particularly Dangerous Situation red flag warnings, which are in effect across parts of Los Angeles and Ventura counties for the forecast peak Tuesday and Wednesday. Widespread and prolonged strong winds are anticipated, likely gusting 45 to 70 mph with higher in the mountains.

Coldest of winter. Greenland — still not for sale — reached a temperature of minus-76 degrees (minus-59.9 Celsius) on Friday, the coldest temperature observed by instrumentation this winter in the northern hemisphere. This comes as the United Kingdom was frozen. Altnaharra, Scotland recently witnessed the UK’s coldest January temperature since 2010 and coldest January high since 1982.

Inauguration weather. We’re a week away from the old/new guy retaking the throne. Weather forecasting simulations have hinted at some potential for a wintry storm around Jan. 20. The latest iterations show that the pattern is more favorable for significant cold than snow, but we’ll still need to watch storm potential given the volatile situation. For now, it seems highs in Washington may be close to freezing, compared to the mid-40s average.

Lightning links

With Greenland in geopolitical and climate news, I’m reminded of a great read from last fall called “When the Arctic Melts.”

The long expected La Niña finally arrived, according to NOAA.

Monday morning weather map(s)

Last week was a throwback to winters of yore. It started with the biggest storm in years for places from Kansas to the Mid-Atlantic. Then came a follow up system that helped spark the California firestorm before dumping a lot of snow and ice across the central and southern U.S.

Snow swath from storm 1

Snow swath from storm 2

Both storms combined

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As a forecaster, journalist and certified weather freak (there's a badge, trust me), a big part of my job is analyzing the playing field of global weather and related climate change stories to decide which ones to spend more time on.

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