New HBO movie has Josh Allen, Quarterback Of The Buffalo Bills, as Executive Producer. Fun fact, he’s married to actress Hailee Steinfeld, so that’s might explain how he got in the movie business.
The topic is a human story in the context of a severe weather event – a genre that might be getting new currency. An unprecedented Arctic weather event, currently unfolding, is a reminder that surprises are getting more common.
Webwire:
For three days in December 2022, a catastrophic blizzard with hurricane force winds and over four feet of snow caused a complete shutdown of infrastructure and emergency services in the Buffalo region. At the height of the storm on Christmas Eve, a longtime McDonald’s manager made a heroic decision to defy corporate rules and keep her restaurant open as a refuge for people who had lost power and needed food and warmth.
As police desperately try to rescue survivors in whiteout conditions, an unlikely group finds shelter inside the McDonald’s – an injured single father caring for his infant daughter, a young man with Down syndrome spending his first Christmas away from his mother, a bride-to-be and her fiancé separated from their families, and immigrant nail salon owners unable to speak a word of English.
As the deadly storm rages, the strangers gather around a laptop to watch the Buffalo Bills take on the Chicago Bears, finding hope and comfort in a team that, like them, won’t make it home for Christmas morning.
American Meteorological Society:
The December 2022 snow was shocking, but not surprising. The pattern was easy enough to recognize, even 7–10 days earlier: a large high-pressure ridge forming over the western U.S., with a major trough in the east. “We knew something big was coming,” said Zaff. Five days before the storm, even low-resolution models suggested a major event. Four days ahead, the NWS started ringing the alarm bell. “We started saying, ‘A powerful storm will impact the region heading into the holiday weekend.’”
Three days out, the NWS issued an unusually emphatic Area Forecast Discussion (AFD):
“Some of the parameters of this intense storm are forecast to be climatologically ‘off the charts’ … One could certainly describe this storm system as a once in a generation type of event.”NWS Lead Forecaster Robert Hamilton, Tuesday, December 20, 2022
That caused a stir, but many on social media dismissed it as hype. “People started saying, ‘There goes the weather service again,’” says Zaff.
Relevant now because meteorologists are observing a Sudden Stratospheric Warming event, not unusual for winter, but this one is the earliest ever observed. There is an impact on the polar vortex circulation, – no hard predictions, but could possibly be a set up for some surprises in coming months, especially in Europe and Asia – and that’s geopolitically significant, as Russia and Ukraine ramp up pressure on each other’s energy infrastructure.
Judah Cohen of MIT did an interview on Fox Weather to discuss.
Plain Language Summary:
The widespread warmth across the Northern Hemisphere (NH) this past summer and now the fall has continued into October (see Figure). However, a series of stretched polar vortex (PV) last month has led to some, albeit modest cooling in Siberia, East Asia and to an even lesser extent far Eastern Canada and New England (see Figure). Troughing in Western Canada has also resulted in more seasonable temperatures in Western Canada (see Figure). However, the very large PV disruption developing the next two weeks does favor an overall mild pattern across the NH continents (see Figures 3, 6 and 9). The relatively cool temperatures across Siberia of October 2026 remind me of last October, though not as impressive. Last October, cold temperatures across Siberia were a precursor for more widespread cold temperatures in winter, I expect something similar for this winter but maybe of smaller magnitude.