Water & Traveling in Winter
We're traveling from Los Angeles to the East coast and thinking about going through St Louis and other areas where the temps will drop to freezing or below. At what temperatures do I need to be conce...
Forum Discussion
You are OK if those numbers are the actual temperatures. Just now for this part of the country, that is the "average" or "normal" temperature range for this time of year, i.e. the fat middle part of a statistical distribution.
But that "normal" doesn't mean the same thing in the middle of the country as it does near the coasts, where your temperatures are moderated by ocean heat sinks. Arctic air masses move down quickly, pushing temperatures on the plains and in the midwest well below "normal" and frosts well into central Texas and within 100 miles of the coast in the Gulf Coast states. At other times, we get masses of warm moist air that give use balmy winter days in the middle of the air mass, severe winter storms at the contact with the Arctic air (which in December is often as far south as Dallas).
The past few days, temperatures have been 15-30 F above "normal" which means we won't see freezing overnight. But we've already had temperatures 30 F below normal for a week at a time, which at this time of year means you might see lows close to 0 F and no highs above freezing.
So plan for the possibility, whether that means re-winterizing enroute, providing extra heating, or modifying your route or trip plan to stay in warmer areas.
But that "normal" doesn't mean the same thing in the middle of the country as it does near the coasts, where your temperatures are moderated by ocean heat sinks. Arctic air masses move down quickly, pushing temperatures on the plains and in the midwest well below "normal" and frosts well into central Texas and within 100 miles of the coast in the Gulf Coast states. At other times, we get masses of warm moist air that give use balmy winter days in the middle of the air mass, severe winter storms at the contact with the Arctic air (which in December is often as far south as Dallas).
The past few days, temperatures have been 15-30 F above "normal" which means we won't see freezing overnight. But we've already had temperatures 30 F below normal for a week at a time, which at this time of year means you might see lows close to 0 F and no highs above freezing.
So plan for the possibility, whether that means re-winterizing enroute, providing extra heating, or modifying your route or trip plan to stay in warmer areas.
