Get Ready for 120 Degrees - Below Zero!

I got this forecast today for Richmond, Virginia, at 2008 June 9 16:38 EDT:

Forecast for Henrico

Updated: 3:33 PM EDT on June 9, 2008

Heat [!?!!?!] advisory in effect until 8 PM EDT Tuesday...

Through 7 PM
Mostly clear. Highs around 101. South winds 5 to 10 mph. Wind chill values as low as 120 below.

Tonight
Clear. Lows in the mid 70s. South winds around 5 mph.

Tuesday
Mostly sunny. Scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Hot with highs around 100. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30 percent. Wind chill values as low as 120 below.

Tuesday Night
Partly cloudy. A chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening. Lows in the lower 70s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph...becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of rain 30 percent. Wind chill values as low as 120 below.

Wednesday
Partly sunny. Not as warm with highs around 90. North winds 5 to 10 mph. Wind chill values as low as 120 below.

Wednesday Night
Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 60s. East winds around 5 mph in the evening...becoming light and variable.

Thursday
Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 80s.

Thursday Night
Mostly clear in the evening...then becoming partly cloudy. Lows in the upper 60s.

Friday
Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 80s.

Friday Night through Monday

Partly cloudy. Lows in the mid 60s. Highs in the upper 80s.

You just heard what it says. It's going to be 120 degrees in Richmond. BELOW ZERO. That's right, it will feel like it is -120 degrees F, almost cold enough to freeze the CO₂ out of the atmosphere into dry ice and stop global warming. Right now as I type this I am wearing only shorts and sandals, but if you go out like this tomorrow you will freeze instantly into a statue. You will need the same type of clothing that they wear in Antarctica in August when it hits -127 F.

What's more, the weather folks think they can get this type of chill out of a roasting 101 degrees F above zero. To me, hot feels HOT. It's not going to feel bitter cold. I think the problem is a misprint in something called METARS, but when it comes up, the results can be positively hilarious. You weather people need to double check before you enter these METARs or whatever creates these forecasts.

I will again wear shorts and sandals tomorrow, not an Arctic parka. By the way, it is 32 degrees and overcast with occasional rain and snow in Barrow, Alaska.

Arthur/Alma the Sex-Change Bear

Earlier I reported indications this week of a hurricane or tropical storm hitting Florida and then coming up the coast. Later runs of the GFS showed the storm to stall out in the Gulf of Mexico or the Bay of Campeche. When the storm first formed, it wandered into the Pacific, becoming that basin's first storm of the season, Alma. Alma headed back inland and lost its tropical characteristics. It then entered the Caribbean, and reformed, whereupon it was given the name of Arthur, the first Atlantic storm. So it went through a sex change. I have been waiting for a storm to do that. But in any case, Alma the Bear, which became Arthur the Bear, fizzled out because it stayed on land too long - it even formed on land.

The lastest run of GFS that I show shows no tropical storm development.