Wunderground Meteorologist Shaun Tanner

Last Updated: 5:42 PM GMT on November 24, 2009 — Last Comment: 11:24 PM GMT on November 24, 2009

	Coldest Thanksgiving?

Posted by: shauntanner, 11:14 PM GMT on November 23, 2009

When was the coldest Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving is caught in between weather extremes. Being two months after Summer ends and one month before Winter begins, the holiday often sees a wide variety of weather from region to region and from year to year. Early forecasts for Thanksgiving 2009 are eyeing a cold and wet holiday for the northeastern portion of the country due to a deep trough of low pressure, a wet day for the Northwest as a Pacific front moves into the area, and pretty much dry elsewhere. With more and more families traveling by car to their respective festivities, keeping an eye on the weather becomes all that much more important. Just a quick glance at weather conditions and traffic information before you leave the house can save you time on your way to your destination.

Using Weather Underground's vast database of past Thanksgiving weather for the contiguous United States there are a couple different ways to find the coldest Thanksgiving since 1950. For instance, when averaging all of the maximum temperatures for every airport nationwide each Thanksgiving, the year with the lowest maximum average temperature was 1993 with an average of 40 degrees. Another way to define the coldest Thanksgiving since 1950 is to find the day with the lowest average minimum temperature. Amazingly, this day was also Thanksgiving 1993 with an average minimum temperature of 25 degrees. That means that the average city in the country on that day was 7 degrees below freezing! However, the coldest ever Thanksgiving temperature occurred in 1985 at International Falls, Minn. with a bone-chilling minimum temperature of -29 degrees.

In contrast, the highest maximum average occurred in 1998 with an average of 61 degrees. Interestingly, 1998 is also the second warmest year on record. The warmest ever temperature reading occurred way back in 1950 when Ontario, Calif. reported a maximum temperature of 96 degrees. That year, 28 cities reported temperatures of 80 degrees of greater, most of them in the Southwest.

So what will this Thanksgiving bring? Whether you're in Minnesota or California, it probably won't break any of the records listed above, but the turkey will be warm.

For the best weather and driving information available this Thanksgiving, check out Weather Underground's new travel tool - the Road Trip Planner.

Figure 1. Average Thanksgiving highs and lows from 1950 to 2008.

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Updated: 5:42 PM GMT on November 24, 2009

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	Not All Vegans Are Annoying

Posted by: shauntanner, 5:55 PM GMT on November 19, 2009

Okay, so this blog entry will not be entirely about meteorology. But it will actually have a environmental twist in regard to my life.When searching for a college to go to for my freshman year, my father and I somehow stumbled upon a college in northern Wisconsin called Northland College. The college is located in a small town of only a few thousand people called Ashland. It is located directly on Lake Superior, and while I only spent one year there due to its hi...

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	These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

Posted by: shauntanner, 6:36 PM GMT on November 17, 2009

I was reflecting on what to write in today's blog while on the train this morning when my mind went very briefly to The Sound Of Music. We recently let my almost-3-year-old daughter watch the movie and I found it interesting she latched onto the song that has the lyrics "I am 16 going on 17" rather than the poppier songs like the title to this blog or "Doe, a dear". I hope that doesn't forebode her teenage years.Anyway, that brief respite gave me a good idea for t...

Rainbow in the Smokey Mountains

ICW Rainbow

Rainbow

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Updated: 6:37 PM GMT on November 17, 2009

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	WunderCast Discussion

Posted by: shauntanner, 5:41 PM GMT on November 12, 2009

There are a couple of things I want to discuss that came up in the last blog regarding the WunderCast Competition.First, we decided to do the precipitation the way it is done for simplicity. Right now, participants put in a probability of precipitation from 0 to 100 for what they think will happen during that day. If it does rain, then the score is 100, if it doesn't then the score is a 0. The farther you were away from those numbers versus what you forecast, the...

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	WunderCast Suggestions

Posted by: shauntanner, 5:39 PM GMT on November 11, 2009

So I am thinking about restarting the WunderCast Competition again in December of January. If you have never heard of WunderCast, then let me explain. The WunderCast Competition is a battle royale forecasting contest where Weather Underground members forecast for various cities throughout the country. There are no prizes and members of any skill level can join and learn about weather and how to forecast. Scores are kept, but everybody who participates will learn...

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Updated: 6:17 PM GMT on November 11, 2009

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