Chinook Wind Influences in North America? (snowfall, warm, average, warming)

[GraniteStater]

What are the areas most impacted by downslope Chinook warming winds in North America? I've always considered that the High Plains region was the region that was most frequently impacted, but how far east do they really extend? Today is a primary example of the Chinook in action with the warming influences being far less the further east you go closer to the Mississippi River.
Chinooks also dramatically impact snow cover as the Plains States south of the Dakotas rarely have longer lasting continually snow cover due to huge swings in temperature compared to the Upper Midwest.

[chicagogeorge]

You are correct about chinook winds having a great impact on the Plains. Check out these extreme temperature swings as a result.... Absolutely insane

[BMI]

Good example is big football playoff game today in Denver, blazing sunshine at ultra mild 63F.

Also warm these days up in Alberta too, 16C high yesterday at Sundre, also a warm 12.8C in Calgary.

[Ed's Mountain]

Southern Alberta is famous (locally anyway) for its chinooks. Lethbridge is the epicenter of the chinook belt as this map (courtesy wikipedia) shows.

[GraniteStater]

Chinook example today in terms of high temperatures:
Omaha, NE 65F
Decorah, IA 39F (Chinook does not reach that far to the east).

[cjg5]

The Tri-Cities in Washington State (Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick) have a bit of a local reputation for chinook winds. In the winter, the area experiences some the mildest temperatures on that side of the state due to the effects of chinook winds. Snowfall and cold snaps in general are often times very short lived there. However it also makes it pretty darn windy there, too.

The Interior of Alaska also sees chinook winds at times which drive up their winter temperatures to levels above freezing, up to about the upper 30s to low 40s F.

[Glacierx]

Originally Posted by cjg5

The Tri-Cities in Washington State (Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick) have a bit of a local reputation for chinook winds. In the winter, the area experiences some the mildest temperatures on that side of the state due to the effects of chinook winds. Snowfall and cold snaps in general are often times very short lived there. However it also makes it pretty darn windy there, too.

The Interior of Alaska also sees chinook winds at times which drive up their winter temperatures to levels above freezing, up to about the upper 30s to low 40s F.

Same goes for the Yukon and British Columbia on the east side of the Coast Mountains. For some reason, Chinooks are always talked about as a Rockies phenomenon, but it happens every couple weeks were I grew up on the east side of the Coast Mountains. There have been three strong Chinook occurrences at my mom's place in just the last month and a bit (~52N and ~3000ft) All three times the temperature soured to at least 10C/50F. Lower elevation locations were much warmer.

Way up in the Yukon, they experienced 45F this week as a strong Chinook blew through. This pretty impressive for 61N

[BMI]

Originally Posted by Glacierx

Same goes for the Yukon and British Columbia on the east side of the Coast Mountains. For some reason, Chinooks are always talked about as a Rockies phenomenon, but it happens every couple weeks were I grew up on the east side of the Coast Mountains. There have been three strong Chinook occurrences at my mom's place in just the last month and a bit (~52N and ~3000ft) All three times the temperature soured to at least 10C/50F. Lower elevation locations were much warmer.

Way up in the Yukon, they experienced 45F this week as a strong Chinook blew through. This pretty impressive for 61N

Yes, it's been mild up in Whitehorse lately. Much warmer than here in southern Ontario.
Forecast high for Whitehorse tomorrow is same as Atlanta, Georgia....crazy winter this year

[Glacierx]

It's showing over 3 standard deviations above normal for BC, up to 4 in northern BC, and up to 6 deviations in the Yukon! At the same time, it has been 4 standard deviations below normal for parts of eastern Canada.

For those who need a quick little statistics refresher, here is the normalized distribution showing how often each variation from the average occurs (4 is off the charts):



Here is the current situation:



This strong ridge over the west coast is insane. We've had this blocking system in place since October, hence it has been very warm and dry. This is also why -- for the first time in history -- September was the wettest month of the year in Seattle.

[DougStark]

Looks like today will be strong chinook wind day in metro Denver. No complaints as long as my flight today isn't affected.