Sharp Temperature Contrasts at Synoptic to Local Scale

Remarkably sharp contrasts in temperature have been observed with cold fronts over the central and southern Great Plains, with very shallow arctic airmasses over the northern high Great Plains and hills, and at the microclimate level related to topography. The persistence over hours and days of the sharp contrasts in temperature suggests the lack of mixing between airmasses that can go on for significant periods of time. I will give several exceptional examples of this phenomena as well as a couple examples of anomalous weather events, 1 at the state level that was more than 4.5 standard deviations away from the long term average, and a Laredo occurrence that was more than 6 standard deviations from the average.