FAIRBANKS, Alaska - A University of Alaska researcher plotted temperatures from the Iowa State University Mesonet and found the Omaha area is near the top of extreme temperature differentials so far this year.
Brian Brettschneider, with the International Arctic Research Center in Fairbanks says he got the idea of plotting the high and low extremes when he saw some of the summer heat indexes coming in, and remembered seeing some -50 and -60 wind chills in Northern Iowa, Northern Illinois and especially in Minnesota this winter. Omaha was a little milder than those areas, but still on the edge of the highest extremes.
The National Weather Service agrees with Brettschneider's observations.
"From -30 and -40 wind chills early this year to heat indexes over 110, 115." Says National Weather Service meteorologist Jeff Johnson. The Omaha area saw a temperature differential of 140 to 150 degrees from winter wind chills to summer heat indexes.
It's a little bit unusual, I mean I've seen it before." Johnson said. "This is about as extreme as it gets."
But, Johnson says, he doesn't think it indicates any significant change in our weather patterns.
"I wouldn't want to draw any more conclusions that than." He says. "It's just a coincidence."