Santa Barbara County News and Events

The eastern US has been gripped by an Arctic freeze. That’s about to change

Kraig Pakulski 0 21 Article rating: No rating
Potential records on February 7 are overlaid over warmer than normal temperatures (oranges/reds) and colder than normal temperatures (blues/purples).

By Andrew Freedman, CNN

(CNN) — The US is a nation divided, with frigid conditions, snow and ice entrenched east of the Rockies all the way into Florida, and record warmth and paltry snowfall in the West.

The dichotomy has lasted weeks and is finally about to shift – but only after one more major blast of Arctic air this weekend for the East.

This divide sharpened in recent days; parts of the West are seeing late-springlike warmth, with temperatures 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit above average, while parts of the East are set to experience their coldest temperatures so far this season this weekend.

In the warm category is Great Falls, Montana, for example. Residents there are seeing five straight days with a high temperature exceeding 60 degrees Fahrenheit this week, which would be the warmest five-day stretch on record for the month of February.

And in Los Angeles, the temperature on Wednesday reached a record high of 88 degrees, which beats their typical highs in July and August.

The cold East, warm West pattern comes courtesy of the contortions of the jet stream, and it is noteworthy for being so pronounced and enduring. Washington, DC, for example, saw its sixth longest stretch of consecutive hours below freezing from Jan. 24 to Feb. 2. Many other cities also saw such stretches that ranked in their top 20 longest on record.

The warmth and lack of snow in the West have been features of this winter so far, pre-dating the cold in the East. But it is the contrast between the temperatures dividing this country that is so striking on weather maps.

At one point last weekend, Juneau, Alaska, was warmer than central Florida.

The warm and dry conditions in the West can be traced to a persistent bulge or ridge in the jet stream that has shunted storms and colder air to the north. Downstream, though, a large dip in the jet stream, or trough, has dug its claws in, bringing wave after wave of Arctic air southward, along with conditions that are ideal for forming powerful winter storms.

Many spots in the Carolinas and even Atlanta picked up more snow during January than Salt Lake City did. Only a tenth of an inch fell there during the month, far below the average of 12.7 inches.

For those still shivering in the East, and people tired of the warm and dry conditions in the West, a pattern change is finally in sight.

The western ridge is projected to break down, and that will allow the pattern to get moving, allowing the milder air to move to the east and finally clear the way for some Pacific storm systems to move into the West.

But before that happens, the coldest air of the winter so far will invade the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states this weekend into early the following week. About 50 cold temperature records may be set this weekend, where temperatures will be in the single digits but feel double-digits below zero.

With winter being the fastest-warming season in the US, cold records are few and far between, particularly monthly and all-time cold records. This is reflected in data comparing daily warm and cold records during the past several days to the year as a whole.

During the peak of the arctic blast stretching from the last week of January into the beginning of February, cold records outpaced

Tiny Michelangelo sketch of a foot sells for more than $27 million, an auction record

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Michelangelo's sketch

By Issy Ronald, CNN

(CNN) — When the owner of a tiny sketch sent a photo of it to an auction house’s online valuation portal, they had no idea of its significance. The drawing is barely bigger than a hand. And it depicts only a foot, with its heel slightly raised off the ground and the outline of a shadow underneath.

Yet on Thursday, it sold for $27.2 million including fees at a Christie’s sale in New York after the auction house identified Michelangelo as the artist responsible.

The Renaissance master sketched out this foot using red chalk in preparation for one of his frescoes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling at the Vatican, which he painted between 1508 and 1512.

If you peer closely at the Libyan Sibyl on the chapel’s ceiling, an enormous figure turning to place a book behind herself, you can spot the corresponding foot twisted into exactly the same shape — toes slightly scrunched, heel raised off the ground, a shadow beneath.

She is one of 12 figures who decorate the edge of the ceiling, flanking the central frescoes that depict nine scenes from Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

“Standing in front of this drawing, one can grasp the full power of Michelangelo’s creative force; we can almost feel the physical energy with which he rendered the form of the foot, pressing the red chalk vigorously onto the paper,” Giada Damen, a specialist in Christie’s Old Master Drawings Department who identified the drawing, said in a statement.

The drawing offers a rare insight into the workings of Michelangelo. The vast majority of his sketches were lost over time, some burnt by Michelangelo himself, others destroyed by early collectors or simply during the process of his work, Christie’s said.

Only two sketches related to the Libyan Sibyl remain — one in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England and one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In total, only 50 of the Sistine Chapel remain and no other ones have ever come to auction, according to Christie’s.

So when this sketch was discovered and auctioned, it sparked a bidding war, eventually selling for almost 20 times its original estimate and becoming the most expensive Michelangelo work sold at auction.

Even though the sketch was previously unknown to scholars, there were some clues to its provenance. Michelangelo’s name appears at the bottom left of the drawing in the same handwriting as the inscription on the Met’s, and, after months of detective work by Damen, leading experts on the artist unanimously agreed he drew this foot, Christie’s said.

The same family owned the drawing for more than 200 years, after Armand Francois Louis de Mestral de Saint-Saphorin — a Swiss diplomat working for the King of Denmark — acquired it during his travels around Europe in the 18th century. He passed it on to his nephew, and his descendants kept the drawing, until they decided to auction it. Christie’s didn’t identify the buyer.

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¿Cuánto cuestan los boletos del Super Bowl 2026? ¿Cuáles son los más caros?

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Por César López, CNN en Español

El Super Bowl LX que se llevará a cabo el domingo 8 de febrero consolida su posición como uno de los eventos deportivos más costosos y lucrativos del planeta.

En 1967, dos años antes de conocerse como Super Bowl, la primera final entre equipos de los dos organismos que tenían las riendas del fútbol americano (AFL y NFL) tuvo unos precios que, al día de hoy, equivaldrían quizás al consumo de un par de bebidas durante el gran juego.

Tan solo US$ 12 fue el costo promedio para quienes asistieron al estadio de Los Ángeles para ver la final entre los Packers de Green Bay y los Chiefs de Kansas City hace casi 60 años. Una cifra que al día de hoy sería de poco más de US$ 110 y que, por supuesto, dista (y por varios dígitos) de lo que cuesta ir al Super Bowl.

Para esta edición, las entradas en el Levi’s Stadium (conocido como el “Gigante de Santa Clara”) siguen el patrón de un “juego agresivo” de oferta y demanda.

A pocos días antes del partido, los precios de las entradas pueden subir o sufrir un efecto contrario, y muchos aficionados apuestan por conseguir el mejor precio a último minuto y ganarle el juego a los revendedores y hasta a la misma NFL.

Antes de conocerse que los Seahawks enfrentarían a los Patriots, un partido bastante atractivo por lo que ofrecieron los equipos durante la temporada, ya los precios se habían disparado. Sin embargo, conforme pasaron los días las ofertas elevadas empezaron a caer.

En el portal oficial de hospitalidad o paquetes VIP de la NFL, operado por On Location, la entrada más económica disponible comenzaba en los US$ 7.200 por persona. A mediados de enero y a una semana del juego ya se habían depreciado casi un 20 %. En tanto, en los sitios de reventa oficiales estos precios bajaron hasta un 30 %.

Plataformas autorizadas en Estados Unidos como Ticketmaster, SeatGeek y StubHub tienen precios bastante altos y compiten por vender los últimos boletos.

De igual manera, asistir al Super Bowl LX es un gran golpe para cualquier bolsillo pensando en los varios miles de dólares que hacen falta para entrar al juego, además del gasto adicional para quienes tienen que desplazarse al área de la bahía de San Francisco, una de las zonas más costosas para vivir y viajar en Estados Unidos.

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Con su estilo, Bad Bunny también se hace escuchar

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Análisis de Juan Carlos Arciniegas, CNN en Español

Desde el legendario John Galliano hasta la casa de alta costura Schiaparelli —que por cierto, hasta ahora solo diseñaba para mujer— han vestido a Bad Bunny. Y aunque su impacto global hoy le permite acceder a cualquier marca de lujo, Bad Bunny también luce muy cómodo y orgulloso con sus chanclas y la emblemática pava o sombrero de su natal Puerto Rico.

En sus conciertos, sus entrevistas, sus portadas de revista y su paso por las alfombras rojas su estilo siempre es impredecible y, sobre todo, auténtico. Sus looks en la Met Gala, cuya alfombra roja es considerada “el Oscar de la moda”, nunca pasan desapercibidos. Incluso, en 2024, integró el comité organizador de este evento con íconos de la moda como Zendaya y Jennifer López.

“Sus apariciones en la Met Gala han sido fantásticas y mi look favorito —sin duda alguna— fue en 2023, cuando llevó un diseño inspirado en Karl Lagerfeld. Era blanco, con detalles florales, impecable y poético”, recuerda Miguel Sagaz, editor en jefe de la revista digital “The Style Nomad”.

“Que haya llegado de la mano de Simon Porte Jacquemus, quien además diseñó el look completo, lo hizo aún más potente: era moda, arte y complicidad creativa en un solo momento”, agrega Sagaz, en entrevista con CNN en Español.

Sobre ese llamativo traje negro de Schiaparelli que Bad Bunny lució el domingo pasado en la entrega de los premios Grammy, su estilista, Storm Pablo, comentó lo siguiente a la revista Vogue: “Siento que, en cuanto a quién es Benito (nombre de pila del artista) hoy en día, esto es como la versión más elevada de él”.

“¡Mira qué bien se me ve!”, celebraba el propio artista, mientras se probaba el diseño de Schiaparelli frente a las cámaras de Vogue. “Mi personalidad o mi aura era abierta a todo tipo de estilo o persona o cultura. No sé cómo explicarlo, pero es como si, sin querer, soy una pieza que une diferentes mundos, diferentes generaciones y también con los estilos. Entonces es como que me sale natural. Yo creo que soy yo, o sea, mi personalidad que puede conectar con diferentes… no sé si mundos o estilos. Lo mismo pasa musicalmente”, explicaba Bad Bunny a Vogue, mientras un grupo de personas le hacían ajustes al traje.

Para la estilista y directora creativa mexicana Greta Forte, quien ha trabajado con la famosa banda “Grupo Frontera” y con las cantantes Lana del Rey y Carla Morrison, ese traje de Schiaparelli “no fue una decisión inocente”.

“Como estilista, me parece importantísimo subrayar algo que ya no es negociable en las alfombras rojas actuales: las siluetas ya no le pertenecen únicamente a las mujeres. Hoy, más que nunca, vemos a figuras masculinas apropiarse de volúmenes, hombreras, solapas marcadas y cortes atípicos que históricamente se leían como ‘territorio femenino’. Y eso, para mí, es evolución real”, explica Forte.

Efectivamente, si hay algún artista que ha sabido jugar con todo esto es Bad Bunny. Al igual que Harry Styles, con el uso de vestidos, faldas y plumas, ha sido un elemento disruptor en las alfombras y los escenarios. Y aunque no podemos olvidar a una figura como David Bowie entre los precursores de toda esta revolución estética que rompe con los convencionalismos entre géneros, los dos anteriores han logrado que la persona de a pie lo vea como una posibilidad de exploración personal.

“Benito hace lo que siempre ha hecho mejor: usar la moda como plataforma de conversación. Da de qué hablar sin caer en el disfraz, apoyándose en materiales, hechuras y construcción de altísima calidad. Y eso se siente”, señala Forte.

“Para mí, el estilo de Bad Bunny es una declaración constante de libertad y autenticidad. Me encanta que sea alguien que no le tiene miedo a hacer un statement. Usa la moda como un leng

San Francisco 49ers seasons that exceeded expectations the most

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MT-R // Shutterstock

 

When September rolls around, NFL fans are champing at the bit for the season to start. They’ve already gotten a taste from the preseason, read up on their team’s draft picks, and made predictions about how the season should go with their team’s roster. Adrenaline is high during Week 1 and often doesn’t wear off until Week 18. A tough loss could end in tears, for both the team and its fans.

It’s hard for people who aren’t fanatics to wrap their heads around how a sport could evoke so much emotion, but there’s a psychological explanation for fandom.

For many, a team association ties into self-esteem and identity. It has been proved that people receive a self-esteem boost from associating with successful individuals or groups, which is why fans are more likely to wear team gear the day after a win than the day after a loss, and die-hards speak about team successes in first person and failures in third person. Shared fandom also provides a sense of connection, whether it be with friends who follow the same team or via strangers bonding at a game, and all humans have a need for connectedness.

A Super Bowl win, the pinnacle of the sport, can bring a city together and give fans a personal sense of pride and satisfaction. Conversely, when a team has a particularly disappointing season or loses in the playoffs, it can feel like a gut punch.

Stacker compiled a list featuring the San Francisco 49ers seasons that most exceeded expectations since 2000 using data from Pro Football Reference. Each season was selected based on the number of wins by which the team overperformed its preseason over/under for that season. Ties were broken via the highest preseason over/under.

#5. San Francisco 49ers 2006
– Preseason over/under: 5 wins
– Season record: 7-9 (2 games over)

#4. San Francisco 49ers 2022
– Preseason over/under: 9.5 wins
– Season record: 13-4 (3.5 games over)

#3. San Francisco 49ers 2001
– Preseason over/under: 7.5 wins
– Season record: 12-4 (4.5 games over)

#2. San Francisco 49ers 2019
– Preseason over/under: 8 wins
– Season record: 13-3 (5 games over)

#1. San Francisco 49ers 2011
– Preseason over/under: 7.5 wins
– Season record: 13-3 (5.5 games over)

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