The bitterly cold air stays in the Pittsburgh area through the weekend
One of my sayings that I always think of when dealing with snow on the ground is that snow breeds more snow. What I mean by that is that snowpack on the ground allows arctic air to linger in place.
WEATHER LINKS:
Current Conditions | School Closings & Delays | Submit Your Weather Photos
This pulls the arctic jet down, and until you get a big push of heat, you are going to be in a deep winter weather pattern when every mid-level low can bring a couple more inches of snow. While I don't have any big snows coming, the snowpack is impacting us by keeping this deep arctic air in place.
Our 850mb temperatures have been around 21°c since Sunday and won't improve until this upcoming Sunday. As wind speeds come down and skies clear out overnight, everything now seems to be in place for temperatures to tumble in the overnight hours.
On Wednesday morning, lighter winds allowed us to dip down to -1°. I'll put today's low also at -1°.
The coldest mornings of the week will occur on Friday and Saturday. I have Friday morning's low falling down to -4°. Saturday's low should be around -6°.
Wind speeds both days won't be very strong, but cold weather advisories are already posted for Friday and should be expected on Saturday, too. Both days should see wind chills as low as -15°.
Looking ahead, frigid temperatures stick around through the first week of February. I have temperatures finally hitting the 30s next Friday. I have us in the 20s for highs on Monday. Morning temperatures will be near 10 degrees all of next week.
Finally, it doesn't look like we will see much snow over the next week, with the best chance for snow coming on Monday, but even then, the chance for snow is just isolated.
Stay up to date with the KDKA Mobile App – which you can download here!