BLOG: Cold Weather
Yes, it's supposed to be cold in December, but not quite this cold!
We only made it to 28 degrees today - for our high. That's 15-20 degrees below average. When you factor in the high winds that were gusting up to 40 mph, it felt another 15-20 colder! The highest of the winds will back off slightly tonight and tomorrow, but the cold air is going to stick around. Lows are going into the teens tonight with the wind chill in the single digits, then we will only make it to about freezing tomorrow with the wind still dropping the feel another 10-15 degrees.
It's not just us getting in on the extreme cold. This harsh air mass has pushed all the way down into Florida, taking hold of the entire eastern half of the country. Get this, it went down to 32 degrees in Palm Springs, the 20s in Orlando, and only made it to the low 50s for a high in Miami. Meanwhile, the huge jetstream trough dug out over the eastern half of the country has forced a huge ridge to build up over the west. That's where the warm air is. It made it to nearly 70 degrees in Denver today. Today may be the peak of the cold this go round, but the relatively cold air is going to stick around right through the week - and will actually get reinforced again next week.
Meanwhile, this weather pattern is getting very interesting. Yes, we are talking about the POTENTIAL for snow to all you snow lovers out there - or even to those of you who don't like the snow but need to be prepared with so much going on around the holidays. The overall pattern has established itself with the huge trough in the jetstream over the east like we discussed above. This set up readily supplies cold air, while rotating a lot of energy through it. And, in this active of a a pattern, those areas of energy have the POTENTIAL for something bigger to spin up.
The first one up is not a huge storm, but will leave its mark as it charges from the Northern Plains down through the Ohio Valley, then across Virginia before quickly moving out to sea Thursday. That track will keep the more measureable snow south of us, but it's close enough that there's a good chance we could see some snow around Maryland. There is the possibility that we could get a coating to an inch, with more south of DC - although it could mix with rain that far south.
That Clipper will get in and out of here pretty quickly, setting the stage for possible storm #2. This one is going to track across the Gulf Coast Friday night and Saturday. Then, it will make a turn up the East Coast. If the huge trough holds strong, it will direct this storm out to sea south of Maryland - just giving us nothing to maybe some flurries. However, with all the energy continually rotating through this huge trough, it could restructure itself enough that it would connect with this storm and pull it up the East Coast. That could mean everything from a wintry mix to accumulating snow.
So there is a lot of POTENTIAL right now with a few things on the table, but none of the models are consistently targeting the same area of energy to be the storm to follow. Regardless, a new round of Arctic air will rush southward and take over again next week, keeping us in the Deep Freeze to around Christmas.
Stay tuned...that is a lot to track.
