Warm Temperatures Ending Soon
Much of the eastern half of the country has experienced unusually warm weather so far this winter. New York City finally saw its first flakes of snow this week–the latest first snowfall ever recorded. Temperatures in North Georgia so far this month are between seven and eight degrees above normal. This weekend, the Atlanta area could see temperatures around 70 degrees. Newspapers have run articles lamenting poor sales of winter coats and snow blowers.
If you’re thinking that it’s time to sharpen your lawnmower blades and get out the gardening gloves, you would most likely be wrong.
The split-flow upper air pattern that has been keeping the cold air up in Canada has begun to change, and at least one prominent meteorologist thinks that we could be seeing one of the coldest 30 day periods in the last 50 years.
Accuweather put out a press release on Monday featuring comments from forecaster Joe Bastardi. Bastardi says “the mild weather we’re experiencing now will be a distant memory,” and notes cold air will be moving across the country the week of the 15th, and a cold weather pattern will dominate the second half of the month.
The central part of the country is seeing this change now, and they are going to have a long slog this weekend. A slow-moving front stretches from East Texas to Maine, and is the dividing line between cold and warm air. It’s also bringing a lot of precipitation, as snow in the north and west, and as rain in areas stretching from Louisiana through southern Ohio. In between there’s going to be a major ice storm stretching from the Texas-Oklahoma panhandle through parts of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Once all of this moves through by the middle of next week, the cold air will settle in.
Georgia is likely to miss all the weather excitement, at least through Monday evening. By that time, we may see some rain as the front exits the area, and the real cold air will stay out of the way for a few more days. But, by the week of the 22nd, we could see highs only in the mid 40s, and lows in the low 20s; much colder than normal.
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