We didn’t pick up any snow as an Arctic cold front sliced through the area on Saturday, but it sure made it’s presence felt in other ways.  Wind gusts around the area topped 50mph in a lot  of spots.   Here’s a look at a select few from Saturday afternoon/evening.

Behind a cold front temperatures drop, but with this Arctic cold front Saturday afternoon, temperatures fell off a cliff.  The highs made their way into the 40s early, and by the evening, the wind chills were in the teens below zero.  Here is a timeline as the temps dropped Saturday.

Arctic air will continue to pour into the area over the next several days.  The Upper Air Pattern shows the warmer air in the west indicated by the orange and yellows and the bitter cold coming out of Canada by the darker purples.  The “Polar Vortex” is in play this time around.  You can clearly see the closed doughnut hole in southern Canada which represents the center of it.  It usually hangs out in northern Canada, but has drifted south supplying the eastern two thirds of the country with Arctic air.  The coldest air in this part of the world is found under that Polar Vortex.

In my opinion this Arctic outbreak is extremely impressive.  We will likely see afternoon highs the coldest we have seen in over four years and we are doing it without snow on the ground.  Snow acts as a refrigerator and helps the atmosphere cool much faster when we have a good base on the ground.  We could be flirting with records if we had some snow.  While it is going to be extremely cold over the next week and especially over the next couple of days, it could be MUCH colder if we had some snow on the ground.

Here is just a list of where this cold stands in perspective with the record for the day and the record all time.  It was pretty chilly back in the 1800s!  While we won’t be as cold as the temperatures with the actual air temperature, wind chills Monday and Tuesday morning could be in that ball park!  Stay warm.  It only takes 30 min or so to get frostbite with exposed skin with these dangerous wind chills!

Posted under just cool, weather, wind, wind chill, winter

Our January thaw has ended, our snow pack is gone, but Winter is not over yet.  While it doesn’t look like that huge storm is on the horizon yet, our pattern has changed, and is in the process of settling in to a much colder one.

The graphic below shows where we stand (our pattern) currently.  The jet-stream is heading south and so is the cold air from Canada.  The jet-stream doesn’t look to be coming back north anytime soon either, meaning we will stay on the cold side of things for a while as well.

Pattern as of 1/13/2013 – Cold has replaced last weeks warm-up

Over the next week or so, a ridge of high pressure looks like it will build off the west coast of the United States.  As the ridge bulges north into Canada out west, the trough we are currently under will continue to sink to south allowing even colder air to spill into the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes.

Pattern will likely support an outbreak of Arctic air for third week of Jan.

Here is a look at just how cold the air is up in northern Canada.  This air could be paying us a visit within the next ten days.  Now this airmass would modify somewhat as it drifts south into our area.  If there was snow on the ground, the airmass would be insulated much better on it’s trip southward.  What I’m trying to say is that this air will likely warm up a bit before it gets here.

Cold air hanging out in northern Canada

So about our snow chances.  There is a chance we could have a little bit of snow on the ground before this possible Arctic Blast visits us.  It likely won’t be much, but this same pattern is conducive to producing “Alberta Clippers”; those fast moving light snow producing storms that occasionally swing by in the Winter.  We could see a couple of them before the weekend, but the tracks of these systems are hard to pin down this far out.

Set-up will support “Clipper” development

Posted under climate, Cold, weather, winter weather