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