This will be a rather wild day in weather offices in places like Wichita, Kansas City, Des Moines, Chicago, and Detroit, thanks to a major winter storm moving out into the middle of the nation. Heavy snow is likely in a band through parts of Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, northern Missouri, and the Great Lakes region. Some places will get up to one foot. Just to the south of the snow band, freezing rain will set up ice storm conditions in a narrow band, coating trees, power lines, and bridges with a layer of ice. Meteorologists will have a field day trying to figure out the places that will get snow, ice, or just plain rain. This storm dropped a whopping 23.5 inches of snow at Flagstaff, Arizona yesterday and last night.
For now, we are sitting on the sidelines here in Alabama with the storm track and Arctic air holding to the north. But, we will not have dry and mild all winter, and there are increasing signs of an upper air pattern change that will allow much colder air to invade the deep south around the middle of January. As we point here over and over, there is very little skill in a specific weather forecast beyond seven days, but we can get an idea of trends and patterns. And, the longer range models are hinting at a pattern that will bring much colder air into Alabama in 10 to 15 days. This cold air will most likely be very shallow in nature, perhaps less than three thousand feet thick, which sets the stage for all kinds of mischief down the road. A shallow layer of very cold Arctic air at the surface, and a moist southwest flow aloft on top of that often means a freezing rain situation.
I get the idea our busy days in this weather office will come during the latter half of the month, so we will enjoy the calm while it is here. In the meantime, we will watch the fun and frolic up north today from a distance down here deep in the heart of Alabama.
For now, we are sitting on the sidelines here in Alabama with the storm track and Arctic air holding to the north. But, we will not have dry and mild all winter, and there are increasing signs of an upper air pattern change that will allow much colder air to invade the deep south around the middle of January. As we point here over and over, there is very little skill in a specific weather forecast beyond seven days, but we can get an idea of trends and patterns. And, the longer range models are hinting at a pattern that will bring much colder air into Alabama in 10 to 15 days. This cold air will most likely be very shallow in nature, perhaps less than three thousand feet thick, which sets the stage for all kinds of mischief down the road. A shallow layer of very cold Arctic air at the surface, and a moist southwest flow aloft on top of that often means a freezing rain situation.
I get the idea our busy days in this weather office will come during the latter half of the month, so we will enjoy the calm while it is here. In the meantime, we will watch the fun and frolic up north today from a distance down here deep in the heart of Alabama.