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The cold air began arriving yesterday and it sure looks like it will be sticking around for the foreseeable future. I do make light of it in the video, but we all need to take this cold seriously. We’ve had a number of years with rather mild winters that included relatively brief cold spells, so it has been a long time since we’ve seen cold of this time extent. Outdoor pets need to be looked after. Anything that is exposed like water pipes should be protected – the cold might not affect them immediately but with time they could be affected.
Plenty of sun today but with the cold air we probably won’t see highs out of the 30s. With a strong closed low situated in the vicinity of New England, short waves rotating around that low will keep a continual train of cold air reinforcements coming our way. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be some of the coldest days we’ve seen in over a year.
The dry, cold weather sticks with us through Wednesday when we begin to see some changes that could spell some snow for the Southeast US and Central Alabama. A strong short wave begins to dig into the Central US on Wednesday with a closed low cutting off around Chicago on Thursday. As a disturbance moves across the area, there is likely to be enough moisture for some light snow. This is not generally the pattern that will give us a significant snow, but we need to watch the overall evolution of this so we don’t get any surprises.
That cut off low moves quickly and opens up by Friday as the cold is once again reinforced and the moisture slides off to the east. But the overall pattern of a long wave trough positioned over the East Coast stays in place which will keep us quite cold.
Looking further afield, the GFS continues to maintain an active flow pattern with strong disturbances every few days. Around January 17th the GFS is suggesting a closed low over the Red River area which could mean a severe weather event for the Gulf Coast area. This is a long way out and there is no way to be specific, but the trend of the active pattern seems to be right on the money.
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Please take the cold weather seriously. It has been a long time since we’ve seen this kind of protracted cold spell, so guard pipes and take special care for outdoor pets. I expect to have the next chilling Weather Xtreme Video posted by 8 am or so on Sunday morning. Godspeed.
-Brian-
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