Just as the model showed from several days back, we’ve seen brutal cold along with snow reach the shores of the Mediterranean and Algeria in the last 12 to 24 hours.
GFS from a few days ago.
Setif, Algeria
Palermo, Sicily
Calabria, Italy
Bari, Italy
Further east and following heavy snowfall in the last few days, temps in central Romania plummeted to -31C under a clear sky.
Here’s the current setup. The cold pattern started off over the UK and western flank of Europe but as heights built in from the Atlantic with warming SW’erly winds, so the cold shifted east and with increased NE’erly winds, Siberian origin air has punched all the way across the Mediterranean Basin into North Africa. This air was cold enough to support sea-level snow along the Italian coastal resorts. Not every day to you see this nor is it every day you see -15C temps at 850mb over the Med either.
GFS surface
Initial
850 temps
The 500mb height anomaly says it all.
2-metre temp departures are impressive down in the Med. Stark contrast balmy Scandinavia.
In the next 7 days expect a more free flowing wavy pattern with strong Atlantic influence.
More in this morning’s video. Also be sure to see yesterday’s post regarding the likely onset of a sudden stratospheric warming and potential implications later in January.
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