As well as the impressive JANUARY-LIKE cold in which Charlotte, NC broke a record with a low of 21 while many Appalachian Mountain resorts dropped into the teens and Sugar Mountain, NC hit 10, we also saw rare snow. Last night saw the arctic front drive all the way south through coastal South Georgia and South Carolina into Florida. Wind gusts caused many to loose power from Savannah up to Charleston.

The snow certainly caught many people’s attention with Columbia, SC recording snow for only the 3rd time in 124 years in the month of November. Charlotte, NC saw their first November snow since 2006 while it even snowed along the coast at Wilmington, NC. This for many was a rarity for this early in the season.

Here was the scene yesterday afternoon at the NC Ski resorts.

Here was those chilly morning lows extending from the Great Lakes all the way to Florida.

After Charlotte endured a record low of 21 degrees, the high didn’t get very far at around 45 degrees late afternoon, that’s close to 20 below normal. In stark contrast, highs today we’re record breaking warm over Southern California.

Here were some of the record highs over SOCAL today.

Departures from normal today across the country.

For those who don’t like the cold and think all this is too much too early, well you get a brief break this weekend as the arctic high departs and is replaced by warmer air.

Here’s the ECMWF upper chart/850 temps for today and you can see the strong warming returning over the Plains, that’s heading towards the very areas currently shivering.

By Friday the arctic air to offshore but don’t rest too easy in this current pattern where the NAO/AO is trending NEGATIVE..

[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]

Here comes the next lobe of arctic air again by Monday.

By next Wednesday the model takes the core of cold into the Northeast with warming once again on the backside.

Now if you think that next lobe of arctic air is cold, try the 132 hour GFS.

These are the 850 temps!

That’s comfortably COLDER than anything seen this week if that panned out.

Looking at the ECMWF for around the 19th over the hemisphere and you can clearly see the -NAO signal and also the split in the vortex over the pole with height rises extending from Siberia up towards the North Pole. That’s helping drive polar air down into the Lower 48 as well as Western Europe.

All in all I am seeing a colder but still progressive pattern as we progress towards late November into December.

Now with the NAO and AO going towards negative, it will be interesting to see if we get colder in the eastern half of the continent with a slow down off the west-east progression, in other words whether the cold can hold for longer.

By the way, one must consider next week’s blast of arctic air as worse than this week and the reason I say that is, check out the current snow cover over Canada!

As well as that helping weaken less, the arctic air mass dropping into the Lower 48, next week’s shot should come stronger because it will be supported to a degree by some warming over the pole, a vortex split with a piece dropping down.

Finally, here’s the latest CFS surface temp anomalies for winter. Looking chilly indeed!

Dec

Jan

Feb

[/s2If][s2If is_user_logged_in() AND current_user_cannot(access_s2member_level1)]

That’s it, [s2Get constant=”S2MEMBER_CURRENT_USER_DISPLAY_NAME” /]!

To continue reading, you need to have a valid subscription to access premium content exclusive to members. Please join a subscription plan if you would like to continue.[/s2If][s2If !is_user_logged_in()]

Sign in to read the full forecast…

Not yet a member? Join today for unlimited access

Sign up to markvoganweather.com today to get unlimited access to Mark Vogan’s premium articles, video forecasts and expert analysis.
[/s2If]