The major storm system we’ve been discussing for days continues to push north up the East Coast bringing heavy, wind driven rains, sleet and snow and a significant rise followed by fall in temperature. After heavy rains yesterday and last night over Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, we got some snow on the backside as the cold air swept in. I’ve seen several 1 inch reports out of Randolph County, Alabama while Atlanta saw measurable snow for just the 3rd time during November since 1930.

Major wind and rain is battering up the coast all the way up to Maine and southeast Canada while some narrow bands of snow continue falling back down across West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland up through central Pennsylvania and into New York. Upwards of 8-10 inches has accumulated over parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. Interestingly as the cold air now works into the Big City corridor, we’re now seeing it try to snow as far south as DC as of this writing. Dependant upon moisture availability, we could see some accumulation within DC, Philly, NYC and Boston overnight tonight along with rapidly falling temperatures. Here’s the latest 12z surface chart off the ECMWF and you can see the copious amounts of moisture driving north along with the coastal gales.

Here are a few WeatherBug cam shots from this afternoon which show the lying snow.

 

 

Like we see in many big Eastern storm systems, there has been an impressive contrast in temperature. Take the 24 hour change captured below a few hours ago. Note the strong warming ahead of the front along the East Coast while there’s a near 20 degree drop back over the Midwest.

The storm running up the coast of course has been pulling down the next batch of arctic air and boy it sure was another cold one from Minot down to Dallas up to Chicago.

Note the 13 in Kansas City, 21 in OKC and even 30 in Dallas.

Through this morning and while there was slow warming out of the 10s through Illinois and Indiana, we had temperatures running into the low 60s with a howling SSW wind and driving rain.

It’s not often you see Boston in the 60s, NYC 10 degrees colder while it’s below freezing in western Pennsylvania and New York with snow falling while in the 10s over the Midwest.

Coldest Thanksgiving Eve And Day Since 1989?

It’s a cold afternoon for sure over the Midwest, Ohio Valley as well as down across the Southeast with the TN Valley, AL, GA and the Carolinas running 15-25 below normal for late November.

Here are the current temperatures. Notice it’s still well in the 30s over northern Alabama and Georgia. Big difference to Boston as well as Mt Washington, NH where it’s 41 just now.

Tonight turns very cold as winds crank out of a NW direction which will crank up the lake snow machine. While we could see a few inches fall through the rest of today and tonight over West Virginia, Virginia and Pennsylvania in the form of showers, don’t be surprised to hear reports of 1-2ft of snow over the IN, MI, PA, NY snow belts.

Here’s the latest snow chart through the next 24 hours.

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Although we have strong northwest winds blowing over the Mid-Atlantic and particularly the Northeast tonight, it will turn bitterly cold, especially with clearing skies, colder mid level air moving in over fresh snow cover. This is sure to be the coldest night of the season, particularly over the Appalachians and Southeast.

Check out these lows tomorrow morning according to the ECMWF.

Notice the ECMWF has temperatures near 0 within the southern Appalachians. This is likely to be the coldest start to a Thanksgiving since 1989. Lows drop into the low all the way to Orlando while there’s a hard freeze likely in the North of Florida where it will drop into the 20s.

This will likely be the coldest Thanksgiving for much of the eastern two thirds, potentially since 1989 from Chicago to Birmingham, AL up to Boston. If Chicago stays below freezing which it likely will, then it’s the coldest since a high of 27 back in 1989.

Forecasted highs tomorrow.

-40s Next Week Out West?

After a cold weekend in the East, temperatures warm up again next week but it’s not the end of the cold air across the Lower 48, it simply shifts west and takes aim again at Montana and Wyoming. In fact we have some exceptionally cold air poised to dive south out of BC and Alberta.

CPC 6-10 day temps.

Here’s the ECMWF 850 temps later next week. Major cold will likely be accompanied by major snowfall in the West.

192 hrs

210 hrs

Wow, take a look at these morning temperatures for next

Northwest up close.

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