A nice warm Pacific flow will give those that have been shivering of late a well earned break from the bitter cold through the first half of this weekend.

Check out these highs from today.

Most noticeable is the lack of cold air which has been kicked up to the international border TEMPORARILY and this has followed mild Pacific air to flow west to east all the way to the East Coast.

Below is the ECMWF surface chart for tomorrow which shows the continuation of that Pacific flow crossing the country. The still snow covered areas may only rise into the upper 30s but over bare ground and you could be heading for 50s, even in areas pretty far north.

850 temps.

Highs Saturday via weather.com

Areas just east of the Rockies will warm most thanks to the downslope effect. We could see close to 70 in areas which don’t have snow cover, 50s in the snow covered areas.

Make the most of this though as truly frigid air has been gathering and reloading up to the northwest with temperatures in and around -60 up in Alaska will be the source of the next arctic blast which roars south late this weekend.

Check out this 850 temp chart Sunday compared to Saturday’s above.

Better still, look at Saturday verses Sunday’s temperature for Minneapolis (above and below)

That air mass comes crashing southeast across the Great Lakes and into the Mid-Atlantic early next week, rotating around the strongest vortex of cold over Hudson Bay yet.

Check out the 850 temps over Canada and you can clearly see that strong Hudson Bay vortex.

Temps in Chicago go from low 40s Saturday to just 0s for highs Monday, quite the swing.

As that air mass come acalling this weekend, warming takes place ahead of the southbound cold front, so warmer air pushes up through the Ohio Valley and Eastern Coastal Plain Sunday but that comes with a developing low running northeast along the boundary which will bring big rain amounts up the East Coast.

Here comes that coastal system…

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The QPF prints out a good 1-3 inches of liquid up the East Coast over the next 72 hrs.

The in comes the arctic air.

The cold which comes in on the backside of the east coast system is impressive but a secondary reinforcement of that air drops over the Great Lakes into the Mid-Atlantic later in the week which looks colder!

Check out the surface chart for Thursday. The 504 thickness line drops south of Chicago and knocks on the door of NYC! The 516 line gets south of DC!

Here’s the 850 temps.

This kinda air mass could hold Chicago close to 0 for a day w3hile NYC, Philly and even DC may struggle to get above 20 with 0s by night.

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