The arctic wolf is ready to come roaring back into the Continental US after a 7 day vacation back up in the source region.

The return of bitter cold comes via a series of clippers which are riding the northerly jet. While we’ve got a system currently snowing on the Ohio Valley, interior Northeast and eventually the Mid-Atlantic, another clipper is making it’s way south over central Canada and should be sweeping across the Midwest and East Monday through early Wednesday. Behind this system is some true arctic air and this will shiver an area from the Dakotas to Florida mid to late this upcoming week.

Once this air mass is down and in place, we have yet another ‘cross-polar’ situation where the Pacific ridge pushes all the way up into the arctic, bridging Siberia with Canada with a cross polar jet which transports the coldest air in the entire hemisphere into Canada, reinforcing the already frigid air and pile drives it south on board a powerful northerly flow. This Siberia enhanced air will get driven into the Lower 48 by yet another clipper and it’s this clipper that will present a repeat of the cold seen back at the start of the month. This will bring the 3rd, even 4th opportunity or spell of additional snow to most areas stretching from the Dakotas all the way to the southern Appalachians. Behind it, this air mass will most likely challenge the -23 in Minneapolis, -16 in Chicago and 4 in New York and Philadelphia.

Here’s the ECMWF projected snow cover through the next 10 days.

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The first arctic wave will be no picnic and comes in two pieces. In front and behind a midweek clipper, likely sending temperatures below 0 in Minneapolis and Chicago by Monday night with the worst of the cold peaking Thursday in Minneapolis, Friday in Chicago behind the clipper pushing south over Canada at the moment.

Projected lows should go to -15 in Minneapolis, -10 in Chicago late week AFTER the clipper but ahead of it and behind the early week system, temps go to near or slightly below 0 in Boston and Hartford, single digits New York to Baltimore.

Here’s the Northeast lows Wed AM once the latest clipper passes having dropped a coating to 3 inches across the Coastal Plain, higher amounts up in New England.

Then once the next clipper passes, temperatures really drop over the N Plains into the Midwest.

ECMWF surface temps Thu AM for N Plains.

Note by Friday the warmer air sweeps into the N Plains while it’s coldest over Wisconsin, E Iowa and Illinois.

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Over the next 5-7 days, while the southward moving disturbances contain little moisture, they shall provide coatings to 3 inches across the N Plains, Midwest, Ohio Valley and East and one must always watch feedback once they slide off the Atlantic Seaboard with low pressure formation/deepening which could bring surprise 2-4 inches snows up the coast and along the I-95 corridor.

Then it’s the REAL DEAL into the start of the following week…

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Yes, Minneapolis is once again in near -25 territory!

Again, Chicago is projected to go towards all-time territory.

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Mid -20s for Indiana and Ohio.

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Even -20s for Pennsylvania.

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The model is quite likely overdone once again but it will be very interesting to see whether this outbreak beats that of early January. Could NYC and Philly hit 0 for the first time since 1994?

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