WRITTEN THIS MORNING BUT FAILED TO POST!

Brutal cold is already in place over the N Plains and Midwest and as is often the case with major arctic outbreaks, a clipper system runs the stinging NW air flow. Cold air initially sinks south but a clipper follows and it’s behind that where the coldest air of all comes down with the arctic high.

After seeing bare ground through Christmas, Chicago now has a crucial snow cover this coming clipper TODAY and TONIGHT will enhance that nice blanket of reflective snow cover which should extend through the Ohio Valley and Northeast.

The US is now 54% snow covered and once this clipper pushes through, that figure is likely to be upwards of 70% which means a more brutal impact from the coming high.

Chicago is down to -3 as of this writing but following the clipper which could drop a half foot of snow, the test will be how cold will they get and can it approach last year’s -16.

[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]

New York City fell to 4, Boston 2 last January but WITHOUT snow cover. Boston is projected to go below zero for the first time since I believe 2005. New York may see enough from this clipper (1-2″) for lows to exceed the 4 of last year and approach the 1 which was last reached in Jan 2004. The last time NYC has hit 0 was 1994.

GFS snow through 48h

ECMWF

Projected snow cover through 48h

See yesterday’s written post and video for model projected temps.

This high will be followed by another two cold highs next 10-15 days.

THIS WEEK (72h) Note how far south the 498 thickness goes!

144h

Believe it or not but this week’s major outbreak is occurring (like last January may I add) with a +AO/NAO

Next high on the GFS

We’re CURRENTLY seeing a split in the POLAR VORTEX and so this will force the AO/NAO to go negative into the middle and second half of January. It may spark another, more POLAR VORTEX-like outbreak.

GFS 7-day mean 500mb height anomalies show the development of the negative NAO as a result of the above.

See video for discussion.

[/s2If][s2If current_user_cannot(access_s2member_level1)][magicactionbox id=”18716″][/s2If]