An unusually potent summer low is making for a weather map more suited to fall in the Northern Rockies where heavy snow has been falling in the mountains, records winds have blew at lower elevations and temperatures are running 10-25 below normal. That same system is acting like a wheel, drawing arctic air south on it’s rear bringing a sub-freezing morning to parts of Montana and Wyoming but it’s also pumping tropical heat and humidity north further east. Check out this stunning visible satellite image from this morning.

Yesterday was indeed the windiest on record for July in Billings, MT.

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Highs from yesterday. Note the chill over the N Rockies but the heat surge from S/C Plains up into the Northeast as strong and stacked SSW winds drove temps to 95 in New York for the first time this summer. It was also warmer than of late in California.

Yesterday’s departures.

Close up of Mid-Atlantic and Northeast highs.

While it felt like 100 degrees from DC to New York yesterday, this was the scene over the summits of Big Sky, MT.

Here’s how the month is looking overall.

Quite the contrast as of 6am ET this morning. Note the 80 degrees at New York’s LaGuardia following the hottest day of the year yesterday (95F) while it was a shivery 29 degrees at Yellowstone, Wy.

Here’s the culprit.

Ahead of the main front, severe weather broke out on the N Plains as well as parts of the Midwest within the warm sector. Check out these stunning pics of the overshooting tops from 40,000ft above the Ohio River yesterday. Captured on a flight between Philly and Dallas.

Forecasted departures for today.

The deep low skirting the US-Canada border is acting like a bowling ball, allowing northward surges of heat up both West and East coast but as we push into the weekend and next week, there’s more western ridge and eastern trough.

See this morning’s video for the discussion.

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