The Eastern North America pattern has been nothing short of weird, wacky and bipolar. From record warmth the last weekend of February to record cold the first weekend in March!

and so it continues…

The below visible satellite image is like something out of an ultimate disaster movie. In fact, it’s very real, a monster 966mb storm system near Hudson Bay is taking up half of the continent’s airspace, driving fierce and damaging winds across a vast area, severe weather in South, record heat in East and record cold and blizzard in Canada.

Widespread 50-60 mph gusts, locally 70 mph.

Hamilton, Ontario record a wind gust of 71 mph which was the strongest their since 1998.

Damage and power loss stretches over 1,000 miles across the Northern US and southern Canada with at least 1 million today due to winds on the south flank of the storm.

Northeast Ohio.

Lots of 60+mph gusts around the Great Lakes but the 81 mph gust in Rochester, NY certainly stands out.

Blizzard conditions in the windy but MUCH colder rear of the storm.

This morning’s sunrise in the wake of the blizzard.

Churchill, Manitoba.

Ahead of this vast wind machine, subtropical warmth goes all the way to northern Quebec and eastern shore of Hudson Bay while on the rear, an extreme cold pool drills bodily south on the rear of the wind circulation down around Hudson Bay’s southern shore this weekend.

The source region?

The core of coldest air sweeps east between James Bay and the Great Lakes with 850mb temps down to -40C.

What a flip between today and weekend in the Northeast.