Weather Headlines
Thursday January 31, 2002
The Great Lakes and New England see the full effects of a winter storm.
Colder air settling South and East over the next several days as storms
remain active.
It is a very active weather map with extremes on it. For example, Tucson,
AZ saw snow yesterday, Kansas City Ice, Chicago has seen almost a foot of
snow the last 24 hours and Washington DC was around 80 degrees yesterday.
This storm has been a slow mover, but should start to accelerate to the
Northeast today. The next system in the short term is a quick clipper
system coming through the Great Lakes and heading out to sea. It may
rapidly intensify off the coast late in the period, but probably too far
offshore for any real problems. The air behind all of this is cold, but not
arctic. Even though the five day numbers remain below normal in the West
and above in the East due to current extremes, the overall pattern will be
relaxing for a few days allowing many areas to gravitate to close to
seasonal norms this weekend.
More active weather is expected in the 6-10 day period. Winter storm
enthusiasts may see a couple of major storms the first two weeks of
February if the MRF is correct. These will likely track farther to the
South and East than recent storms opening up the East coast to some
potential snow and ice. The Canadian once again hints at a real cold
surface high coming down next weekend. It does not show up in the others,
but the overall pattern would be supportive of a colder pattern. I don't
see the numbers more than a few degrees below normal. The main story could
be the storms rather than the cold if the models verify.
For the period Thursday January 31 through Monday February 4, expect the
following temperature trends:
Average 4 to 9-degrees below normal: Rockies, Southern and Central Plains,
All of the Western US...
Average 1 to 3-degrees below normal: Northern Plains...
Average 1 to 3- degrees above normal: Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, Great
Lakes..
Average 4 to 6-degrees above normal: Northeast ...
Average 7 to 12-degrees above normal: Mid-Atlantic, Gulf Coast,
Southeast...
Andy Weingarten, Meteorologist APB Energy / True Quote