High pressure is in control across the Northeast; it hasn’t shaken all of the clouds and it certainly hasn’t allowed for too much warming, but it’s set up some decent weather. A new Arctic cold front has begun digging into the Plains – but we’re seeing its true Arctic nature yet; in fact just as quickly as cold air drops in across the Northern Plains, it begins retreating as warm air builds northward. The deepening low will move eastward and it crosses the Great Lakes, a tightening wind field and the Arctic air will expand behind it, and as it gets here by Friday, we’ll see both impacts – cold and wind, which will mean biting wind chills as temperatures fall on Saturday. The storm sets up a bit of a block for the Eastern US, so that warm-up in the Plains will get stopped in its tracks.
Snow won’t be a major piece of this storm; in fact, most of the accumulating snow likely falls within a few hours early Saturday right along the front with lighter snow showers lingering from there. There will be a slow warmup into the middle of next week, but it will be cut short as another cold front moves across the Northeast Wednesday.
-Phil Spevak