Good Friday, everyone. We have made it to the first weekend of the new year and the cold temps hang tough across the commonwealth. The cold will eventually produce some light snow before the weekend is over. The longer term outlook is getting more and more of my attention as we have some wicked winter weather lurking.

Temps today will top out in the low and mid 30s for many areas. The day may even start out with a snow flurry or two in the north.

The system rolling in for the weekend will cause clouds to increase on Saturday and a rain or snow shower will break out from southwest to northeast late in the day. This system will develop a little a further as it works to the northeast of us and we should get in on a period of light snow behind it. The GFS shows this very well…

GFS

If we are to see a small accumulation, it would come late Sunday afternoon and evening.

The warm up for next week continues to look wimpy, wimpy, wimpy. A storm system will develop and head toward the Great Lakes late Tuesday into early Wednesday. This will drag a strong cold front across the state. This could lead to plenty of showers and gusty winds as it rolls through…

GFS 2

Temps will fall quickly behind the front on Wednesday and it’s not out of the question to see some flakes to end this thing. That’s a heck of a way to run a warm up! 😉

That takes us toward the end of next week into the following weekend and that’s when we will start a period of harsh winter weather for much of the country. Check out the big drip in the jet stream by next Saturday…

GFS

A big ridge pops along the west coast as severe blocking shows up across the North Pole. The polar vortex is forecast to slide southward into Canada and the pattern suggests it could make a run at the states at some point the following week…

GFS 2

My cold and snow juices are flowing as I look at the pattern taking shape for the middle and end of January.

Have a great Friday and take care.