Good Wednesday afternoon everyone and thanks for dropping by the blog. We know where our weather is going over the next few days as we have talked about it with each post. I want to look ahead into the time around the end of the year into January as some extreme periods are showing up in the analogs and some of them were used as the basis of our winter forecast.

Here is the map produced by the HPC that shows the northern hemispheric pattern centered around January 3rd…


Take a look at the bottom right hand corner of the map and you will see the dates that most match the pattern forecast. Leading the charge were periods from the winters of 76/77, 00/01, 63/34, and 95/96. Those were some SERIOUS winters around here and for much of the country!

Right on cue… the latest GFS goes crazy with the arctic air moving in around… January 3rd! Take a look…

Morning of January 4th


January 4th Evening


January 5th Morning


You get the idea… this pattern is threatening to go into the extreme stage as we close out 2009 and say hello to 2010. 

A few highlights of the weather before then..

– Showers move in later Christmas Eve Day from west to east as the plains blizzard rages on. Temps will come up Christmas Eve into the early morning on Christmas.

– Colder air pours in Christmas Day with some late flakes possible.

– A much colder weekend into early next week is in store with periodic snow showers that can give us some light accumulations.

– Keep an eye on the southern branch of the jet stream next week. This could bring us a winter storm threat as we get set to say see ya later 09!

Have a great evening and take care.