Good Sunday, everyone. Most of the region is on the nice side again today as this pleasant weather pattern continues. This will roll into the week ahead, but big changes start to show up by next weekend and, especially, into the following week.
We will see a few more clouds out there today as a system passes to our south. This may get just close enough to spit out a few showers across the far southwestern part of the state, but that’s about it. Here are your radars to mix it up a bit and give you something to track…
The weather through Thursday is dominated by frosty cold nights and mild afternoons with some sunshine and pleasant weather dominating.
A cold front arrives Friday with showers and a few thunderstorms and will be followed up by another system a few days later. That will bring much colder air back into the region as it passes…
CANADIAN
EURO
You can see how this kicks off severe blocking going up in the higher latitudes with deep troughs swinging underneath this across the United States…
Notice how we try to get a split flow pattern toward the end of that with energy coming from the west and sneaking into the base of the trough. That could touch off an active storm track.
With this winter pattern, the EURO Weeklies continue to see snow threats from the middle of the month through the middle of March…
The GFS Extended doesn’t go out as far in time but has a similar look…
Hang in there, winter lovers. Old Man Winter still has some work to do before we can get into true spring.
I’ll have another update later today. Make it a good one and take care.
Thanks Chris. The cold nights and the mild afternoons are pretty much normal for February. I hope we will have a colder end to the month with some snowy days to give us a frost / freeze free spring, but March weather ( years ago ) always has the largest extremes from snowstorms to tornadoes, This scenario played out very well in the winter 1959- 60. February was very warm with highs in the 70’s to 80 degrees, and dry and uneventful. When we entered March we had a major snowstorm ( two feet of snow in two separate storms ) in the first week with temperatures well below zero after the storms. We were out of school for a week and a half. Later that month we had severe weather in the form of a huge hail storm with tornadoes in the area. Seems like the weather was more extreme back in those days compared to the climate we have today. The question is, did we enter a long climatic change due to solar cycles, or is this new climate caused by our actions ?
I’m going to give a big shout out to the sun.
Thanks for reappearing into my life.
I don’t know how the people up in the Northwest can live with the predominant overcast skies.
A great place to visit because it is scenic, but to live there? I would have to be paid a life changing salary.
We use to own a place in the coastal mountains of Oregon. Great place to grow Rhododendrons and gardening was the number 1 pastime. Springs were beautiful most years. Summers were cool and pleasant. High temperatures in the 70’s with low dew points. Falls were cool to cold and colorful. Quite a contrast between the huge evergreens and deciduous trees. Winters were mostly cloudy and cold but not frigid. Lots of rain and snow. When snow came, it was always major. It came in feet.
In Fairbanks Alaska, eight of the last ten days have seen their low temperatures between -40 and -50 (actual air temp, not wind chill), with high temps in the -20s to -30s. That shows there’s still plenty of cold air near the Arctic Circle to be drawn from to come south into the US.
Fairbanks also has snow depth of 22 inches, which really helps the temps get so cold. We don’t have any snowcover here, so it’ll be interesting to see how cold it gets when the pattern change to colder temps arrives.
MJO has been a major thorn in our side, and seems that will continue to be the case.
Back in the late 1970’s when we had the cold, snowy winters here in the midwest, Alaska had one of the warmest winters and hardly any snow that resulted in the cancellation of the dog sled races. In 1976 to 1979 we had a weak El Nino ( positive PDO. ) This year’s El Nino was mostly a bust as far as impact in our area. First time I’ve seen an El Nino year with a negative PDO. La Nina is forecast for next winter. UGH !