Say Good-Bye to January…February Will Not Be As Kind

Posted by Joe Joyce January 31, 2010 at 7:42 pm

IMG_7482cropped This week will feature seasonably cold air…nothing as cold as this past weekend…but cold enough that anything that falls from the sky will likely be snow. Arctic Air remains in place just over our Canadian border. A series of fronts will push through and reinforce the chill across the region. One front pushes through Sunday night, another later Monday. This will keep high temperatures in the 20’s north with highs near freezing south. Monday will have plenty of sunshine mixed with high clouds.
The Polar jet will still be in place across the northeast, supplying cold heavy dry air at the surface. At the same time ,moisture will becoming out of the gulf, and a piece of energy will be sliding east out from the Rockies. Clouds will be on the increase on Tuesday ahead of these two disturbances. The moisture out of the Gulf will stay south thanks to the Polar jet again… but the weak short wave will provide just enough lift with warmer air over riding the cool air at the surface to spawn scattered light snow showers and flurries on and off Wednesday. I would not be suprised if a few areas see a dusting to One inch of snow out of this.
High pressure follows in behind with increasing sunshine to end the week with temps still running on the cool side. Again all eyes will refocus on the Gulf of Mexico.
An active sub-tropical jetstream will scoop up more moisture and direct it up the east coast. Pressures will be on the rise across New England, but these rising pressures will help to form some blocking in the atmosphere and allow the jetstreams to buckle and possibly merge at just the right time.
As we saw this past weekend, the northern Polar stream helped to direct a winter storm south of New England. This brought 8-16″ of snow through Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland. Another storm will be heading towards the mid-Atlantic this coming weekend. The question remains will the Polar and Subtropical streams merge and allow the storm to deepen up the coast and be directed up into New England as a significant winter storm…or will this moisture be directed out to see again. It is too early to tell at this point…but February has a whole other story to tell. After a little break in January, Winter should come back with a Vengence this month! Recess is over kids. This storm bares watching all week. We will let you know all the latest developments as the forecast starts to become more clear. I am banking on a busy weekend for the first weekend February…no matter what the Groundhog may say!