While the winter season usually brings thoughts of nothing but cold snaps and blizzards, storm systems can still bring plenty of rainfall during the month. An area of low pressure looks to push out over the Plains tomorrow and slowly push its way through the Southeast over the subsequent couple of days. No widespread severe weather is anticipated along the Gulf Coast or in the Southeast US, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a few scattered cells reached severe criteria. Places from the FL Panhandle to the Coastal Carolinas could be looking at 2-4 inches of rain by the time the system moves off the East Coast this weekend.
Kingsport, Tennessee
That’s quite the snowstorm the Mid-Atlantic region got over the last couple of days wasn’t it? Places up in the Smoky Mountains of NC got around 2 feet and even the Raleigh-Durham area got a foot. Now that the system has mostly sound down in the region, let’s see what’s in store for Kingsport, TN as we venture into mid-week.
At 753pm EST, the temperature at Kingsport, TN was 32 degrees under mostly cloudy skies. As the storm system that brought snow to the region yesterday shifts through the Carolinas and out over the Atlantic, high pressure takes hold over the Southeast and Lower-MS River Valley. This area of low pressure will continue to camp out over the region for the next couple of days, keeping conditions dry but chilly. But hey, it’s December, we should be used to these cold temps, right?!
Tuesday: Partly cloudy. High 42, Low 17.
Wednesday: Increasing clouds but warmer. High 48, Low 23.
TWC: Tuesday: Partly cloudy. High 41, Low 13.
Wednesday: Partly cloudy. High 46, Low 22
AW: Tuesday: Plenty of sun; chilly. High 41, Low 16.
Wednesday: Partly sunny. High 46, Low 22.
NWS: Tuesday: Patchy freezing fog, then sunny. High 41, Low 17.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny. High 45, Low 23.
WB: Tuesday: Sunny. High 38, Low 12.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny. High 44, Low 21.
WN: Tuesday: Mostly sunny. High 41, Low 17.
Wednesday: Partly cloudy. High 45, Low 23.
FIO: Tuesday: Partly cloudy until afternoon. High 37, Low 18.
Wednesday: Mostly cloudy starting overnight, continuing until night. High 47, Low 21.
Some isolated flurry activity is floating around the region off to the south, but won’t impact the Kingsport area tonight. Looking like a couple of dry but chilly days ahead for them!
Wenatchee, Washington
Hey guys! Let’s go on out to Washington for a forecast to get the week started.
At 955PM, PT, Wenatchee was reporting a temperature of 29 with overcast skies. They found themselves between two lingering areas of precipitation, with snow falling heavily in the Cascades, and a bit lighter to the east in the Valleys of eastern Washington. A boundary was a bit more virulent than the typical discharge of energy from a strong Gulf of Alaska low, but as with most features becoming dissociated from the primary area of low pressure, it is diminishing rapidly.
The low is not getting any weaker, however, and it will rotate from the Alaska Peninsula east towards the Kenai, while a heavy slug of moisture slides down the Alaska Panhandle towards the British Columbian coast and eventually to Washington before noon on Tuesday. A sharp upper level trough will aid in the maintenance of the moisture as it slams into eastern Washington. More snow is possible through the afternoon with the arrival of this moisture in Wenatchee.
Tomorrow – A few flurries early, High 39, Low 26
Tuesday – Afternoon rain and snow, High 35, Low 29
TWC: Tomorrow – Sunshine along with some cloudy intervals. High 37, Low 20
Tuesday – Rain and snow in the morning turning to rain in the afternoon. High 35, Low 30
AW: Tomorrow – Mainly cloudy High 36, Low 28
Tuesday – Considerable cloudiness, a bit of snow, accumulating a coating to an inch High 36, Low 29
NWS: Tomorrow – Partly sunny (early mix), High 40, Low 30
Tuesday – Snow before 11am, then rain and snow between 11am and noon, then rain after noon. High 39, Low 31
WB: Tomorrow – Mostly cloudy, High 37, Low 32
Tuesday – Snow likely. Light snow accumulation, High 36, Low 32
WN: Tomorrow – Partly cloudy (early snow) High 40, Low 30
Tuesday – Mostly cloudy with light wintry mix, High 39, Low 31
FIO: Tomorrow – Partly cloudy until morning. High 42, Low 30
Tuesday – Snow (< 1 in.) in the morning. High 41, Low 31
I’m running on the cool side, which points more towards model guidance. We’ll see if that pays dividends. IT would certainly mean more snow. Here is the radar, with only the flurries from Ephrata eastwards really showing up.
Clearing out in Bay City
Last weekend, the inclement weather was a little bit further north than it was this weekend. It cleared out of Bay City as the work week began, though, with only a stray flurry on Monday morning as sunny skies filtered in. It was a bit chilly, of course, with temperatures bottoming out a 20 on Tuesday morning. There was a two way tie atop the leaderboard, with The Weather Channel and Accuweather tying for victory.
Actuals: Monday – .01 inches of liquid, falling as snow, High 35, Low 28
Tuesday – High 33, Low 20
Grade: B-C
Charleston, West Virginia
Charleston is nestled in the Kanawha Valley, which means that most of the weather that comes their way can be something of a surprise. Let’s try to mitigate some of that with a mountain forecast for the weekend.
At 1054AM, ET, Charleston was reporting a temperature of 34degrees and fair skies. A trough was centered over southern West Virginia was getting squeezed to oblivion by two areas of high pressure, The trough is bringing clouds and a bit of drizzle to areas south and east of Charleston, but is going to blink out of existence as high pressure continues to build at the surface.
High pressure is going to sit over the Upper Ohio Valley Saturday, and suppress a developing storm over the Gulf coast. The region will be quite cold under this ridge, but it will generally be sunny. Precipitation will inch closer to Charleston through the weekend, but will hold off until Sunday, when it will definitely fall as snow. The system, by the time it is strong enough to rise far enough north to afflict Charleston, will be fully formed and moving quickly. Snow will fall rapidly, but the duration will be short through the middle of the day on Sunday.
Tomorrow – Mostly sunny, High 36, Low 24
Sunday – A quick burst of snow midday, but otherwise mostly sunny, High 43, Low 26
TWC: Tomorrow – Intervals of clouds and sunshine in the morning with more clouds for later in the day. High 37, Low 23
Sunday – Cloudy, High 42, Low 27
AW: Tomorrow – Partly Sunny, Clold, High 37, Low 23
Sunday – Cloudy; cold high 40, Low 26
NWS: Tomorrow – Mostly sunny, high 34, Low 22
Sunday – A slight chance of snow after 9am, mixing with rain after noon. Partly sunny High 38, Low 26
WB: Tomorrow – Mostly sunny, High 35, Low 23
Sunday – Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of snow in the morning then a chance of rain and snow in the afternoon. High 37, low 25
WN: Tomorrow – Partly cloudy, High 34, Low 22
Sunday – Partly cloudy with slight chance of light wintry mix, High 38, Low 26
FIO: Tomorrow – Mostly cloudy throughout the day. High 35, low 24
Sunday – Mostly cloudy throughout the day.High 41, low 26
That’s an interesting change of opinion between the outlets. I think its going to be a very intense burst of precipitation if it comes to pass. There is definitely a chance nothing happens though. All or nothing. Here is the current satellite image, with clouds over southern West Virginia.
November forecaster of the month
November was particularly gloomy month. There was a barrage of wintry storms that battered the middle and eastern part of the country. There were devastating forest fires in the west and a subsequent soaker of a storm. The gloom was a little bit lighter for The Weather Channel, who coasted past everyone to claim the forecaster of the month title.
Bay City, Michigan
Let’s stay in the Great Lakes today, with a trip to the south side of Saginaw Bay. If you couldn’t establish, that’s the Bay in Bay City.
At 218PM, ET, Bay City was reporting low clouds, fog and heavy rain. There was a smattering of showers and embedded storms from the Thumb southwest through Bay City and extending towards Lansing. This is all in association with an inverted trough dangling to the southwest of a large area of low pressure now centered in southern Ontario. Cold air is lingering to the northwest, and Bay City is riding the sharp gradient, with 50s as nearby as Bad Axe, and snow and the low 30s around Grayling AFB, east of Traverse City.
The upper level trough associated with the system is vast, and while it is contributing to the strength and broad scope of the storm, it is also going to lead to an exit plan. The storm is going to continue to taper off in Bay City overnight tonight, with a slight chance at a few flurries before sunrise on Monday. A weak embedded ridge will override the broader trough and will help usher out the last vestiges of the weekend storm by late in the day tomorrow. Overcast skies are still an unfortunate possibility on Tuesday, along with chillier air, as the new short waved ridge won’t be terribly strong.
Tomorrow – Scattered showers turning to snow, High 38, Low 28
Tuesday – Mostly cloudy to overcast, High 35, Low 24
TWC: Tomorrow – Cloudy with snow showers mainly during the morning. High 36, Low 28
Tuesday – A mix of clouds and sun early, then becoming cloudy later in the day High 32, Low 25
AW: Tomorrow – Mainly cloudy, some snow with little or no accumulation; storm total snowfall 1-3 inches High 36 Low 28
Tuesday – More clouds than sun; chilly High 34, Low 25
NWS: Tomorrow – Rain and snow likely before 8am, then a chance of snow between 8am and 1pm. Cloudy, High 37, Low 28
Tuesday – Partly sunny, High 32, Low 25
WB: Tomorrow – Colder. Mostly cloudy. Snow likely possibly mixed with rain in the morning. High 37, Low 30
Tuesday – Partly sunny, High 32, Low 26
WN: Tomorrow – Mostly cloudy with chance of light wintry mix. High 36, Low 33
Tuesday – Partly cloudy, High 32, Low 26
FIO: Tomorrow – Light rain overnight.High 36, Low 27
Tuesday – Mostly cloudy starting in the morning. High 32, Low 24
Man, it takes forever to put together forecasts with non-standard days. A look at the radar shows a big thatch of rain right over the mouth of Saginaw Bay.
Canton doesn’t go anywhere
Last week’s snow storm didn’t really cream the eastern Great Lakes like it did further to the west. Canton was far enough to the east that they didn’t really get caught up in the heavy wintry precipitation. It rained plenty on Monday, before temperature cooled off enough for some flakes to fall in the evening. The thick layer of clouds meant that temperatures were in the 40s, until they started to fall off on Monday, making it all the way down to 31. Everything seemed to happen on Monday night, huh? Accuweather was the winner of this particular forecasting venture.
Actuals: Sunday, High 49, Low 43
Monday – .36” of precipitation, mixed, High 48, Low 31
Grade: A-C
Center of the country blasted by more nasty weather
Things are winding up again in the central Plains. After a huge storm dumped snow from Chicago to Kansas City the weekend after Thanksgiving, a very similar looking storm developed ever so slightly north, putting Omaha and Milwaukee in the crosshairs.
Low pressure associated with a classic, mid jet trough progressed from California eastward, before losing its identity at the surface of the Rockies, and reemerging bigger and better on the lee of the Rockies. It developed rapidly over the central Plains on Saturday and started shifting north as the afternoon wore on.
There is good news and bad news with this feature. The bad news is that it’s long track and good organization allowed the feature to absorb a lot of Gulf moisture, ready to deposit across the middle of the country. The good news is, the storm is expected to be in motion throughout the life of the feature, and there won’t be any lingering bands of heavy snow stacking feet of snow across any broad swaths of the upper Midwest. 8” for sure, though.
Below is a graphic with the forecast for heavy snow ahead of the feature, and because of how swiftly the storm moved, it looks like the highest totals were not attained.
On the other side of this system, and is often the case with strong, fast moving features, there was a sizeable threat for severe weather, which straddled Dixie Alley through Friday, though most of the activity occurred in the Ozarks yesterday. There were tornadoes warned for across the region, though most of the storm reports pertained to straight line wind issues.
The rapid movement of the storm worked against its sustainability, as the southern end of the storm moved east too rapidly for the northern portion, causing distention and disorganization with the surface low. Straight line winds, as opposed to tornadoes, seemed to be be a more prominent threat on Saturday in the Southeast, while in the north, the intense moisture continues to wane fairly swiftly, but not before a whole lot of snow fell on a lot of places.
The surprise in all of this was a burst of energy that ejected north from last night’s stormy weather, with a mini tornado outbreak (a day too late and well away from where it was expected) in western Illinois. There are many good videos of well formed tornadoes, but fortunately there weren’t any injuries with all the twisters.
Coming soon…
After a few weeks of simply monitoring the broader weather patterns, we’re going to kick December off with some deeper dives into individual locales across the country.
Bay City, Michigan
Charleston, West Virginia
Wenatchee, Washington
Lewiston, Idaho
Road Trip from Wenatchee to Lewiston
Kokomo, Indiana
Lynchburg, Virginia