In today’s blog, we will discuss the arctic cold taking hold over the Eastern US and the potential for some southern snow.
Arctic Cold
A arctic cold front has been sweeping south and east today and you can see the drastic change in temperature across the Eastern US via our weather dashboard as of 4:15 pm today:
Take a look at the temperature drop at our station in Zionsville, IN. It has been steadily dropping since midnight but took a quicker plummet when the arctic front came through:
By Thursday morning, lows will be in the single digits across the Midwest with lows in the 20s as far south as the Florida panhandle:
On Friday morning, the cold air takes over the entire Florida panhandle with below freezing temperatures all the way to Central Florida and the potential for record lows in that area:
After a brief moderation on Saturday, Sunday AM will bring another round of cold air across the Midwest and into the South:
This reinforcing shot of cold air looks to keep the next week below average across the Eastern US. Below is the 7 day anomaly from Sat Jan 17th to Sat Jan 24th:
Southern Snow Potential
The biggest question everyone wants answered is will the cold air set the stage for another snow event across the Southeast. Since yesterday, the chances for snow have increased across the region. Take a look at the last 4 run of the GFS model for odds of 1″ of snow from Sat night to Sun night:
A similar trend can be seen on the Euro although this morning’s model run backed off from the higher odds that the overnight run showed. Overall, the Euro shows a lower chance than the GFS does:
Let’s break it down by city. Take a look at the Euro ensemble for Tallahassee. 23 out of 50 members show accumulating snow in the Tallahassee region:
An even higher chance is in place for a location like Savannah where 30 of the 50 ensemble members have accumulating snow:
It’s an unusual forecast because the current outlook has a higher chance for accumulating snow across coastal regions that interior locations. Take a look at Atlanta for example, only 9 of the 50 ensembles have accumulating snow:
We saw this same thing happen last January with the historic winter storm that brought snow to New Orleans and the Florida panhandle so it has happened before. This system is still 5 days away as it isn’t expected to take place until Sunday. This gives us time to watch it.