Another day, another series of wind chill warnings for the Northeast.
A brutal shot of cold air Saturday morning is dominating the weather over the Midwest and especially the Northeast, prompting a slew of wind chill advisories and wind chill warnings for parts of the Midwest and a large portion of the East Coast, spanning an area from Virginia to Vermont. Wind chills Saturday morning in parts of the interior Northeast may be in the -30 to -40 degree range.
Aside from being uncomfortable and disruptive to many communities’ infrastructure, the aforementioned wind chill range in the Northeast is life-threatening, with frost bite possible in as little as 10 minutes.
Even in New York City, wind chills in the metropolitan area could dip as low as -10 to -20 degrees. On Sunday, the Midwest will begin to see some “relief” — it’s all relative — with wind chills not as brutal. The Northeast, however, will not enjoy the same relief: It will continue to remain quite cold with dangerous wind chills below zero.
New Yorkers may already have forgotten what above-freezing temperatures feel like: The last time the metropolitan area was above freezing was Christmas Day. Sunday is forecasted to be the 13th straight day below freezing. This will tie for the third-longest stretch of temperatures below 32 degrees in New York City and will be the longest stretch since January 1961.
Even in Raleigh, North Carolina, the cold blast is breaking a record. If Raleigh does not get above freezing by Saturday evening it will set a new record for number of consecutive hours below freezing. The old record is 159 hours from January 1982.
But it’s not all bad — aka brutally cold — news.
A pattern change is lurking over the next few days: Relatively milder air will slowly expand eastward and temperatures are expected to finally rise above freezing in much of the Midwest and Northeast, including Chicago, New York City, Indianapolis and Raleigh. In fact, it will be nearly 30 degrees warmer in parts of these regions by Tuesday. Looking at the end of the upcoming week there are higher probabilities for above-average temperatures for the Northeast.
Looking ahead toward the latter part of the month, the long-term forecast suggests a January thaw will be coming for much of the country.
As for the West Coast, there is growing concern over a new storm that is heading towards California from Monday through Wednesday. This could be a potentially dangerous situation with heavy rain. There’s also a concern that the storm could cause debris flows in recent burn areas in Southern California.
A weak disturbance will continue to move through parts of the West on Saturday. Another storm will develop over the Pacific Northwest and impact the region on Sunday.
The next significant weather concern comes from a storm system developing in the Pacific. The storm will carry a good deal of precipitation towards all of California form Monday to Wednesday.
The primary concern is the onslaught of rain that is coming for the lower elevations and hillsides. A potentially dangerous situation will develop across the burn areas of the Thomas, Creek and La Tuna burn areas in Southern California. Locally, 2 to 4 inches of rain will be likely with high hourly rainfall rates.
This storm will bring a good amount of mountain snow, which will hamper travel in the mountain passes.
As for the central U.S., out ahead of a weak system developing in the region, there is a chance for some freezing drizzle across much of Missouri and western Illinois on Sunday.
As the system develops late Sunday into Monday, some light snow will track towards the Great Lakes Region. By Monday, the precipitation will move to the northeast with light snow and a light wintry mix possible.
At this time, no accumulation appears to be significant for the central U.S. However, light wintry precipitation can hamper travel locally.
