Thursday, January 14, 20216 P.M.

Lot’s of activity, but still lacking cold air

Temperatures have been mild this winter so far.  The short cold spell around Christmas is about the coldest we’ve been.  And, overall, the weather here has been rather quiet.  But, part of that equation is about to change.

Weather patterns are really expected to pick up over the next ten days as a major upper air trough over central is expected to expand and slowly move eastward.  That eastward shift opens up the opportunity to push some significant cold air south over the eastern U.S., but not until about 7-10 days from now.

Meanwhile, upper air patterns are going to start moving quickly across the country.  The first one will move over the northern Ohio Valley tonight and tomorrow.  Some scattered light showers will be likely this evening, but they will be of little consequence since the Gulf of Mexico is shut off from this system.  As colder air arrives tomorrow a few rain and/or snow showers will be possible.  Best chance for snow showers will be tomorrow night with accumulations up to one inch on grassy areas.  Temperatures should remain above freezing, so no major road problems are expected.   Some flurries could continue Saturday.

Sunday another disturbance will float over the area.  Once again Gulf moisture will be missing, so snow potential will be on the low side – probably up to a half-inch or so.

At least a couple more disturbances will hit the area next week, but there won’t be enough cold air to make snow…just cold rain.

It’s a long way off, but a storm expected next weekend should be quite strong and offer a rain-changing-to-snow situation.  It might be strong enough to push us into a “colder than normal” weather pattern.