It’s easy to forget:
1) That the normal high is 44.
2) That this is the cloudiest time of year.
3) That arctic air sometimes visits us this early in the season.
4) That it can also snow – a lot – this early in December
You know things are mild when we start putting out "Latest Snowfall" graphics like the one on the right. Certainly times are warm, but what’s really behind the delay of game call on Old Man Winter?
Take a look at the graphic to the right (the one with the lines and blobs of red, orange, blue and green. This gives us a hint at what the pattern is like – and shows us where the cold is too. Cold air is pooling off the Aleutian Islands and in the Gulf of Alaska. This paves the way for the cold to pour into the West, and in turn, creates warmth in the East. And when I say East, it is the entire eastern 2/3 of the U.S. and Canada. A massive area of real estate that is WAY above normal.
Oddly, it seems – and I have no certifiable proof or research to back this up – that there really isn’t enough cold to go around. That for every cooldown, there is a disproportionately large area of warmth. Moreover, it seems that we can’t maintain cooler than normal weather on both coasts (and all of Canada) for very long periods of time. Not like we can the warmer than normal weather. That’s just my observational take.
As far as the next 7-10 days are concerned, you know the drill. We establish some sense of normalcy here in the next two days only to see the warmth build into the weekend. And I’m still crossing my fingers for rain.
Pete