Cold to Leave the Northeast

Monday 9 AM

As a large trough develops over the Western states later this week, a large ridge will strengthen just off the East Coast. The resulting southwest to northeast upper air flow taking shape in the East will sponsor a major warmup. By next weekend, temperatures will be aiming for 50 in Chicago and 60 in the Middle Atlantic states. This video shows how the warming trend should proceed.

On Friday, I showed two maps of conditions in the high stratosphere surrounding the North Pole. We saw that quite a bit of warming had occurred on the Siberian side of the pole. Here is the two map set from Friday's report.

Now, there is a new development. The major vortex near the North Pole has split into two sections. Several researchers have pointed to this development as a signal for a change to colder weather over the Central and Eastern states a week or two later. Here is last night's map (courtesy, University of Wyoming's Weather Web) showing the split. Compare this configuration with those in the previous pictures.

Keep in mind the first pattern change we'll see in the East is a warmup that may last beyond next weekend. The speculated-about cold period would start later.