Frigid Air Mass Key to Weekend Storm

[CaptinCrunch]

Frigid Air Mass Key to Weekend Storm
9AM EST, December 12, 2003

Residents of the upper Midwest awoke
to bone-chilling temperatures on Friday
morning as lake effect snow affected
areas further east into the eastern
Great Lakes.

A WeatherBug live sensor in Amery,
Wisconsin (near Madison) had a
overnight low of -13 degrees while
International Falls Airport in Minnesota
plunged to -23.

Persistent westerly winds in Great
Lakes area also added to the chill.
Early Friday morning, wind chills below
zero extended as far south as the
Chicago metropolitan area. At 8AM
CST, it felt like 7 below zero at a
WeatherBug live sensor in Elburn, IL, a
western suburb of Chicago.

The bitter cold will spread eastward
toward the eastern Great Lakes on
Friday night and into New England on
Saturday night. Single digit
temperatures are expected in northern
lower Michigan and parts of upstate
New York on Friday night with near to
below zero readings in much of
northern New England on Saturday
night.

As this happens, a storm developing in
the Gulf will begin to pull northeast
toward the Tennessee Valley on
Saturday and will eventually redevelop
along the East Coast.

One critical factor will be the exact
position of a high pressure area that will
help to hold in the cold across the
Northeast as the storm approaches.
The high is expected to be farther east
than in last weekend`s winter storm
allowing onshore winds to bring more
warm air inland and cause a quicker
changeover to rain in coastal areas
from Washington, DC to Boston. In
locations where a changeover does not
occur, significant snow is likely.
Further south, in inland locations from
the Carolinas into the mid-Atlantic the
setup could be ripe for significant icing
as warmer air will move in aloft but cold
air near the ground will be tough to
dislodge.

[JCT777]

Thanks for the info, Christopher.