Friday, January 9, 2009

It's Warm Now But.....................

The past few days have brought us an early taste of spring but January is about to make a comeback, and in a big way. After highs today in the 70s across East Texas a front will usurer in cooler air by tomorrow morning. Highs over the weekend will much closer to normal in the low 50s tomorrow and mid to upper 50s Sunday. Temperatures Sunday morning will start of chilly in the upper 20s but that may seem mild compared to what could be moving into East Texas late next week. On Wednesday an arctic front will slide across the eastern half of the nation bringing some of the coldest air the United States has seen in four years. Cold air has been pooling across Northwestern Canada and East Central Alaska where high temperatures have remained below -50° over the past week. It is this air mass that will sink southeast across the country and bring extreme cold to the Midwest and Southeast. Subzero high temperatures will move into Iowa and Illinois on Thursday of next week. If this air mass were to take a more southerly track, East Texas could see some of the coldest air in over 20 years. At this time I still feel like we will just receive a glancing blow but it will still be very cold. The map below shows that temperatures are forecast to be between 30 and 35 degrees Thursday afternoon across East Texas.



The next map shows the area of high pressure settling over East Texas allowing light winds and clear skies Thursday night into Friday morning. Temperatures are forecast to be between 15 and 20 degrees across East Texas by Friday morning of next week.

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However, with the high centered over East Texas that originated in Northwest Canada, area wide middle teens could occur. We will be following this system very closely over the next few days.

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