Temperatures Drop Below Average for the Start of the New Year

This is it!  Just a few more days left before we begin a new year and a new weather pattern change.  Temperatures for the last week of December will remain very close to, if not above, average.  Average highs are in the upper 20's to right around 30 degrees.  Each day this week will warm a little that 30 degrees.

One of the reasons for a more 'milder' week is due to the position of the jet stream.  The cold air has retreated back north with the jet stream riding close to the U.S/Canadian border.  We also lost a significant amount of snow cover just within the past couple of days.  It was just over the holiday weekend that we still had several inches of snow on the ground.  But after a warmer weekend and rainfall Sunday night, we lost a lot of that snow.  Our surface winds will be coming in from the southwest this week, originating from an area that doesn't have any snow cover over it.  With these winds moving into an area that now has little snow cover, the air mass will be able to sustain some of its warmth.

So temperatures on Wednesday will climb close to 40 degrees.  Unfortunately, winds will help to counter that as gusts reach 30 mph.  This will make it feel more like the low 30's, even upper 20's in a few locations.

Looking out ahead into next week it appears as if temperatures will drop back once again with a high probability of much of the U.S. falling below average.  The third map on the left is the 8-14 day outlook from the Climate Prediction Center.  The jet stream will once again take a big dip following low pressure Monday and Tuesday.  This will pull down the colder air that retreated back north after the last cold snap.  This one might be a little colder than the one we experienced just a couple weeks ago because there is much more snow over the Upper Midwest and Northern Plains.