Icy Winter Expected Across Region

If you didn’t like last week’s weather pattern, you may not like the upcoming winter.

Meteorologist Rob Carolan said some unwanted weather patterns may be on the way as an active El Nino combines with cold air from the North.

“We think much of this winter is going to feature collisions between warm moist air coming in from the Pacific Ocean and cold dry air coming down from Canada,” Carolan said. “We think that type of setup is going to have the tendency to cause an usually high number of incidents where we could be dealing with freezing rain or sleet for an extended period of time this winter.”

Carolan said Canada has experienced lots of snow cover and colder than normal temperatures this fall.

“Some of that has been bleeding into the continental United States. In fact, the snowfall cover across the United States is unusually high for this early in the winter season,” Carolan said. “We’ve got snow on the ground from the Dakotas and Montana right into the northeastern United States. Once you put the snow down this time of year it has the tendency to draw the cold air in.”

Carolan said the expected weather pattern brings the enhanced risk for an ice storm this winter.

“It’s just that type of setup because Canada is so cold and it’s supplying colder-than-normal air to portions of the Mid-Atlantic states, Ohio River Valley, Great Lakes, and the Northeast,” Carolan said. “When you get that type of cold to our North it gets very worrisome because those two air masses can end up colliding and we would be one of those areas where that collision would be taking place.”

Carolan said the good news is that the short range forecast looks promising.

“The reason behind that is the fact that the weather pattern is going to be changing. For much of the fall we’ve had high pressure over the western United States,” Carolan said. “The high that has been over California is going to shift East just in time for the days preceding Thanksgiving.”

Carolan said that should make way for a couple days of sunshine once we get rid of the present weather system that’s brought some clouds and showers into the forecast.

“Longer range it’s a different story. It looks like this is going to be a very convoluted pattern for the winter,” Carolan said. “I think you’re going to be thinking back to this week very fondly by the time we get into December and January.”

Carolan said a higher-than-normal occurrence of snow may be in the cards this winter depending on where the southern storm track sets up.