Arctic Air, First Snowflakes of Season Aim for Philly, NYC

By Anthony Sagliani, Meteorologist

November 11,2013; 1:55PM,EST

 

 

With the start of astronomical winter still a little over a month away, it will feel a lot more like December than November across a large part of the Northeast this week.
A bitter cold air mass that has been building across Canada has become dislodged from the Arctic, and the bulk of this air will sweep across the United States this week.
The coldest temperatures will be on Tuesday and Wednesday as the winterlike chill spills into the Northeast behind an arctic cold front.

High temperatures from Washington, D.C., northward to Philadelphia, New York City and Boston will fail to get out of the 40s, and areas farther inland will not even make it out of the 30s. On Tuesday night, the first below-freezing temperatures are likely from Washington, D.C., to New York City.
Accompanying this front will be very gusty winds and perhaps the first snowflakes of the season for some along the I-95 Corridor, from Boston to New York City and Philadelphia.

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To put this air mass into perspective, consider the normal high temperature for New York City on Tuesday is 55 degrees F. AccuWeather is forecasting a high of only 41 degrees F, which is the average for Dec. 21 (the first day of winter).
Similarly, in Philadelphia, the average high temperature on Tuesday is 58 degrees F. AccuWeather is forecasting a high of only 42 degrees F, which is the average high temperature on Dec. 24.
This winter chill will not be sticking around for very long, as temperatures will be warming back toward more seasonable levels for the start of the weekend.