Arctic Air to Settle Over Northeast, Midwest This Week

By Brian Lada, Meteorologist

January 18,2015; 8:28AM,EST

 

 

Old Man Winter will tighten his grip on the Northeast and Midwest this week as colder air flows into the regions.
A dip in the jet stream will allow for frigid air from Canada to sink over the regions, greatly reducing the chance of any prolonged warmth from New York City to Chicago through the end of the month.
"We expect warmth to build into northwestern Canada during the latter part of January and this will force colder air to push southward into more of the United States," said AccuWeather.com Long Range Expert Paul Pastelok.

Although temperatures at the beginning of the week are expected to run near or slightly above normal, this will change as the week progresses.
Temperatures are forecast to drop by a few degrees each day through Friday. This translates to highs below freezing across a majority of the Midwest and interior Northeast during the middle and latter part of the week.
The coldest air will focus on northern New England, southern Quebec and eastern Ontario where temperatures will run as much as 15 degrees below normal on Thursday and Friday.
This will not be a record cold, but will be much colder than the milder weather over the weekend.

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Snow will make several appearances across the Midwest and Northeast throughout the course of the week as well, although no major storm is expected to develop.
Instead, a series of quick-moving systems are forecast to quickly track across the Midwest and Northeast with each generally bringing a coating to up to 3 inches of fresh powder.
Lake-effect snow should not be as significant as it was earlier in the winter despite the frigid air moving over the lakes. This is due to lower water temperatures when compared to earlier in the season.
Ice cover is another factor that impacts lake-effect snow. As of Saturday, 27.3% of the Great Lakes were covered with ice, slightly above average for late January, according to the GLERL.
Ice cover on the lakes will continue to expand throughout the week and into the weekend as the arctic chill persists over the region.


The trend of below-normal temperatures is likely to continue right into the start of February as blasts of arctic air frequent the Northeast and Midwest.