AccuWeather Long-Range Expert Joe Lundberg explains the potential for January tornadoes.
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00:00 A year ago today was our first tornado outbreak of 2023 and January went down in the history
00:06 books as the second highest tornado reporting January on record.
00:10 Now the question is, do we see more tornadoes or even just severe weather this January?
00:16 Well to talk about it I've got expert long range meteorologist Joe Lundberg with me.
00:20 Joe, oh boy, we've got a lot going on in these next two weeks.
00:24 Inactive January last year, it's going to be an active January this year.
00:27 The first system that we're dealing with this weekend is going to be snow, but this next
00:30 one, how about a major storm that goes from the Rockies and the Southwest all the way
00:34 to the Eastern Seaboard and with it a severe weather threat from the Gulf Coast to the
00:37 Carolinas.
00:38 That's something we're going to be paying close attention to.
00:41 And on the Northwest side of it, yeah, there's going to be snow with that system too, but
00:43 not for the Northeast, more for the Midwest.
00:45 Well, you know, you mentioned snow.
00:47 That means we have to have some cold air coming in somewhere, but it's that clash of warm
00:51 and cold causing part of the problem here.
00:53 That's exactly right.
00:54 You're going to see that cold air knifing down from Western Canada into the Western
00:57 U.S. as a storm system comes in through California.
01:00 That'll help to infuse it with more energy.
01:02 And on the Eastern side, warm, moist air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico.
01:05 You mix these two together, you're going to see an area of low pressure developing in
01:08 Texas and that system will then track toward the Great Lakes.
01:11 And as it does, it pulls in that warm, moist air.
01:14 That means a severe weather threat from parts of Louisiana all the way over to the Carolinas,
01:18 including parts of Florida.
01:19 A lot of rain for parts of the Ohio Valley and particularly mid-Atlantic and New England
01:23 on top of the snow that you might get this weekend and then some snow threat on the northwest
01:26 side of it.
01:27 So it's a it's a big winter storm for next week.
01:30 And yes, severe weather is definitely on the table.