A thaw is coming for part of the US while flood risks ramp up across another

As we we enter the fourth week of January, weather patterns are shifting across the country. Here's what you can expect.

Transcript

00:00 Well, we had a dramatic pattern change this week and Joe next week.

00:06 Another dramatic pattern change, but in the opposite direction.

00:10 Last week it was all about the blast of arctic air that went south and then came east.

00:14 That retreats next week.

00:15 And one of the three things to note, the January thaw comes from the plains all the way to

00:19 the eastern seaboard.

00:20 Big changes from the cold this week.

00:22 And along the perimeter of that, some snow and ice threats from the upper Midwest to

00:26 New England, but in between, really concerned about the flood risk across the Gulf Coast

00:30 region up into the Tennessee Valley, Bernie.

00:33 You know, the pattern this week showed the northern branch of the jet stream so far south.

00:38 Next week, it's the polar opposite.

00:40 Yeah, it retreats to the north, not so far away that you don't have some residual chilly

00:45 air in these areas.

00:46 And quite often when arctic air retreats, it does so grudgingly.

00:49 And as precipitation spreads into these areas from Wisconsin up into New England, you may

00:53 have some snow and ice threats on a couple of different occasions.

00:56 But elsewhere, much warmer across the Rockies and Plains States all the way to the eastern

00:59 seaboard.

01:00 Keep an eye on this dip in the southern branch of the jet stream, Bernie, because that's

01:03 going to mean some trouble for the Gulf Coast region.

01:05 Yeah, I mean, rounds of rain, Joe, you know, in an area where we're under exceptional drought,

01:11 that could really get erased by this.

01:13 But unfortunately, in this part of the country, sometimes, well, droughts end in floods.

01:18 Yeah, I think that that's going to be a growing concern for next week.

01:21 There'll be one system that will come out of the Gulf of Mexico or out of Texas and

01:24 work its way northeast towards Sunday night and Monday with some rounds of heavy rain.

01:28 But it's not the one only one.

01:30 There will be several more throughout the course of the week.

01:32 So this is the projected rainfall all the way through Friday at seven o'clock in the

01:35 morning.

01:36 You can see some places near could be looking at four, six inches of rain or more, and that

01:40 can induce some flooding next week.

01:42 Yeah.

01:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]

01:43 Yeah.