AccuWeather's Joe Lundberg looks ahead to the first week of December where January cold is expected to grip the eastern half of the U.S. along with feet of lake-effect snow for the Great Lakes region.
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00:00You know who he is, the crystal ball meteorologist, Joe Lumberg.
00:03Joe, it was last week that we started to really highlight the first week in December as being a
00:10very, very cold week. Things are going to linger, right?
00:16We said last Thursday that the period really from the end of November through the first week
00:20of December, there'd be a lot of cold and even some snow in places or in some both.
00:26And this would encompass a good bit of the country. And that's really part of the three
00:29things to know about what's going on for the first part of December. Widespread colder.
00:33We're talking all the way to the Gulf Coast, yes, including parts of Florida.
00:37There'll be some lake effect snow, and there'll be a lot of that off of all of the Great Lakes.
00:42And there's still concern for about a coastal low during that period around December 7th to
00:47the 9th. So we'll give you some details on how that may play out.
00:51All right. There's the pattern change, Joe. And as you mentioned,
00:55our graphic right now is the average location of the jet stream. But in the eastern half of
01:00the United States, that's going to vary a little bit, sometimes a little farther north,
01:04sometimes a little farther south than what it's being shown.
01:06Yeah. And I think a key to the pattern, Bernie, is this upper level ridge. Notice how strong it is.
01:12It goes all the way up. Really, you can't even see it. It goes up into Alaska. So that's helping
01:16to drag some Arctic air out of the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere and bring them southward
01:22across the plains. And they're going to come in waves. There's one wave that'll come behind the
01:25storm system on Thanksgiving Day. And then there'll be another little piece of energy that
01:30will work its way through here on Saturday. There's probably going to be some snow, maybe Kansas City,
01:34Springfield, Missouri, St. Louis. That'll streak off the coast on Sunday, but that'll drag another
01:39piece of Arctic air south and east. It may ease a little bit, but then another piece comes in
01:44mid to late next week. And there may be one more that follows that with that potential weekend
01:48storm. Here's the setup for the flow off the Great Lakes. These lakes' temperatures are well
01:53above average for this time of the year. So as this Arctic air comes across, you're going to see
01:57lake effect snow that is going to be very impressive. We're talking
02:01feet of snow and some of the more persistent bands and, of course, road closures, local whiteouts,
02:06and much, much colder. And this is across, again, all of the Great Lakes for the next several days.
02:11Yeah. And as you mentioned, Joe, when we take a look at this west map, this next map, we're
02:14showing you how the cold just keeps coming in waves beginning this weekend. Yeah. Just set this
02:21into motion, Bernie. This is on Friday. What it looks like as we go into Saturday, you can see
02:25that cold air coming across the Great Lakes. So that sets up your lake effect snow. And as we go
02:30into Sunday and Monday, the coldest air gets all the way into the Gulf Coast region. I think the
02:34freezing line will get down into northern Florida. Probably not a freeze in the Florida citrus areas,
02:39but it's going to get nervously close. And that just keeps coming. In fact, look at the end of
02:43the week behind that second little piece of energy. More cold air comes in here. It starts
02:47to retreat from the southern plains, but there's one more little fly in the ointment, and that's
02:51this little thing here. And it's all dependent on where that upper level ridge is. If it's too
02:56far east, this storm system will develop and then go out to sea. If it's far enough west,
03:00it gives it room to come up, and there's plenty of cold air. So if that develops
03:04and it comes northeast, you'd probably see some snow with it.