Arctic air is on the way

I started talking about the events going on over the Arctic and how they would eventually mean cold air for the Carolinas. Now 2 weeks later the cold air in scheduled to moves south in 2 district waves.

The first of the cold air arrives this week with highs barely getting into the 40s. The next wave comes down the following week into early February. The second one might be even colder due to snow cover and the first batch establishing the cold air.

1-19-2013 11-13-25 AM

Here’s an animation from the CFS v2 climate model of departure from average temperatures over the next 30days. Remember these aren’t the actually temperature but how from average they could be. Our average highs and lows in Charlotte over this period are in the low 50s and 30s.

cvs_animation