The storm that ripped through the Mid-Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes region is doing exactly what mid-latitude lows are supposed to do; thoroughly mix the atmosphere top to bottom or bottom to top and left to right or right to left...whichever your preference. The earth is in this constant IMPOSSIBLE battle to balance its heat. The transition seasons of autumn and spring are when the fight is often greatest. Thus, severe wx outbreaks as observed yesterday in the Midwest are the sensible wx result of this imbalance...take a look...84 tornadoes reported November 17, 2013!
Now the gale center is located northeast of Lake Superior on the south shores of James Bay with pressures down to 968 mb!
And here is how the IR topside view appears...
Our crystal clear skies and dew points in the mid 20s are a result of air getting pulled into this system from the high plains and central Rockies! High pressure is progged to rule the roost the next several days as it ridges east over NY...
And after a storm system works its way from the southern plains NNE into the lower Lakes on Saturday...
...a very large and COLD arctic high will move across the lower 48 the 1st part of Thanksgiving week. If the model verifies below, Sunday will be quite cold and blustery across PA with lake effect snows widespread across the lakes including the favorite parts of PA.
But then, later on nearer Turkey Day, storminess could be evident across much of the eastern USA disrupting travel either by plains, train, or automobile....here is the Euro's map for Thanksgiving morn...
that low pressure would've caused ample precip as it moved from the gulf coast to its progged position...and with the arctic high retreating, much of the precip has the likelihood of being in some type of frozen forms once to our latitude!
In fact, the Euro thinks turkey week will be quite cold in these parts...for a 5 day average, that is a cold map!
Alright...gotta run. I'll try to update later this week...but if you are so inclines, between 5am-6am this week under what should be quite clear skies, you might want to try to spot Comet ISON low in the eastern sky? This is a neat interactive...
http://www.solarsystemscope.com/ison/
You won't see this...
...but if you wait until ISON heads back out to outer reaches of the solar system, you might get a better naked eye glimpse...here is a good map over the 1st 2 weeks of December...
So give it a shot; albeit a cold shot I do believe....to try to spot the comet...
Smitty
AA: Nice wx through end of week then another frontal passage for the later part of the weekend. Quite cold early next week with the potential for wintry precip by Thanksgiving. When it's clear, look east early in the am to try to spot a comet.
