December to start with blast of cold air and lake-effect snow

AccuWeather

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.

Transcript

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.

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