Look ahead: Frigid cold for eastern US; snow and ice for South

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Joe Lundberg looks ahead to next week where extreme cold is expected to grip the U.S. regions east of the Rockies, with snow and ice possible for the southern U.S.

Transcript

00:00more cold air. That's the headline. I think for next week, Melissa, you look

00:05at one of the three things to know about next week. Extreme cold. I mean,

00:08Chicago, you've had three days in a row this week with temperatures in the

00:11teens for highs. You're gonna have a couple of days with temperatures a good

00:1410 degrees lower than that coming up early next week, and this is going to

00:17extend across most of the country east of the Rockies for the first half of

00:20next week. At least there are some snow and ice concerns across the southern

00:24tier of states into the southeast Monday and Tuesday and then maybe again

00:27later in the week. Farther north, still dry for the West. The fire danger

00:31remains extraordinarily high there. Unfortunately, here's the big picture

00:34pattern. There's going to be a dip in the jet stream by the middle of next

00:37week. This is an area watch, and I'll explain that in just a moment. Warm and

00:41dry to the west of it. Unfortunately, there may be some offshore flow in some

00:44of those areas of southern California. Meanwhile, across the south, with this

00:47particular dip in the jet stream, you've got an opportunity for some snow

00:51and ice in places like Houston, San Antonio over toward Atlanta and maybe

00:55even the southeast coast. As far as the southern California rain concerns

01:00are, if you look at the pattern right now again, there's a concern for Santa

01:04Anna winds early to midweek is one of those troughs moves on through. Then it

01:08should quiet down. The problem is you need rain, minimal rain chances through

01:12the end of January and probably the beginning of February. Our hope is for

01:16the middle part of the month between, say, the 10th and 17th and maybe a

01:20little bit beyond their couple of weeks in there were some storms may come that

01:23far south, but I'm not very optimistic. Meanwhile, going back to next week

01:26early in the week, that system comes through the southern plains and works

01:30its way toward the southeast coast with it. With all the Arctic air that's in

01:33place, you're gonna see some snow and ice across these areas. Waco to Jackson

01:37to Birmingham to Charleston. Snow and ice could mean slow, you know, slippery

01:41roads and sidewalks and significant travel disruptions. That's only the

01:45first one of those storms. There's a second one that comes along. And if you

01:48look at the jet stream, you can see here early in the week, there's the

01:51genesis of that early week system coming through. And as we put this into

01:55motion, you can see that by late Tuesday, this feature is now working

01:58its way eastward. That's why I think this can get all the way to the

02:00southeast coast. But then here comes this next piece of energy in here, and

02:04that's the seed for trouble. Although this one may have become farther north

02:08and west. And if you look at the scenarios for next week, the concern is

02:12an area of low pressure that starts down in Texas, say, Thursday. Thursday

02:16night has an opportunity to either move north eastward, in which case you've

02:21got snow and ice affecting all of these areas and heavy rain and

02:25thunderstorms in the southeast. Or if it's squashed farther to the south, and

02:28some of the computer forecasts are still suggesting that idea. The snow

02:32and ice is farther south. And meanwhile, you get some rain in here, but not the

02:36heftiness of the rain and the flooding concerns or any severe weather

02:39concerns. So that's all of the table just for next week, Melissa.

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