As we head into the middle of January, the temperatures will definitely feel like winter after a warm start to the month. Many locations are running over 10 degrees above average, especially in the center of the country:
In fact, some of those locations have their warmest start to the month on record:
While the West will remain warm, much of the eastern half of the country will drop below average after several shots of cold air move through. The below animation shows the daily temperature departure from Thursday Jan 15 through Wednesday Jan 21:
What people really care about though, is will this cold air bring any snow chances? There has been a lot of chatter across social media the past week of possible snow across the south. The first push of cold air will bring some snow, but it will be confined to the Great Lakes and Western slopes of the Appalachian Mountains. The below is the 24-hr snow total forecast from Wed AM to Thu AM:
The weekend system that brings a reinforcing shot of cold air also has the potential to produce snow. From Friday morning to Saturday morning, that snow is once again confined to the Great Lakes and slopes of the Appalachian Mountains:
While the odds for accumulating snow across the Southeast are pretty low at this point, they aren’t zero. Below is the chance for an inch of snow from Sat 7 pm ET to Sun 7 pm ET:
Snow is extremely unlikely at this point. However, minor tweaks in the path of a system can result in more snow than what is currently expected. This won’t be the only chance for snow through the rest of the month, however. The last full week of January is also expected to be below average:
Let’s take a closer look at Florida and the impacts it will get from the cold air expected to dive south. First of all, some rain will fall across the drought-stricken state. The below is the 48-HR rain forecast from Wed 7 am to Fri 7 am:
Behind this rain, temperatures across the state will plummet. Look at the forecast low temperatures across the state on Friday morning:
Below-freezing temperatures will reach all the way to Central Florida! A record low is even possible for Melbourne and Lakeland!