Arctic Plunge Still Coming...

Brutal cold is surging southward tonight with minus 2 at Bismark, 7 at Minneapolis and 20 at Omaha.  As a developing storm system heads to the NE, cold air will surge down to the Gulf coast making for a very uncomfortable Sunday.   Ahead of the front on Saturday could be some strong T-Storms, but they will quickly rumble through with some sunshine back out for Saturday afternoon.  The real chill sets in by late in the day with lows Sunday morning near freezing on the North Shore and mid to upper 30s on the South Shore.  Highs will stay in the 40s on Sunday (wind chills in the 30s) despite lots of sunshine.  Monday morning will be the coldest with upper 20s north & mid 30s south.  A warm up quickly moves in Monday PM into Tuesday before our next front brings rain and more cold air for Wednesday & Thursday.  With tonight's storm and the one next week tracking well to our north, we get into the warm air sector.  Models earlier in the week had the storm track much farther to the south bringing the threat for a southern snow storm near us. As we got closer to the event, models changed.   The new longer range (10-14 days) guidance tonight is again trying to form a low along the northern Gulf coast toward the end of this month.  That would once again bring the threat for a southern snow storm near us.   Rather than jump on that, I'll wait until we get closer before I send up any alarms.   During these last 2 weeks of January, we'll see several strong invasions of cold air that should balance out the warm start to this month.  The first arrives Saturday, the second next Wednesday with the third next weekend.  The coldest may not happen until the final days of this month.     Much of the eastern half of the nation will go into the deep freeze for the next couple of weeks.  Watch the Chiefs/Patriots game tomorrow to see some real old time football (before domes) playing conditions.   It takes hardy fans to endure that chill, but I expect the stadium will be packed until the Patriots pull away late in the game.  New England 34 Chiefs 24.  Las Vegas thinks our home crowd will be the difference and so do I.  Another wild one Saints 35 Rams 24.  Who Dat!