So What Happened To Another Polar Vortex?

Back in December & early January, we had a dip(trough-Polar Vortex) in the upper air pattern over the Great Lakes & East coast.  That brought down some Arctic air out of Canada resulting in several freezes here that broke some pipes & killed/cut back many tropical plants.  But why haven't we seen any more freezes during the last 4 weeks?  There is no Polar Vortex over the Great Lakes, with just the opposite happening now.

The top graphic explains the Polar Vortex while the next 2 depict what the current upper flow pattern is.  Hard to get any Arctic air into the lower 48 with an upper high blocking the pathway.  So where is the upper dip?  Off the West Coast.

The dip is bringing in a stream of Pacific moisture (Atmospheric River) into California accompanying by hurricane force wind gusts.  That has brought down many huge trees crushing homes & cars with mo0re storms coming during the next 10-14 days.  So will that effect us?

Not really as that upper trough is building a ridge over the central part of the nation.  In the short term, it means a big warm up for most of the eastern states.  We'll return to 70+ later this week as starting rather chilly today.

Predictably, all local channels are giving you a outlook/guess extending through Mardi Gras.  As I have mentioned many times, beyond 3 days, the UNCERTAINTY in the forecast grows.  Yeah, the rain chances increase for Mardi Gras weekend, but IF we get into an upper SW flow, much of the rains will stay to our west & north as a frontal boundary stalls out.  The closer we get, the less the uncertainty.  Sip on your chardonnay or favorite beverage and relax.  It's too soon to get nervous.

 The complex upper low over the eastern Gulf will lift to our east allowing sunshine to return tomorrow.  baton Rouge saw way more sunshine today & they were near 70.  Finally...

After a Blue Dog Saturday, Family Gras enjoyed all day sunshine on Sunday.  I welcomed back the sun right ahead of the Oakridge Boys who had Veterans rocking.  Oh the difference a day makes.  For instance,

Here's the front range west of Boulder after a nice snow storm on Saturday.  Look at the "Flat Irons" sparkling under a  new snow cover.  Beautiful!  We will have no weather issues here until Friday at the soonest.   Stay tuned!