We are ten days away (Dec.21st) from the Winter Solstice, which makes the official start (3:19 AM) of astronomical Winter. On that day, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the rays of the sun marking the shortest day of the year. You can see that by viewing the Earth as seen from space. The southern hemisphere is seeing their longest day of sunlight while the northern folks are seeing no sun at all.
So it should come as no surprise that waves of super cold Arctic air dive southward out of Canada. The core of the current cold is over eastern Canada where temps are 25-30 below zero.
The current upper pattern has a trough (not the Polar Vortex) rotating over the Great Lakes allowing the Canadian cold to pour southward.
This is the strongest surge of below zero temps so far this season. Fortunately, the trough will lift out keeping the core of the cold from us. Still, the chill has pushed down through the Gulf into the Yucatan.
Strong northerly winds are pushing all of the low level moisture far into the Gulf with zero signs of return flow. Thursday and Friday will be beautiful with a slow warming trend. Today is a difficult travel day from Chicago to Boston. It's warmer there than here ahead of the front!
The bottom graphic shows the low dew points (teens, 20s & 30s) that will make it feel good outside. The muggies with warmer air will return over the weekend.
The North Shore may see temps near freezing, but those of us south will stay in the 40s. As I mentioned yesterday, I have brought my more tender tropical plants into my He-Shed, but I am NOT covering the rest. I remember this day back in 2008 as it was the day of my rotator cuff surgery. It also snowed (several inches) on the 10th. No such snow luck this year...so far! Stay tuned!
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