…Departure of East Coast winter storm to be followed by relatively quiet
weather for much of nation through Wednesday…
…Critical fire weather concerns for portions of southern California on
Tuesday…
A winter storm located over the upper Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic region
as of Monday afternoon will be quickly exiting eastward into the western
Atlantic tonight. While the bulk of accumulating snowfall has ended, light
additional accumulations will be possible across portions of the central
Appalachians to the Mid-Atlantic coast early tonight.
High pressure and colder temperatures will filter eastward from the
central U.S. through Wednesday supporting relatively tranquil weather for
much of the central and eastern U.S. Meanwhile, northwesterly flow aloft
over the Northeast will maintain light to moderate lake effect snow
showers for locations to the immediate south and east of the lakes over
the next few days. Light to moderate snow showers will also impact
northern New England due to the passage of a number of upper level
disturbances slowly moving east. Temperatures will be below average from
the Great Plains to the East Coast through Wednesday, roughly 5 to 20
degrees below climatological daytime maxima for early January.
Across the western U.S., upper level ridging over the eastern Pacific into
western Canada will allow for the amplification of troughing into the
southwestern U.S. through Wednesday. In addition to scattered snow showers
and slightly colder than average temperatures for interior portions of the
West, strong winds are expected to develop for parts of the southwestern
U.S. As high pressure builds over the northern Great Basin and low
pressure holds steady over southern Arizona, a strong pressure gradient
will develop in the vicinity of higher terrain from the Desert Southwest
into the Sierra Nevada and southern California. Wind gusts up to 60 mph
(locally higher) will increase the potential for downed trees and power
outages. In addition, gusty winds on Tuesday will set up Santa Ana winds
which will promote Critical fire weather conditions over the southern
California coast given low relative humidity in place, with favorable fire
weather conditions continuing through Tuesday night.
Otherwise, the eastern edge of the ridge along the West Coast will
maintain dry and slightly warmer than average temperatures over the next
couple of days from the Pacific Northwest to coastal California with no
precipitation in the forecast until perhaps Thursday for the Pacific
Northwest.
Otto
Graphics available at
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php
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