Accu-Weather Video – Brisk and Cold in New York

NEW YORK [WABC] — We anticipate changing amounts of clouds and sun today, with temperatures mostly in the lower-30s again this afternoon.

Even though the harsh winds we endured on Sunday weren’t as strong yesterday, temperatures still averaged a general 3-5 degrees below normal.

A vigorous impulse of energy in the jet stream today will manage to rotate around an upper-level low pressure system that continues to linger near the Canadian Maritimes.

This upper-level feature is essentially the same weekend storm which brought a couple of inches of snow to eastern Long Island and a whole lot more to northern and eastern sections of New England — and it is now a “polar vortex’”.

In other words, some of the coldest air aloft in North America (or, in this case ‘near North America’) is now parked over this general area, and every now and then, a spoke of energy that tends to peel away from it tends to dive southward and into the Northeast/mid-Atlantic states.

Because this jet stream disturbance will have very little moisture to work with, we feel that it is appropriate to cover for a few flurries today in the big, coastal cities located along the I-95 corridor.
There could be a few snow showers in the mountains, especially the Poconos and the Catskills — but these appear the only places that will manage to get a fresh coating to as much as an inch of snow this afternoon or this evening.

For the rest of the area, its going to be a very benign “nuisance” event.

Temperatures tonight will wind up mainly in the 20s, an indicator that the arctic air mass currently in place should become ‘relatively stale’ ((otherwise, we’d see low temperatures mostly in the teens and single digits)).

As a weak ridge of high pressure prevails tomorrow into Thursday, there should be more in the way of sunshine both days, with most afternoon temperatures reaching the mid-30s.

That brings us to Thursday night and Friday.

We mentioned yesterday that there’s going to be another big outbreak of bitterly cold air that will be gripping much of the middle of the nation during the middle of this week.

So, while our temperatures level off in the mid-30s and not too far from typical levels for this time of year, we can obviously anticipate that this much colder air will soon be invading the East, and that seems imminent on Friday — and it should last during the upcoming weekend.

But we’re still not convinced that any major storm will be forming along the mid-Atlantic Coast as this colder air invades the East Friday and Saturday.

There will be a relatively weak, “clipper-type” wave gliding across the Great Lakes and into the Northeast, which will probably result in a few flurries and snow showers Thursday night, or late Thursday night into Friday morning for most of the area, but not much more.

The snow showers / flurries will occur along the leading edge of the next wave of arctic air — and while we’re currently showing a high temperature on Friday in the upper-20s, it is conceivable that the morning temperatures are closer to 30 or 32 before they begin to fall during the afternoon, ultimately winding up in the 20s by the afternoon and evening rush hours.

Friday will be a rather windy day, too.

Colder air will be gripping the region this coming weekend, and the temperature in most places on both Saturday and Sunday will be hard-pressed to get out of the 20s, if at all.

Have a good day !!!