Northern blast chills Inland Northwest

A chain reaction of weather events set off by a massive storm that slammed into Alaska’s sparsely-populated Aleutian Islands last Friday pushed a blast of unseasonably cold air into the U.S. this week. This is a weather pattern more typical of January and February, not mid-November.

The storm, which was the remnants of Typhoon Nuri, enhanced the high pressure ridge in the West and then sent frigid air from the far north all the way into the U.S. South.

Many areas of the country from the Rockies to the East Coast reported temperatures between 20 and 40 degrees below normal. Freezing temperatures were reported down to the Texas Panhandle.

In addition, snow totals from 1 to 2 feet were reported in the northern Great Plains, upper Midwest and into the upper Great Lakes. Some places picked up more snow from this storm than what they would normally see for the entire month of November.

The Inland Northwest is also seeing the effects of the Arctic outbreak as readings have fallen well below normal with highs only in the 20s. Our normal highs at this time are around the low to mid-40s. As of early Tuesday, it’s very possible that we may also see some measurable snow today and Friday.

Longer-term, just how much snowfall accumulation we’ll see this winter depends on the strength and longevity of the current warmer El Nino sea-surface temperature pattern in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Right now, most computer models forecast this phenomenon to continue through at least early next year. As mentioned earlier, this would mean less snowfall than normal for much of the Inland Northwest.