Good morning bloggers,
There are two Alberta Clippers that will affect us this week. The first one moves by today, and the second more powerful one moves by on Wednesday. Look below at the 1 PM forecast from the RUC model:
The front will move through this afternoon, but before it does there is a good chance of a big warm up to near 50 degrees or higher ahead and near the front. This is an Alberta Clipper, a storm that moves southeast that clips the province of Alberta in Canada, thus it's name. If you are northeast of the surface low it will snow and a quick 6 inches can fall. But, we are not northeast of the surface low. We are in the subsidence part of the clipper which will lead to that warm up around noon today. A few snow/sleet/rain showers are possible this morning as a little rising motion band moves by, but it appears it will leave most of us dry as we still wait for our first measurable precipitation of 2009.
This next map below, is a much stronger Alberta Clipper. This system will blast an Arctic front through us by Wednesday afternoon and temperatures will be heading toward below zero by Thursday morning in some spots near us. Again, this one will not bring more than a few snow showers for us as the surface low is passing by to our north just like toay's system.
How does this fit with our LRC based forecast we issued last week? Here is the forecast for this stretch of days that we issued a few days ago:
January 10-18th: North flow aloft from Canada develops, but should break down by the end of this period. Some rather strong blasts from the Arctic will fully affect the northern plains and the Great Lakes states. Kansas City will get two or three cold blasts from the Arctic build up that is just waiting to attack us. There may be some minor precipitation events with some small snow accumulations across the viewing area with disturbances coming in from the north and northwest.
Go to www.LRCWeather.com to learn more about the LRC.
We will have more later today as the front approaches. Congratulations to NBC Action News Meteorologist Brett Anthony on his accomplishments in Florida over the weekend. Brett did a half marathon and a full marathon and he completed both. He said "I didn't want the experience to end. Meeting Goofy after completing the two races was a hi-lite of my life yesterday."
Have a great day. And, remember it should warm up nicely before the cold front moves in. We should be used to these changes by now.
Gary