Extreme Cold Followed By...

Where oh where to begin.  I think some bullet points are in store.

• Snow predictions were about right on with most of the area receiving 4 to 5 inches
• I did however overlook the typical arctic winds that follow these systems that blew the snow all over the place.  Let's just say driving conditions I saw at 4:45 this afternoon were worse than what I saw at 6:45 this morning.
• I've been very pleased with the road conditions these last few storms and once again the main roads were well taken care of.  The exception this time was the street I live on.  According to my eye witness, the plow didn't come until 9:30.  By that time enough cars had driven on it to almost make it looked like it was plowed.  Needless to say, upon my return home, the entire road is covered in a 1/2 inch of ice-like snow.  The first street down the block, with far less car travel is as clear as a Hawaiian summer sky.

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I make my comments about the road because it is going to be cold this weekend.  I mean really freakin cold.  The cold you normally don't see very often.  We are talking single digits at night and highs in the teens during the day.  Add a little wind and it won't be very pleasant outside.  Here is a quick map I don't often share.

This map is predicting the low temperatures for Sunday night into Monday morning.  Coincidentally, there happens to be a number right in the middle of Berks county.  That number would be 2, as in 2 degrees.  By the way, the difference between the purple shading and the white is that the white (just barely to the north of Allentown) is below zero.  That doesn't happen often.

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I normally don't like to jump on storms too far in advance for many different reasons, but even I can't hold myself back from watching this one unfold.  If you happen to go to the websites of the two biggest weather information providers, that being Accuweather and The Weather Channel, the very first headline (at least of this writing) has to do with a storm at least 4 days away.  

TWC- Major Eastern storm lurks next week
AccuWeather- The East Shivers and Braces for Another Major Snowstorm

When those kinds of stories are the first thing you see when you get to a website, something is up.  Yes, the models right now show a major storm.  There is nothing new in that.  I think it's the overall set up that is causing the early commotion.  The set up is calling for a blocking high over the Canadian Maritimes.  The low would form in the same spot it usually always does and slowly come up the coast.

The keys here are slowly and blocking high.  A slow moving, intensifying low pressure system, being blocked from the normal path, well... let's just say this is something to keep an eye on. 

To keep in spirit with the recent and likely next snowfalls, I will take a look at some snow totals from the past for Allentown.