Cold front closes in on the eastern US

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Jon Porter warns of a cold front that's expected to grip the eastern half of the U.S. for the first week of December, which will bring lake-effect snow and widespread cold weather.

Transcript

00:00Our long-range team, me, you, have been looking at this pattern during the first week of September,

00:07and I should say December. And again, we've been talking about that this is going to be the

00:13coldest period, not only so far this winter, but probably the entire month of December.

00:19That's the way it looks, and our team has been stressing that well ahead of all other sources

00:24so that people can be prepared for a big shock to the system. It's going to feel like January

00:28across much of the central and eastern part of the United States during that first week of

00:33December, and then we're going to be dealing with significant lake effect snow. It's going to pile

00:37up to the tune of multiple feet. And then we'll still be watching this pattern, Bernie, because

00:42as we've been highlighting, when the pattern shifts, especially late the first week of December,

00:48watch for a coastal storm. More on that in a minute. All right, let's talk about the cold air.

00:51Listen, it's the classic setup. We've got the cold air, very cold air, January cold air over

00:57very warm water. You get a huge temperature difference between the warm lake temperatures

01:03and the air aloft, and then the snow really starts to fly. It's mostly going to be

01:09into the northwest snow belts, John, and your team issued this map here today.

01:18Going over the accumulations, we'll have a zoom in in a moment, but this is a classic setup

01:23for feet of snow. It sure is classic, and especially want to point out one of the other

01:28factors here is that water of the Great Lakes is running above the historic average. Temperatures

01:34are higher. That's due in part due to climate change, so that means that that's going to really

01:38amplify some of these bands of heavy snow there. Snow could come down at a rate of two to three

01:43inches per hour, and that is going to result in some road closures. And we want to highlight,

01:48especially during this time of very significant travel, people who are maybe not as familiar

01:53with dealing with these heavy bands of snow are going to be encountering this, especially along

01:58parts of Interstate 90 from Cleveland to Buffalo. And in fact, some parts of this interstate may be

02:03closed at times. Also going to be dealing with Interstate 86 across western New York. There

02:10can be some road closures there. I-81 between Syracuse and Watertown as well, and Interstate

02:1679 across northwestern Pennsylvania. So we want people to be aware of that, and remember we had

02:21there was that very tragic blizzard in Buffalo back in 2022, and after that the state and local

02:28governments there enacted many changes to their procedures with regard to travel bans and travel

02:33restrictions. So expect that Erie County and also perhaps New York State, they may be more proactive

02:38with travel restrictions. Be aware of that if you're traveling in those areas. And even in areas

02:43like Binghamton, Elmira, north of Interstate E in Pennsylvania, this is a different air mass.

02:48Snow's been melting on the roads so far that's fallen. This is going to be different because it's

02:54a much colder air mass. All right, John, waves of cold, and it's that last wave that we're worried

03:00about. But boy, you could just see the cold air just coming in waves beginning this weekend,

03:06and although we've been talking about the northeast, look at that shot of cold air coming

03:11in early next week all the way into the southeast. Yeah, that's going all the way down Interstate 10

03:16here. So Atlanta temperatures in the 20s. Again, that's why we're talking about a major shock to

03:21the system here across the central and eastern part of the United States. Be ready for some cold.

03:25We want to direct your attention to the last shot of cold air. This will be as we get into the middle

03:30and latter half of next week, and it's going to set up a situation that we have to really keep

03:38an eye on along the eastern seaboard. It will because you notice how intense that last surge

03:44of cold air is that's going to be rolling in that northwest flow. A storm system can develop

03:49in the south. The question will be does it work out to sea, at which point it wouldn't be much of

03:54a threat, but if it turns up the coast, and this is down in that time period between December 7th

04:00and 11th, so a long way out, but if it turns up the coast, it's going to be cold enough for snow

04:05and ice all the way down to the coast. So that could bring a risk to Boston, New York, Washington,

04:11D.C., Philadelphia. Stay tuned. AccuWeather will be monitoring this in the coming days.

04:15AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter.

04:17John, thanks for joining us here on AccuWeather Early.

Category

Transcript

Recommended