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Could snow fall in the week before Christmas?
AccuWeather
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12/13/2024
AccuWeather's Paul Pastelok joins Bernie Rayno to discuss the long-range forecast, looking at weather patterns across the U.S. leading up to Christmas.
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00:00
I want to bring in our long-range expert. Now, it's not Joe Lumberg, it's not the Crystal Ball,
00:04
but I came up with a new name for our long-range, uh, our chief meteorologist and long-range,
00:10
Paul Pastore, the wizard of the long-range, uh, Paul. And, Paul, I'll tell you what, I,
00:16
you know, I need the hat and maybe a little, um, what's that, a little wand. Yeah, we need to have
00:22
a wand. All right. Well, I, I've been stirring the wand because, you know, on Christmas I want
00:27
it cold, I want some snowflakes in the air. We'll talk about the Christmas week upcoming here,
00:32
but first, let's talk about the three things that we need to get ready for for next week, Paul.
00:38
Well, you know, here's the thing. As we go into next week, we are going to be looking at
00:43
a series of things that are kind of coming together. Uh, we'll start off, uh, in the, uh,
00:48
middle of the nation, pretty on the mild side, and then I think we're going to turn colder as
00:53
the week goes on. But the big news, I think, is going to be what's going to happen with this
00:57
potential late week storm. At the end of the work week, we may have to watch a situation in the east
01:04
for a potential storm. There may be two, we'll see on that. And then the rain and mountain snow
01:08
continues in the west. It's just lined up, Bernie, across the northern Pacific right now.
01:14
Yeah, let's take a look at the pattern for next week, Paul. Uh, and again, the real key is how
01:19
strong is this jet stream coming south? There's a lot of different options with this, but does
01:25
this does certainly appear as we get into Thursday and Friday with that dip in the jet stream.
01:31
There's some options for storm to form on the eastern side of this. Right. And you got to go
01:37
all the way back to east Asia and northern Pacific. This is what we look at weeks out in advance.
01:42
We look at the situation setting up there gives us a good idea that there is going to be something
01:48
on the east coast later this week. It's the orientation and whether or not it's in pieces
01:52
and not coming together. That's a tough call from this far out, Bernie. But right now it looks like
01:57
between the models, they're starting to closely get together. Uh, if you have a stronger system
02:03
that evolves in the southeast and comes up the east coast, we are going to have a pretty monster
02:08
system, uh, as far as snow and rain goes with a lot of cold on the backside. But if it's a
02:12
flutter wave, similar to the one we just saw this past Wednesday on the east coast, that kind of
02:17
wave can still bring some snow and mixed precipitation, but the cold won't be as extensive on
02:22
the backside of it. But it does look as though, Paul, as we get into, let's say the upcoming
02:28
weekend a week from now into the early Christmas week, if you live near the lakes and into at least
02:35
the northeast, it's going to be setting up for another colder pattern or at least colder air
02:40
returning, right? Yeah. And that, and that, what that does is, is whatever snow is on the ground
02:45
will stick around that will stick around and especially around the lakes where we've had
02:50
mass, you know, big heavy events that have taken place already. They're still looking at a pretty
02:55
good situation for a white Christmas into the Christmas week, but look for it to be cold start
03:01
into that Christmas week time pattern. This big high is going to build down towards the southeast
03:07
and then a storm is going to form in the southern plains on the backside. The waters are still warm
03:12
in the western gulf right now. It's going to pick up moisture and we're going to actually see rain
03:17
spread in parts of Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois by about midweek near Christmas time.
03:22
And that's going to actually route out the cold and actually turn milder, I think, around Christmas
03:27
time. Unfortunately, if you're hoping for white Christmas in like D.C. or Philadelphia, it may be
03:32
tough to do when you have temperatures above average. And so that's going to be a problem,
03:36
Bernie, as that storm comes up towards the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley. Meanwhile, more storms,
03:41
Paul, coming from northern California in toward the northwest. Any shot that any of this can get
03:46
down into southern California. They haven't had much rain so so far this season. Yeah, I think
03:51
their best shot for precipitation actually is this week. And then after that, it's going to be very
03:56
tough. I think most of it's going to stay across northern California. And in fact, if higher
04:00
pressure builds like we think over the basin region, Great Basin region, I think we're going
04:05
to see is a lot of that moisture being pushed into parts of Oregon, Washington and western Canada.
04:10
And those are the features that we're watching, Bernie, down the road, how they affect the east,
04:14
when these systems develop and where they develop is a very crucial factor. So we're
04:18
going to be watching that carefully. All right. The wizard, our expert meteorologist
04:23
and in charge of a long range forecasting, Paul Pasolak. Paul, thanks for joining us.
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