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ONE MORE BLAST OF ARCTIC AIR, THEN FINALLY TURNING MILDER

Jan 18

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JANUARY 18, 2025 -- The first half of January has been a turbulent winter weather month filled with snow, ice, and bitterly cold weather. Through January 17, the month's temperatures have been 6-degrees BELOW AVERAGE. As of this writing, there is one more big blast of Arctic air before we finally begin seeing some sustained temperature moderation.

A large upper-level trough positioned over the Great Lakes will send Arctic air southward beginning Saturday afternoon. As the colder air arrives, there could be snow flurries and even a few light snow showers late Saturday night and into early Sunday morning. Snow will NOT amount to much, but it's another sign the winter air is arriving. While most of the snow and ice has melted, this blast of cold air means business with morning temperatures in the single digits and afternoon temperatures only around 20-degrees.

The depth of the cold air is impressive, keeping the storm track this week very far south. In fact, there is a good possibility of a winter storm along the Gulf Coast. Places like Houston, New Orleans, Savannah, and even Jacksonville may get a rare winter storm.

A disturbance will track through the Midwest Thursday, but will be moisture starved in Southern Illinois. Outside a few flurries, no winter weather is expected this week.


By next weekend, a pattern change will bring ridging aloft to much of the eastern U.S. This is a pattern that looks to hold the remainder of January, resulting in WARMER temperatures. Remember, it's still January, so "warmer" means mornings in the 20s and afternoons in the 40s.

At this point, I don't see any major winter weather in Southern Illinois through the end of January.


While January is likely to go in the books BELOW AVERAGE overall, as I look ahead to February, I think it will be the opposite. The ridging in the eastern U.S. looks to hold, keeping a lot of Arctic air trapped in the western U.S. This will result in warmer than average temperatures for much of February. As far as winter weather, that's more tricky to pinpoint this far out, but we are still two months away from the official start to Spring, so there's still plenty of time for more snow and ice.

Jan 18

2 min read

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