Winter to Return With Blast of Arctic Air Sunday Into Next Week

Figure 1. GFS predicted wind chill values at 6 AM CST Wednesday. (Pivotal Weather)

The much advertised arctic blast arrives Sunday into Monday.

We will have to deal with a severe weather threat first. However, once the front is through on Sunday, a significantly colder air mass is going to push in beneath a dome of surface high pressure.

How Cold?

To give you an idea of just how cold it is going to get, temperatures up to 30 degrees below normal are expected in north Texas.

The coldest night for the northern Gulf Coast will be Tuesday night.

Monday night: Lows in the 20s are likely for parts of Texas and north/central Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Monday night. And with a north wind, it will feel like it is in the teens.

Tuesday night: 20s will be more widespread, reaching down to areas just north of  I-10. Wind chill values will also be much colder, with 20s likely as far south as the central Gulf Coast (see figure 1).

We do note that the freezing line is unlikely to make it to the immediate coast.

In regard to highs, the coldest day for the Gulf Coast will be Tuesday, with lower 50s forecast for highs.

Warming Up By Late Next Week

We briefly touched on the idea that the cold expected this month would be brief back in a post on February 21st.

This still appears to be the case. It looks like a positive phase of the NAO and EPO will likely drive a return to a warmer pattern for the south and east around or after the 8th.

 

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Caleb Carmichael
Caleb Carmichael

Caleb is the owner of Gulf Coast Storm Center. He is currently an undergraduate student at Mississippi State University majoring in geoscience with a concentration in broadcast and operational meteorology. While not yet a meteorologist, Caleb has been providing weather updates, news, and analysis for the Gulf Coast since 2014.

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