By MARK HANOK
Precipitation was less
than half of normal across
our area in November. The
total precipitation was only
1.44” at our weather station
in Otego.
Despite the unusually
mild weather during the
first half of November, temperatures
were so far below
normal during the last two
weeks
It looks like a strong
northwesterly flow aloft
will continue to bring cold
air from central Canada
during the upcoming week,
as the storm tracks stays
well to the west and south.
This equals a continuation
of a generally dry weather
pattern.
December began with
very cold air funneling
southward around the west
side of a major Great Lakes
storm, and with a strong
northwesterly flow. As the
storm pulled northward to
Lake Huron by afternoon,
there were snow showers
as far south as the northwest
suburbs of Atlanta.
At the same time, a
warm front crossed the
northern Rockies, followed
by very strong westerly
winds that gusted to over
60 MPH in north central
Montana, bringing unseasonably
mild air.
On Friday a northwest
flow of cold air will take
over again, with partly sunny
skies and highs in the
low 30’s. WeÆll get a few
lake-effect snow showers
but the accumulating snow
will stay to our north and
west. Skies will be partly
sunny again on Saturday,
with only a few snow showers
and highs just 27 to 32
degrees.
A major ocean storm will
intensify well east of Cape
Cod on Sunday, while an
upper-level trough slides
across the eastern Great
Lakes. After a few snow
showers in the morning,
skies will be partly sunny
in the afternoon with highs
only 25 to 30 degrees. Partly
sunny skies will continue
on Monday with highs in
the low 30’s. A storm system
will move west of the
region on Tuesday bringing
milder air and the chance
of rain or wet snow.
Mark Hanok is an Otegobased
meteorologist. You
can visit him on the World
Wide Web at http://members.
aol.com/weathergazette.
