By MARK HANOK
Although there’s no mild
weather in sight, at least
temperatures will be close
to normal during the upcoming
week.
The arctic cold air will
stay well to the north, with
a west to east zonal flow, a
mainly dry weather pattern
will through early next
week in our region.
It looks like temperatures
will average about
four to five degrees below
normal for January, so this
will turn out to be the coldest
January in six years.
The only day when temperatures
got higher than
the 30’s at our weather station
in Otego, was on the
23rd when the high was 40
degrees.
The low was below zero
on seven days this month,
including minus 13 degrees
on the 16th Otsego Lake
was completely frozen on
January 10th, and that’s
the earliest since 2004
when the lake was frozen
on the same date.
Otsego Lake hasn’t frozen
earlier than January
10th since the lake froze on
December 29, 2000. During
the winter of 2000-2001,
there was ice on the lake
for 113 days, until April
21st. In 2007 Otsego Lake
didn’t freeze over until February
12th but was frozen
until April 23rd.
On Friday a northwesterly
flow of moderately cold
air will take over, with variable
cloudiness and some
sunshine along with a few
snow showers; highs from
25 to 30 degrees.
As high pressure builds
southward from the Great
Lakes on Saturday, skies
will be mostly sunny with
highs again in the mid to
upper 20’s.
As the high moves to the
mid-Atlantic states and a
southwest flow develops,
highs will be in the middle
30’s with partly sunny skies
on Sunday.
A weak low pressure
trough will move north of
our area on Monday, and
skies will be partly sunny
with a few snow showers;
highs from 35 to 40 degrees.
Northwesterly winds
will bring seasonably cold
air on Tuesday with partly
sunny skies and highs in
the low 30’s.
On Sunday an arctic
high pressure area dipped
southward to Virginia,
while another arctic covered
the northern Great
Plains and upper Midwest,
with a high of 1 degree at
Glasgow, Montana, 1 below
zero at International Falls
and 8 degrees at Minneapolis.
Bitterly cold and extremely
dry air was in place
during the morning in our
area, and the low was 10
degrees below zero at our
weather station in Otego.
Skies were sunny all morning,
then high cloudiness
took over in the early afternoon;
highs in the upper
teens.
On the southern fringe
of the arctic high centered
over the Dakotas on Monday,
milder air well ahead
of a storm system in western
Colorado, lifted up and
over the very cold air at the
surface.
This combination led to
a major ice storm from the
Texas Panhandle through
Oklahoma, northern Arkansas,
southern Missouri,
western Kentucky, and
southern Illinois. It was no
coincidence that in Otsego
County it was the first completely
sunny day since
New Year’s Day. With extremely
dry air and light
winds, the low was 10 below
zero for the second day
at our weather station in
Otego, then a high of 20 degrees.
Mark Hanok is an Otegobased
meteorologist.
