By MARK HANOK
The weather pattern will
change from mid-winter in
late October to very mild
and dry in early November
— thanks to an absolutely
amazing “reverse temperature
anomaly that resulted
from the intense Nor’Easter
on Tuesday.
As a rapidly intensifying
storm system turned into a
classic early winter-like
Nor’Easter over the Delmarva
Peninsula, heavy,
wet snow fell over the Western
Catskills all day; with
temperatures at or below
freezing all day over higher
elevations, there was up to
a foot of snow, and 20” in
Shandaken in the central
Catskills.
At valley locations like
our weather station in
Otego, all of the accumulating
snow occurred overnight
with two inches of
snow, and even though a
steady light to moderate
snow continued all day,
there were no additional
accumulations; highs in the
low to mid-30’s. Heavy
snow occurred from the Adirondacks
southwestward
to the central Appalachians.
There were even a few
inches of wet snow in the
higher terrain of northwestern
New Jersey.
The intense storm system
was centered just south
of Long Island by early
Tuesday evening, and unseasonably
cold air wrapped
around the storm on strong
northwesterly winds, pushing
far to the south. At the
same time, a large Canadian
high dipped southward
to the southern Great
Plains and Deep South. In
the strong southerly flow
ahead of the storm, the
high was 64 degrees at Caribou,
Maine.
With brisk northwest
winds and crystal clear
skies, the high was just 58
degrees at Jacksonville and
59 degrees at Tallahassee,
Florida, and only 50 degrees
at Atlanta, a record
low maximum temperature
for so early in the season.
Downsloping westerly
winds, sent the mercury
soaring to a record-breaking
80 degrees at Great
Falls and 76 degrees at Cut
Bank, Montana, and 62 degrees
at Bismarck, North
Dakota.
As a large ridge of high
pressure builds across the
mid-Atlantic states and
southwest flow takes over,
and brilliant sunshine will
prevail all day in Friday
with highs in the low 50’s.
The beautiful weather will
continue on Saturday with
a southwesterly flow ahead
of a weak cold front approaching
the eastern
Great Lakes. A weak cold
front will cross our region
early Saturday, with only a
few passing clouds and no
precipitation; the front will
only reinforce an already
very dry weather pattern.
With partly sunny skies
and a northwest breeze,
highs will be from 45 to 50
degrees. Mostly sunny skies
will continue on Sunday
with highs again in the mid
to upper 40’s.
A zonal west to east flow
across the nation will continue
the dry conditions all
of next week. On Monday,
skies will be mostly sunny
with highs in the low 50’s.
Tuesday and Wednesday
will feature spectacular Indian
summer weather: sunny
to partly sunny skies
and highs from 55 to 60 degrees.
Mark Hanok is an Otego based
meteorologist. You
can visit him on the World
Wide Web at http://members.
aol.com/weathergazette.
