Extended cold spell underway across the Carolinas and persist all week

Good MLK day to everyone,

We are reaching the coldest time of the year from a climatological standpoint across western North Carolina and mother nature is following the script right on cue. We are going to experience a substantially cold week overall. Of course, a lot of people are more interested in the prospects of snow but its the cold that could turn out to be a bigger deal.

A loot of the players for cold weather in the winter has fallen into place. A west-based -NAO has formed and is located over the southwest sections of Greenland and will shift west into north central Canada by the end of the week. Meanwhile a modest western North America ridge has formed. The end result is a bowl of cold air centered over the Great Lakes and stretching down the Southern Plains, Mid-South and Upper Southeast US.

Along with the jet stream energy moving through today and tomorrow, another shortwave will move along the southern edge of the trough on Friday. The Friday weather looks to be similar to what we are seeing today with snow breaking out from the Mid-South to the Smokies but no widespread moisture east of the mountains in North Carolina. We will definitely keep an eye on things in case it changes…

Our first real intrusion of arctic air comes Tuesday and into Wednesday. By the time you get to Wednesday morning air temperatures may drop down into the teens for most places east of the mountains with wind chill values in the teens. For the mountains, wind chill values could go below zero for a few hours.

An additional intrusion of arctic air will spill in on Saturday and could be the coldest of the two. By Saturday morning we could be looking at lower/mid teens for air temperatures across the Foothills and Western Piedmont with single digit wind chills and in the mountains air temps will be in the single digits with wind chills values significantly below zero.

For those who are adversely impacted by cold weather, have your emergency plans and supplies in place. Below is a look at the current 7-Day for our region during this cold wave.