The Arctic Assault is Here! Dress Very Warmly for the Next Three Days!

Good Morning,

There were plenty of clouds to ring in the New Year yesterday, but the Tri-State Area remained relatively dry... A few flurries and sprinkles showed up early yesterday afternoon at Newark's Liberty Airport and also at LaGuardia Airport... However, there was only a trace amount of precipitation recorded at a handful of those stations which report the weather each and every hour... Temperatures did, as expected, wind up within a couple of degrees of 40 early yesterday afternoon...

However, it is noticeably colder out there early this morning behind our latest front...

Most of yesterday's widespread precipitation occurred both to the north and south of the Tri-State Area, with a conveyor belt of moisture spreading light rain out across the Tennessee Valley, the Carolinas and in southern Virginia... Conversely, parts of upstate New York and northern New England encountered snow showers as arctic air made its presence felt, with slowly falling afternoon temperatures that wound up in the lower 20s and even the teens in some of the coldest spots...

On this morning's satellite imagery, a band of high and mid level clouds stretch from east to west, from the Atlantic Ocean back into the Ohio Valley... North of this line, where the sky has been clear most of the night and the wind very light, the temperature across the Hudson Valley has dropped into the lower teens... But where the clouds have been more persistent, while its still very chilly, the temperature has been no lower than the mid 20s...

So, for those who are heading back to work and school today, it'll be important to have the heavy coat, hat, scarf, gloves and everything in your 'winter wardrobe' to cope with the colder air... Even though most of the day should turn out sunny, most temperatures this afternoon should be no higher than the lower or middle 30s...

To say that the upcoming pattern for the next 5-7 days will be rather quiet is an understatement...

A high pressure system building into the Eastern Region will supply the area with dry and cold air, and there will be a modest uptick in temperatures for both tomorrow and Friday... Back on Monday, there was some sentiment that as a 'clipper' type wave moved across the Great Lakes and into the Northeast... This, in turn, would drag another cold front into mid Atlantic states and unleash a fresh batch of colder air...

However, the global models during the past 36 hours have all been showing that the 'main thrust' of this cold shot will be streaking eastward across Quebec, upstate New York and northern New England... Therefore, daytime temperatures on Friday will be almost the same as tomorrow's, and then temperatures over the weekend will be within a couple of degrees of 40...

There are no major storms in sight for the next several days, and the longer range guidance is suggesting that temperatures could reach the mid or upper 40s by the middle of next week...

Have a good day!!