National Weather at 755pm January 9 2005

[Jeb]

Rain and snow from California to western Colorado

7:57 P.M. ET 1/9/2005

 

M. Ressler, Sr. Meteorologist, The Weather Channel

 

 

 

West

Unsettled weather will persist in most of the West Monday and Tuesday with more heavy rain in the pipeline for California and more heavy snow looming for much of the Mountain West, especially the California Sierra, the Utah Wasatch and the Colorado San Juan Mountains. During the course of the day Monday, the focus of the rain will temporarily shift from southern to northern California as the big upper-level storm off the Northwest Coast edges southward. Heavy rain will splatter all of the state Monday night into Tuesday as the cold upper-air storm finally swirls inland. Meanwhile, heavy snow will continue to bury various mountain ranges in the region. The already-buried Sierra, the mountains of Utah and the ranges of western Colorado could pick up another 1 to 5 feet by Tuesday morning with lesser amounts northward into the Bitterroots and southward into the mountains of northern New Mexico. High temperatures are expected to range from the teens in northeast Montana to the low 70s in southwest Arizona. Readings in the 20s and 30s will be widespread in the Intermountain region.

 

Northeast

A few snow showers will scurry across Upstate New York and northern New England Monday with some light accumulations possible, especially in Maine and the northern reaches of Vermont and New Hampshire. Elsewhere, isolated rain showers are in the forecast with a front expected to sweep eastward through the region ushering in slightly colder air by Monday night. In the meantime, highs Monday will be above mid-January averages with readings ranging from the upper 20s at a few spots in northern Maine to the 60s in Virginia. Balmy above average temperatures will hold on across the Mid-Atlantic Tuesday and Wednesday before resurging northward to the Canadian border Thursday. Showers will move through the region north of the Mason-Dixon Line midweek with the transitions from snow to sleet to freezing rain across Upstate New York and New England from Massachusetts northward. A strong wet cold front will sweep west to east through the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Thursday afternoon into early Friday afternoon, ushering in colder air.

 

Midwest

The weather in the Midwest, dominated by Canadian high pressure, should be fairly benign Monday. A few snow showers are possible in the northern Great Lakes and some very light afternoon sprinkles, freezing drizzle, sleet and flurries, the harbingers of an incipient storm, will develop from parts of northern and central Illinois to southeast South Dakota and northeast Nebraska. Temperatures, meanwhile, will range from near to slightly below average on the northern Plains to well above in the lower Midwest. That translates to highs near zero along the Canadian border regions of North Dakota and Minnesota, and to highs in the 50s in the Ohio Valley, Kentucky and southern Missouri. One disturbance will bring rain to the waterlogged Ohio Valley and wintry mix from the lower Missouri Valley to the southern Great Lakes on Tuesday before the main wet storm moves across the Plains and Midwest Wednesday into Thursday. Brutally cold arctic air and strong winds will sweep across the region behind the midweek storm.

 

South

A few stray sprinkles may develop over the South Monday, but by and large the region will stay dry with unseasonable warmth continuing. High temperatures will run 15 to 20 degrees above seasonal averages with readings in the 60s and 70s widespread, and maybe some low 80s showing up in far south Texas and parts of the Florida Peninsula. The warmth will continue on Tuesday with showers to the north sideswiping the Tennessee Valley. Wednesday through Friday, a strong wet cold front will sweep across the South from the southern Plains to the Southeast Coast. Some strong thunderstorms could precede the front across the Deep South. Spring's warmth will continue ahead of the front, but a return to winter will follow once the front has moved through.