Dangerous cold, potentially historic southern winter storm on tap this week

The heart of winter’s here.  

A lobe of the polar vortex swooping down toward the southern latitudes is responsible for spilling dangerously cold temperatures across the United States to begin the week.

We’re also on the lookout for a potentially historic winter storm across the Gulf Coast—because hey, why not.  

The polar vortex is a circulation of winds that wraps around the Arctic. A strong polar vortex acts like a moat that keeps winter’s coldest air confined to the Arctic. When the polar vortex weakens, it becomes wavy and allows troughs to dig south, opening the floodgates for bitterly cold temperatures to pour southward. 

One of those troughs is steadily making its way across the United States this weekend. The associated frigid air is likely to make Monday one of the United States’ coldest days in years.

Single-digit daytime highs are likely throughout the Midwest, with high temperatures in the 30s stretching all the way to the Gulf Coast.

Monday night is going to be downright brutal for most of the country. 

Low temperatures early Tuesday morning should dip below zero for a vast swath of the U.S. We’ll even see morning low temperatures in the 30s reach as far west as Phoenix and California’s Central Valley. Subfreezing temperatures are likely as far south as Florida.  

Speaking of Florida…

A low-pressure system will develop over Texas on Monday and move over the Gulf of Mexico through the day, bringing a rare bout of winter weather to the northern Gulf Coast through early Tuesday.

When I say rare, I mean rare. The most snow ever recorded in New Orleans in modern history was 2.7″ back in 1963. Mobile hasn’t seen more than about 3 inches of snow in living memory. This event is going to rival those historic snows. 

The National Weather Service calls for a blanket of snow to fall from eastern Texas through eastern North Carolina, with communities on the Florida Panhandle—yes, Florida—expecting several inches of snow through Monday night. 

We’re not just talking about snow, either. 

A significant amount of freezing rain is in the forecast for portions of northern Florida and southeastern Georgia. Some areas could see 0.10″ to 0.25″ of ice accretion from freezing rain, which is enough to lead to tree damage and widespread power outages.

This is a big deal for the south. Plows, salt trucks, snow shovels, and ice scrapers are virtually non-existent in this part of the world. This is going to be a high-impact, extremely disruptive storm for the region.

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