Next week you will walk out of your house and say...

When you walk outside next week, especially in the morning, feel free to shout any "discouraging word" of your choice towards the air. Folks, its going to get so cold that you will want to. I'm talking lower 20's to maybe even 10's for high temperatures, that's it. That's the price you'll have to pay for some possible snow chances into that time period. One thing that we can probably circumvent next week is the problem of having precipitation but no cold air. I know I've been heckled about the busted snow forecast on Sunday all week so far. Understand though that even the National Weather Service called for an accumulating snow, and this warm air we received was just out of the blue.

Enough about history, let's look forward now. This cold air I've been harping on will harbor some clipper systems (they may call them Alberta Clippers or Saskatchewan Screamers on TV after the Canadian provinces where these systems form). These could drop somewhere around 1-3 inches if you get a good one. I am only seeing flurries and dustings though through Jan 31st with these though. Around Feb 1st, things start getting interesting. For a few model runs now, a Feb 2-5 storm has been showing up that's not a clipper system. I can't speculate on accumulations until this weekend, but if this system gingerly slides north a little bit and brings the heavier moisture, it's not out of the question that this could be our "Storm of the season" if our cards are played right.

Again, temperatures are ripe for snow. I've noticed that moisture amounts are accurate only a week out so I can't really speculate on any of the Feb storms I'm seeing right now coming into the neighborhood. Just know this, come February 1st there will be storms nearing the area due to increased jet activity.

One last thing, don't write of our winter weather chances yet because its almost February. Tons of our historic snow storms came in the Feb-March period, especially the 22.4" 1998 one. What I'm trying to get across is that we are not done yet, proof of this lying on our current computer models for Feb 1-7, which are very active in this neck of the woods. Think snowy thoughts!