As Americans prepare to celebrate the end of 2014, and bring in 2015 there's good and bad news from the National Weather Service. http://www.noaa.gov/
First, the good news... New Year’s Day has no chance of precipitation for that time period. So folks won’t have to deal with snow or rain on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day.
Now for the bad news, it’s finally going to begin to feel like winter just in time for New Year’s Eve. The cold weather and low temps for the last night of 2014 calls for temperatures in the high teens. New Year’s Day will be sunny with a high in the low 30s.
An arctic air-mass continues to push southward bringing bitterly cold temperatures, 20 to 40 degrees below normal, to portions of the Plains and western U.S. In addition, very strong winds are resulting in dangerous wind chills across these same areas. Locations across the northern Plains and Rockies are experiencing wind chill temperatures of minus 20 to 30 degrees in some places.
Wintry precipitation will move into the Southwest and the southern High Plains. Temperatures expected to be well below normal across the Central U.S.
A closed off upper-level system will continue to push south and eastward across the Great Basin and into the Southwest by Wednesday afternoon. Abnormally cold air locked in place across the entire region will support developing snow showers this evening from the higher terrain of southern California to the southern Rockies. By Wednesday into Thursday, as the upper system moves through, the snow will increase in intensity with
potentially significant totals expected especially across the higher terrain of southern Utah and central/northern Arizona. Farther east into the southern Plains, an area of sleet and freezing rain in western Texas, with rain farther south and east, is expected to develop throughout the next several days. Winter Storm watches, warnings, and advisories are in effect from southern California to the southern High Plains.
Meanwhile, high pressure dominating from the Northwest to the Eastern US will continue to keep temperatures below normal into the New Year. This will especially be true for portions of the central and southern Plains states where readings could be 20 to 30 degrees, or even 40 in some spots, below average on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, a lingering front across southern Florida will induce scattered rain showers across the central and southern portions of the state, while favorable flow across the Great Lakes should support some light lake effect snow showers downwind of the lakes over the next several days.
No matter whatever celebration you decide on for New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. please be safe, and enjoy the holiday with friends and family. Have a great News Year!
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