May Chilling Out

Near record breaking lows likely this weekend! This has been talked about on Channel 7 over the past several days and it continues to look more and more likely.

Saturday record low: 41° in 1976

Sunday record low: 45° in 1961

I'm amazed at the hemispheric pattern evolving right now. It's one which would deliver major arctic air in winter. If you remember my posts a few months ago, the flow of air was off the Pacific ocean and it would NOT change. It flooded the United States with mild air almost the entire winter. The pattern which trapped the arctic air over the polar areas was incredibly stable. Over the past few weeks, we've seen a pattern more conducive to sending that cold air south.

Look at this birds eye view of the northern Hemisphere. It's the Euro ensemble this Saturday morning from weatherbell.com

The ridge extends up through western Canada into Alaska. That clears the path for cold air to move south and it's doing just that over the next 7 days.

2-7 day temperature anomalies from the Euro ensemble (May 7-May 12). That's 10-20 degrees below average for much of the United States along and east of the Rockies. Even Florida chilling out!

I don't recall a week without any organized severe weather in May. There could be a few rough storms in Oklahoma and Texas Thursday, then cold shuts it down.

SPC OUTLOOKS

You KNOW it won't last long. May 13- 19th looks a bit more active. Odds tilt towards temperatures a little above average with above average rain. Nothing extreme, but a battle in air masses looks likely and severe weather chances will ramp up once again.

Nothing extreme noted around here in the May outlook. The southwestern United States will be quite warm to hot, but the central and east look average to a little below.