North America: Covered with more snow

The map to the left is an analysis from Environment Canada (their version of the National Weather Service). There are a few things of interest. First, numerous snowmakers have blanketed much of Canada in recent weeks. While it may seem that this has little influence on our weather, it will bring more changes in the coming weeks. As this snow cover continues to creep southward it will allow Arctic cold fronts to maintain their strength as they move south. Right now there are more than 1,000 miles of ground northwest of here without snow on the ground. As that distance decreases, our temperatures will fall accordingly.

Another interesting thing is the sea-surface temperature anomaly. The waters along the Equatorial Pacific continue to cool indicating a developing La Nina. (As we talked about in the 13News Winter Forecast) La Nina winters tend to be warm here in the Midwest. Precipitation is harder to figure out and is highly variable.

So, while the weather's boring now...it's probably only a matter of weeks until something big brews up! Stay tuned. -ERIC