Arctic air settling in over Virginia

The latest in a series of storm systems tracking through the Midwest and Northeast has brought cold, Arctic air to Central Virginia Monday. The front that moved through Sunday has made it to southern Florida Monday morning. Cold, high pressure is settling in over the Eastern U.S. Monday in the wake of the low pressure system exiting north of Maine.

This air now in place is dry and Arctic in origin, passing over plenty of snowpack to Virginia’s northwest. This means that the air does not modify too much on its way south toward Central Virginia. Low temperatures Monday morning were in the teens and low twenties, with a brisk Northwest wind at 10-20 mph making it feel like it was only in the single digits and teens.

But as cold as it felt here Monday morning, we escaped the worst of this last system. Portland, Maine set a new daily snowfall record for December 21 with 14.5” of snow. This broke a 75-year-old record by more than two inches. Albany, New York broke an even longer-standing record, though, with 6.6” of snow December 21 surpassing the old record of 5.7” set back in 1887. In addition to the snow from this storm system, wind chills were also brutally cold by Monday morning. It felt like -20 to -30 degrees from Iowa to Wisconsin and Minnesota, and North into the Dakotas.

As the high pressure parks over Virginia Monday evening, winds will weaken. Combine calm winds with clear skies and cold, dry air, and we have a perfect recipe for an even colder Tuesday morning in Central Virginia. I expect morning lows to bottom out in the teens in most places.

Southerly winds will return, though, after Tuesday morning, which will begin a gradual warming trend through the rest of this week. We do remain in a very active weather pattern, however, and our next storm system will track just to our north by Christmas Eve and Day, bringing a decent chance for rain Wednesday and Thursday.

-Carrie