Crazy weather to continue
The cold Arctic blast that left Alaska and Canada last week has traveled all the way to the Gulf Coast, prompting frost and freeze warnings from Texas to Mississippi. This cold air mass was also responsible for the formation of a Gulf storm that has become an early November Nor鈥檈aster, bringing a variety of nasty weather to the Ohio Valley, Middle Atlantic and the Northeast. As the storm pulls away, it will allow more cold Arctic air to continue to flow over a large portion of the country, including our area. This should set the stage for some lake effect snow showers over the next few days.
November has been a very chilly month so far in our region with many daytime temperatures in the 30s and struggling to get to 40 degrees. Last Sunday, it was 14 degrees at our weather station at Chalk Hill and near 20 in Uniontown. Daytime temperatures should average in the mid-fifties for the first two weeks of the month, but have been far below normal. The area has also had several very heavy frosts and freeze conditions, one of which was responsible for some ice on a highway that resulted in a fatal crash.
What is unusual this year is the prolonged November cold. Most of the time in November we get a cold day or two followed by some nice mild Indian summer type weather. We have not experienced any Indian summer weather and when we do get a sunny day, it is usually very cold and windy.
How nice three or four days of mild, mellow weather would be. Our occasional sunny day has been followed by a quick return to the damp, cold rainy weather that we have experienced over the past several months.
The region is still running between 12 and 16 inches above normal rainfall for the year. We do see a bit of a dry period over the next few weeks, but the chilly air should remain.
The hurricane season is almost over, but the fires in the West continue due to the extreme dry conditions. Over 8,500 buildings and homes have been destroyed and many people have died. Thousands have no home and no place to go.
It has been a most unusual weather year with floods, fires, tornadoes hurricanes and now the cold. I guess our cold and dreary weather could be a lot worse and perhaps we should consider ourselves fortunate to live in Southwestern Pennsylvania. We do experience some uncomfortable weather from time to time, but nothing like other areas experience.
Looking ahead, the almanac is forecasting a blockbuster of a winter; however, the woolly worms are still acting a bit confused with the early cold. No doubt, we will have our share of cold, snow and wind like we get every winter. The El Nino weather pattern that the weather scientists look at is still on the weak side and a great degree of uncertainty exists on the coming winter weather pattern. By the end of November we should have a better take on what to expect. As they say, stay tuned.