Lake Effect Snow Event is on the way

   I like it when weather people use the term "event" to refer to something about to happen...like Lake Effect Snow Event. Just makes me want to rush out and buy a ticket.  LOL
   Anyhow, a surge of cold air is on it's way to NE Ohio. This will be the coldest air of the season and when it arrives Thursday night/Friday morning the rain will change to snow accompanied by strong winds and lake effect snow. How much snow are we expecting? Well, with lake effect you never really know whats going to happen. A slight shift in the wind direction and any specific area can get dumped on or miss out completely.

   As for this storm, the center of it will move to our northwest creating blizzard conditions west of Chicago and across parts of Michigan. Locally, the lake effect snow will likely begin overnight Thursday into Friday morning and then continue through Friday and Friday night. I suspect we should see anywhere from 2" to 5" of snow on the ground by midday Saturday...the lighter amounts to the south of Akron with the heavier amounts up north.
   After this system moves away we will get a little break for Christmas, then another storm is forecast for the days immediately following the holiday. This one could be big, so you will want to stay tuned to later forecasts.

Not as cold as it could be

     The long-range computer trends are all over the place. The consensus seems to be that we will trend colder later this week as expected, but there is no big Arctic outbreak in the works.
     Beginning Thursday night and over the weekend we will see some lake effect snow. That may be the only snow we see prior to Christmas. A storm we were looking at for the weekend isn't going to develop.  Hopefully, thought, it will stay cold long enough to keep some of that snow around for Christmas Day especially in the snow belt areas.
     After Christmas? Well, that's a different story.  We could actually see a real-live snow system heading into Ohio a day or two after the holiday.
     More later.

Winter...it's coming

   Lots of people asking me this past week when it was going to get cold and snow. They answer: next week.
   As we head into the week before Christmas, our weather patter is going to be shifting into a more typical winter mode for the Great Lakes. The week will start off rather mild, but by mid-week we will see the temperature trending downward. Next weekend, the weekend before Christmas, it's going to be cold and we could see our first measurable snowfall of the season (see the map).
   So, let's all join hands and sing, "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..."

A warming trend

A warming trend is heading for the region and it will likely hang around into the second week of December. Daytime highs the rest of this week will gradually warm through the 40s reaching 50+ by the weekend. Temperatures the early part of next week will remain warm, then cool down for midweek before warming again toward the weekend.

Our normal high temperatures for late November are in the mid 40s dropping into the lower 40s for early December. With that in mind, you can see from the maps below that the trend for days 6-10 and 11-15 are near or above normal. Don't get too excited yet, however. It's not going to last. Colder air is expected to return the week before Christmas.

December 2-6

December 7-11

(Maps courtesy of AccuWeather)

Lake Effect Snow in the forecast

(Radar as of 7pm Friday night. Yes, the blue is snow. LOL)

Looks like we could get our first lake effect snow of the season. As expected cold air has moved into NE Ohio and it's going to hang around for the weekend. Just to let us know it's the Christmas season, we could see anywhere form 1 to 3 inches of snow by Saturday night, the heaviest in the secondary snow belt of northern Portage and Summit counties.

Woo Hoo!  "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

Sunny and warm for Thanksgiving; Cold and snowy for the weekend

Well, here we go. Mother Nature is about to do some mood swings. We're going to be OK this week through Thanksgiving and probably through Black Friday as well. After that a surge of cold air with lake effect snow is likely over the weekend. Then next week (November 26-December 1) daily temperatures will start to do the yo-yo thing.

As for Thanksgiving, it's looking really nice around the lower Great Lakes. We are expecting sunshine with temperatures well above normal.

It will be sunny and mild over the lower Great Lakes for Thanksgiving.
(Map courtesy of AccuWeather)

Friday will be a bit cooler, but not bad. However, a cold front coming through late Friday will knock our Saturday temperatures down into the 30s with a good likelihood of lake effect snow showers. At this point it's not expected that we will see any major accumulations here in the greater Akron area, just a little dusting to make it feel like the beginning of the Christmas season.

Colder air with lake effect snow will move in overnight Friday and continue on Saturday.
(Map courtesy of AccuWeather)

Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday!

Pre-Thanksgiving Forecast

The weather is looking fairly nice now through Thanksgiving. The cold air that moved in Monday afternoon will slowly moderate until temperatures get up to near normal (upper 40s/near 50). Temperatures will stay in that area through the holiday, then afterwards, it looks like another cold air mass will move in.  So, between now and Thanksgiving, enjoy the sun and warming temperatures.

If you are traveling Thanksgiving week, here is the AccuWeather holiday travel forecast: