Stormy week for the Lower 48 as warmth and chill clash

At least two were killed by severe weather over the weekend, although the system didn’t end up producing another widespread higher-end tornado event as feared. The week ahead will be dominated by a dip in the jet stream over the western United States and high pressure in the east. It will bring new rounds of severe weather and flooding rain.

Weather Watch

Out with the old. With the weekend storm system still threatening East Coast locations on Monday, the next in a series that rolls into the upcoming weekend will kick off a severe weather threat Tuesday. Strong low pressure developing in the southern Plains and running toward the Great Lakes should be the biggest deal of the week as far as severe thunderstorms. Strong tornadoes and a new round of widespread wind damage are on the table late Tuesday and Wednesday.

Sierra snow. April might be on the way but so is one of the biggest storms of the winter season in the Sierra Nevada. Five feet of snow and wind gusts past 100 mph are in the forecast. Late season cement is promising news given the state was close to average in the latest snowpack report.

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Monday morning weather map

As spring’s power grows, we’re heading into cutoff season, when large lumbering low pressures can do torturously slow battle with their high-pressure cousins. The result tends to be extremes of warmth, precipitation and forecast trickery.

In the clash zone between warm and cool (shown in the same colors) above, rain and storms will be common over coming days. Given the stagnated pattern, as much as 5 to 10 inches of rain could fall by the end of the weekend. The Weather Prediction Center is highlighting a zone from the mid-Mississippi to Ohio valleys region for multiple days of flood threat starting midweek.

These amplified patterns — strong highs and lows — tend to include numerous records for warmth, as in recent days and with more to come this week across the eastern and Southeast U.S. Indeed, hundreds of additional daily records may fall this week.

But colder weather is not done in the east just yet. The forecast for next week indicates a high likelihood of chillier than usual conditions.

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Weekday morning newsletter by a journalist/forecaster. Connecting weather and climate change dots while occasionally stirring the pot.

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