Western and Eastern U.S. in for storminess starting late week

Seasons are changing so we’ve got a little of everything on the maps today. At this juncture, cooler weather is a story dominating much of the North American scene as multiple storms spin off various shores.

Weather watch

(Somewhat) wintry chill. If you’re on the East Coast you are perhaps perplexed by the bolded. It’s coming! Widespread lows near and below freezing in the Upper Midwest will modify as they shift southeast, but frost and freeze alerts are up across New York, Southern New England and then southward along the Appalachian chain into West Virginia and western Virginia. Readings in these zones are expected to dip to the 20s and 30s tonight then again Thursday night.

East Coast storm. Whenever a low pops up near the Interstate 95 zone (within about 1,000 miles) the event gets way more attention than necessary. We’re still in “will it even hit anyone” mode with this one, although we’ve trended back toward yes compared to Tuesday. The storm is likely to wiggle and waggle, perhaps even loopty-loop, for a week or so — here’s a great explanation as to what and why.

Tropics. Jerry formed on Tuesday in the central Atlantic. Portions of the Leeward Islands east of Puerto Rico are under tropical storm watch as the storm could come close enough for at least a glancing blow. Thereafter, it’s a track northward toward Bermuda’s general vicinity, although for now it is expected to curve back toward the east-northeast before reaching that storm-taunted nation.

Lightning links

Senate Confirms ‘Sharpiegate’ Meteorologist to Lead NOAA. (Scott Dance, The New York Times)

Western wetness

The weather maps are increasingly full of precipitation across Western States. A sure sign of the shift toward the cold season.

Tropical moisture from Hurricane Priscilla in the Eastern Pacific is working north in the near term. A follow up mid-latitude storm is set to bring rain and snow to much of the West Coast this weekend into next week.

Priscilla is a powerful hurricane southwest of Baja California early Wednesday. It’ll track north into cooler waters, nearly fully weakening before approaching land on Friday as a tropical depression or remnant low. In the process, it sends a pool of moisture toward the 4-corners, delivering as much as 2 to 4-plus inches of rain to portions of the parched region.

After that, a low pressure dives toward the Pacific Northwest by Sunday then sends a cold front down the West Coast. It could be the first widespread rain for California of the oncoming season, and the Sierra could pick up its first significant snowfall at high elevation.

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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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