Record warmest December for the CONUS (1st out 129 years)
Precipitation was near normal (70th out of 129 years)
Snowfall was well below normal across the CONUS
A strong El Nino Continued (based on ONI data from CPC)
Does the cold and snowy weather come back?
Over Michigan, November and December featured well below normal snowfall. The first 2 1/2 weeks of January seem to be making up some of that deficit. Over the rest of the CONUS, seasonal snowfall mostly remains below normal.
A rapidly deepening storm tracked Texas on Thursday afternoon to the northern Great Lakes by Saturday morning. The storm brought 1 to 2 feet of snow from Nebraska, across Iowa, Wisconsin then into Michigan. Strong winds accompanied the storm then the coldest air in several years followed the storm with dangerously cold wind chills over most of the Northern and Central Midwest. That cold air caused heavy lake effect snow in Michigan, near Buffalo New York and over the Tug Hill Plateau in the Adirondack Mountains, down wind of Lake Ontario.
This storm brought heavy snow to the Midwest and parts of the Great Lakes, then there were damaging winds over the eastern Seaboard, as well as flooding. Severe storms and over a dozen tornadoes occurred over the Southeast sections.
In Conclusion, the storms we will see over the central and eastern Untied States between now and Wednesday are the forerunners of a major change in the weather pattern over the CONUS. That past month or so was mostly warmer than normal over nearly all of the CONUS, with just the southeast sections near to below normal. From the second week through the third week in January we will see much colder weather from the west coast to the east coast and the wet pattern will expand into the central United States. Snow will likely be on the ground over most locations north of Indianapolis by the end of next week.
themarinocast 