Milder Weather to End November but Winter on the Way

Enjoy the brief burst of warm temperatures across the central and eastern U.S. while you can. The long-range forecast is calling for an intrusion of the polar vortex to start the month of December. Here is a more detailed look at what you can expect across the U.S. for the back half of November and the beginning of December.

Temperatures to Moderate for Second Half of November

To say that it has been a roller coaster of weather across the country this month would be an understatement. The eleventh month of the year has seen record-breaking cold temperatures in the East, several rounds of lake-effect snow across the Great Lakes, a parade of storms out West, and a major geomagnetic storm that triggered the northern lights for much of the country.

What will the second half of the month of November bring? In the short term, the central and eastern U.S. will see wetter than normal conditions along with temperatures that hover above average. It could be a rocky few weeks of weather for much of the East Coast with frequent waves of moisture. The warmer temperatures are expected to keep most of the moisture falling as rain rather than snow. The exception will be across the usual suspects, including the snowbelt of the Great Lakes and the higher terrain of New England.

It will be the opposite situation in the western U.S. For example, California and the Pacific Northwest are likely to see temperatures fall below the seasonal norm for the next few weeks.

The latest outlook released on Thursday by the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) indicates that a trend toward negative values for both the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Arctic Oscillation (AO) will amp up the jet stream across the Lower 48. This will naturally mean a stormy weather pattern.