Unseasonable chill to sweep U.S. to start December; lake-effect snow to finally begin

It's been a long while since we've started the month of December with any sort of widespread cold air sweeping the United States—but that's what we're in for this week as a surge of Arctic air floods south out of Canada. 

A powerful cold front will send temperatures plummeting over the next couple of days. Subfreezing daytime highs will envelop the Upper Midwest before the chill eventually makes its way down into the Deep South by this weekend.

Looking ahead to next Tuesday, December 4, high temperatures will struggle to make it into the lower 40s along the I-95 megalopolis, with temperatures remaining in the 40s as far south as Birmingham and Little Rock. Even Miami will "only" reach 74°F next Tuesday, the poor things.

It's about time we've had a widespread chill. Temperatures have been running a fever this fall. 

We just have to take a look at the Great Lakes to see how much of an effect that warmth has had so far this season.

Water temperatures across all five lakes are running several degrees Celsius above normal for the final week of November. Parts of Lake Erie are still hovering around 65°F thanks to the relative lack of cold air of late.

Frigid air pushing over very warm lakes will be a recipe for ample lake-effect snow beginning Thursday on Lake Superior and continuing for all the lakes through the weekend and well into next week.

West-northwesterly winds will create a long fetch across Lakes Superior, Erie, Huron, and Ontario, creating narrow corridors of very heavy snowfall on the downwind shores. Some areas will see more than a foot of snow by Saturday morning, and these totals are likely going to soar higher as the lake-effect snow event continues into next week.

Happy Thanksgiving! Winter is here (...for now, anyway).

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