Powerful cold front to sweep East Coast with frigid air, damaging winds

A very strong cold front sinking south out of Canada will send dangerously cold temperatures and potentially damaging winds sweeping toward the East Coast to start the weekend.

This will likely be the coldest air of the season for some areas in line for the deep--albeit blissfully brief--chill.

High wind warnings and wind advisories are in effect across much of the Mid-Atlantic ahead of winds that could gust 60+ mph behind the cold front's passage late Friday into Saturday. Scattered tree damage and power outages are possible.

The big story, though, is the brutal cold expected this weekend. Low temperatures on Saturday morning will dip below zero across a large portion of the Great Lakes and Northeast.

Conditions won't warm up much during the day. Many areas expecting subzero temperatures Saturday morning will struggle to climb out of the single digits or teens during the day Saturday.

Washington, D.C., may only reach 18°F for a high on Saturday. Not only would that be the coldest temperature so far this season, but it would be the coldest high recorded there since January 16, 2009.

Scranton's forecast high of about 7°F would be the coldest maximum temperature there since the high only reached 6°F on January 7, 2014.

Temperatures will take a plunge again overnight Saturday into Sunday morning, with single digits across the Megalopolis and values at or below zero throughout the interior.

Bitterly cold temperatures are expected again Sunday before the upper-level trough finally moves off toward Atlantic Canada, allowing readings to rebound a bit to start the new week.

Want some good news? The freezing line could briefly retreat toward the Canadian border during the day Wednesday, providing a reprieve for communities in line to shiver through the next couple of days.

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Western U.S. snow drought reaches critical levels

While the eastern half of the United States basks-slash-suffers with above-average snowfall for the first time years, things aren't so rosy across the western half of the country.

The U.S. West is suffering from a historic snow drought right now.

Winter snows are life for the western states.

Not only is winter recreation a supporting economic pillar, but the region heavily relies on mountain snowpack for its water supply heading into the warmer months. Ample snowfall also provides critical hydration ahead of wildfire season.

Weather patterns across the West have been anything but favorable for snowfall this season.

Persistent ridges of high pressure have kept above-seasonal temperatures locked over the region. In fact, the northwestern, western, and southwestern climate regions recently experienced their warmest December in 131 years of recordkeeping. Average temperatures across the region came in 8-9°F above normal.

We've also seen numerous strong atmospheric rivers wash ashore. These surges of tropical moisture push warm temperatures inland, raising snow levels to the point where heavy rain falls high into the alpine.

As a result, snow cover throughout the western states is the lowest it's been in decades. The snow-water equivalent for the vast majority of the region was lower than 50 percent of normal at the start of February. Only a few spots in Wyoming, Montana, and central California kicked off the month with near-normal values.

The long-term outlook doesn't hold much news. NOAA's Climate Prediction Center calls for above-seasonal temperatures to persist through the end of this month and into the beginning of the spring.

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Cold pattern has delivered snow to many eastern U.S. cities this season

Many cities across the eastern half of the United States are experiencing near- or above-average snowfall totals for the first time in years.

Several sustained bursts of cold air over the past few months have provided plenty of opportunities for snowfall east of the Rockies.

A quick glance at the seasonal snowfall analysis above shows healthy snowfall totals for much of the contiguous United States so far this season. 

We're just coming off a spell of three weekends in a row hosting major winter weather events.

This is the second year in a row they've recorded measurable snow in Florida--a rare feat when it happens once let alone twice. A few spots west of Tallahassee saw as much as an inch of snow on Sunday, Jan. 18. 

A generational winter storm swept from Texas to Maine the following weekend, dropping significant amounts of snow and ice across an unusually large swath of the country. Boston wound up with 18.7" of snow in their largest storm in about four years.

This past weekend, another generational winter storm blanketed North Carolina with up to a foot-and-a-half of snowfall. Snowfall ground travel to a halt across communities still trying to get back to normal after the copious amount of sleet that fell the previous weekend.

All told, we're a few paces ahead of average in many cities across the east. Folks from St. Louis to Buffalo are running ahead of average through this point in the year.

The surplus may not last too much longer. February is traditionally the snowiest month of the year for much of the East Coast as nor'easters spring to life and clobber the region in heavy snows.

Current trends indicate that our below-seasonal temperatures may flip around heading into the second half of the month, which might put a damper on wintry precipitation potential through the climatological peak of the snowy season.

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