It’s February 2nd, and as tradition goes, we turn our attention to Punxsutawney, PA. We want to see if the world’s most legendary “meteorologist” will bring the folks across the country, some good or bad news about the rest of the winter season. Well here was the decision that came from Phil, the groundhog that calls Gobbler’s Knob his temporary home near the town:
Well that wasn’t the news folks wanted to hear this morning. Winter will continue to be an issue across the country with snow storms, outbreaks of cold air and bitter winds. The Winter season goes from December 21, 2014 to March 20, 2015 and we are at the mid-way point this week. So we’ll continue to see Winter go on as schedule for the next 6 weeks.
We’ll take a look at the long range forecasts to see how things will pan out.
The one month outlook for temperatures shows that the country will be cut in thirds, with the East & West parts seeing the swings in temperatures while the mid section is more seasonable. With temperatures going below average on the eastern third of the country, and above average precipitation to develop in the Southeast, we see a few times of some Winter snow showers go down that way.
When we look further out, over the next three months, the temp trend has the west still dealing with warmer than average conditions, while the southern plains start to see colder conditions head that way. The precipitation chances begin to increase in the south and southwest, so we could see possibly some Winter weather be an issue for states like New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado, for instance.
Images via Climate Prediction Center.
Meteorologist Addison Green