2017 has arrived and it's brought winter with it. Here's how
Meteorologist
Sunday, January 1, 2017, 2:49 PM - Forget the mild temperatures that dominated much of North America to cap off 2016: It's about to get truly cold from coast-to-coast.
The period of unseasonably mild conditions around the Christmas holiday was a welcome relief to many, after a series of brutally cold bouts of Arctic air earlier in December 2016, which is a trend set to return.
The image below shows the temperature anomalies seen over the past 10 days, stretching from Alberta to the Maritimes, with only the stormy west coast and parts of Newfoundland and Labrador experiencing below seasonal temperatures.
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However a pattern change brings an abrupt end to this early-winter thaw, as the door is once again open for another series of Arctic blasts as January begins.
In a similar fashion to our last cold outbreak, Arctic air is building into the west initially, for the first few days of January. This brings the return of well-below normal temperatures to the Prairies, and the potential for Arctic outflow for coastal British Columbia.
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As the trough digs into the west, a surge of milder air out of the south takes over the eastern half of the country. This will bring a short lived warm-up from the Great Lakes through Atlantic Canada in the first week of 2017, with a zone of sharp contrast setting up over the middle of the country as the Arctic front progresses south and east.
By late week next week, the Arctic front should make it all the way to the Atlantic coast, sending temperatures well into below normal territory across the country. This is likely to bring all the typical effects of Arctic air, including more chances for snow for many and yet another significant period of lake effect snow for the Great Lakes.
Exactly how long this frigid pattern remains in place is a matter of uncertainty, but colder than seasonal temperatures are likely to linger in the West until at least mid-month. The east may stand a better chance of seeing the cold relax in mid-January, but even temperatures returning to near-normal will feel quite wintry as we move into the coldest part of the year climatologically. And there are some indications that during the second half of January and into February, the focus of the Arctic air will shift farther east.
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