Warmest Late December Pattern in 16 Years for Lafayette!

What a wonderful day today! The last time I could find temperatures this warm on December 26th was way back in 1991. Today's official high in Lafayette reached a whopping 48. You see above why we have no real winter weather in sight. Most of the cold air is bottled up north of the jet stream and this zonal flow is usually a much quieter pattern for us. So the big blog question of the day is when will winter return. It does look like winter will be back but not until New Year's Eve. I still do not see any big storms or New Year's blizzards to worry about.

Even though it will be an impressive shot of cold air we do not have any snow on the ground to really sustain that arctic air for very long and it should modify by time it arrives in Lafayette. So instead of highs in the single digits and teens for New Years, get ready for highs in the much more bearable 20s. In fact the latest long-range maps, have every single state except Alaska in the above average temperature category for the first two weeks of January. It looks like somebody spilled red paint on all my long-range maps but of course it is the result of the Pacific jet stream taking over the pattern which we see during La Nina years. But remember in a La Nina pattern the pendulum swings the other way and it certainly can turn snowy and icy in a hurry. This likely will take place in February and March. But as always we have to keep our guard up at all times here in Indiana and we will keep you updated.

So what is a meteorologist to do in such a quiet pattern! Well, go snow-chasing of course! YESSS!! If you are gong snow-chasing like I am it looks like Wisconsin is the place to be with a swath of 3 to 5 inches of snowfall expected on Friday. But with some impressive forcing coming together on the latest maps I think there could be some isolated 8 inch amounts. Snow-chasers are becoming more popular nowadays and they are the equivalent of storm chasers only instead of looking for tornadoes they look for big snowstorms. I have always wanted to do this and I can thank my family up in Wisconsin for having their reunion this weekend. So the timing could not be better. I will make sure to enjoy my family and all the cheeseheads and of course the snowstorm. The good news is I am not missing any big snowstorms in Lafayette. But the weatherman curse usually hits hard this time of year. I am on vacation through New Year's Day so I will leave it up to my blog readers to keep all storms away until I get back. I will miss writing to you so I will try to check in with you from Wisconsin from on top of a snowbank. It is the least I can do for all the snow-lovers we have in Lafayette. Have a wonderful rest of 2007 and a great start to 2008! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.