It’s been a common question so far on the winter, but once again we find ourselves asking this all-too-common question in the winter of 2011-2012:  Where on EARTH is the cold?

As many of us continue to see well above average temperatures, with maybe a brief cooldown and snowstorm every now and then, there ARE some areas of the northern hemisphere that are seeing cold temperatures.

One of those areas is Alaska and sections of Canada, into Greenland as well:

You can see quite a bit of cold weather up there!

The key temperature that sticks out to me, and likely to you as well, is the -56° temperature seen in northeastern Alaska as of early on this morning.  That is intense cold! Areas of Minnesota and other “typical cold spots” in the Midwest and the Northeast, in the meantime, saw low temperatures on the morning that were only slightly below what an average *high* temperature would be (Minneapolis cooled to the upper teens, with an average high in the middle 20s).

What will likely happen, as has been the trend this winter, will be a pooling of cold, dense air back over Canada – with an eventual breakage.  When will that happen?  Well there are no sure bets on when the next cooldown will take place, but there are some signs in the extended – not to mention we all know that in winter it should be cold!

Enjoy the warmth for this time of year and get outside if you can!

Texas Drought

Huge amounts of rain in a short amount of time have left portions of Texas dealing with flooding situations over the past few days.   In recent months and even years drought is a word that is more often associated with Texas than flood.  Let’s check in to see where we are with the latest drought statistics coming out of Texas:

Palmer Drought Index

This images shows the amount of rain needed to end the drought.  Recent storms brought a huge amount of rain to the Dallas Area.  In those areas, not much additional rainfall is needed to end the drought conditions, while the Houston area and surrounding Gulf coast is still needing more rain.

Expect another mild and dry today across Texas with no rain for the upcoming weekend.  Temperatures will be significantly cooler tomorrow after a front moves through tonight.

The only other areas of the nation classified to be under exceptional drought conditions are a few pockets in the Southeast.

Back in November just over 9% over the country was classified “Exceptional” drought and now only 2.29% of the nation is in that category.

Forecast For Today

Looking at the bigger picture, all the active weather is much further northeast.  Maine could receive up to 10 inches today while the northern tier of the midwest also picks up a few quick inches as another system zooms through.