SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — With December just around the corner, it should come as no surprise that the coldest air of the season is on the way too.
Anyone who’s lived in KELOLAND for a while knows there’s a difference between the chilly weather we are having now and the frigid weather lurking to our north. So, is the first polar plunge of the season just around the corner?
To answer that question, one must carefully consider the history of supercharged cold and how it gets to KELOLAND.
First, watch the snow cover maps and watch the changes just to our north. Air over snow-free areas will modify and reduce the impact of extreme cold.
Also, cold air can sit all it wants to our north, but it takes a big blocking pattern in the Arctic regions to push the air south into the United States. We can see this on the jet stream maps like this.
It just so happens that the newly talked about AI version of the European model is teasing us with more cold. Subzero morning lows will happen from time to time after Thanksgiving into early next week.
While all the modeling will struggle at times in a northwest flow pattern like this, light snow will likely come and go as well. For KELOLAND Weather, I’m meteorologist Brian Karstens.
