Bitterly cold airmass on the way...

It is a frigid morning across the region. Many mountain spots are in the single digits. In fact, as I type, Banner Elk is reporting a temperature of 0 with a wind chill of -17.

The winds have been significant overnight and this morning. Some trees have even come down due to the winds.

Out in the piedmont, many spots had single digit wind chill values around daybreak today, and highs will struggle to make it to around freezing. Lows tonight will then head into the teens across most of the foothills and piedmont.

The next system approaches Sunday, and if the light precip arrives early enough Sunday morning, a brief period of very light freezing rain would be possible in the foothills and northwest piedmont. But it would quickly warm above freezing with shower chances persisting into Sunday night.

An even colder (coldest in years and in some instances, decades in the eastern US) will plunge in for Monday through Wednesday. I still think this could deliver some piedmont lows into the single digits Tuesday and/ or Wednesday morning, and piedmont highs Tuesday should struggle to hit the low to mid 20s.

See the video for plenty more information:

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Big blasts of arctic air on the way...

Some rain at times today, but the big weather story is that we have two very significant blasts of arctic air on the way. Tomorrow will be very cold, and then the shot of cold air early next week will be even colder.

See today's video for all of the specifics...

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Happy New Year!

I want to thank all of you for stopping by and watching through the year, and I look forward to another great year discussing interesting weather events with you.

Some interesting stuff right around the corner, primarily focused around two big blasts of arctic air over the next week.

My video today focuses entirely on the cold air shots.

I do want to mention though that the mountains will pick up some snow later tomorrow and tomorrow night... maybe in excess of 3-6" in some of the favored NW facing areas.

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Lots to talk about...

First of all, quiet weather will unfold today and tomorrow. No problems....

Then on Thursday, our next system will approach. This system looks to bring some rain to the piedmont Thursday afternoon and evening and some snow to the mountains, especially on the backside of the system.

Friday looks quite cold with piedmont highs possibly struggling to make it to around freezing. Then many spots could see lows in the teens Saturday morning.

I am carefully watching the potential for a more significant blast of cold air early next week. In short, the European model has been quite consistent in indicating a pretty historic shot of arctic air for much of the eastern US Sunday-Tuesday next week. I get into all of the graphics associated with this in today's video, but the Euro ensemble mean, while certainly not quite as extreme as the operational European, generally agrees with the operational solution.

The 0z GFS is COMPLETELY different... no arctic air into the Southeast early next week. However, the Canadian is very much in agreement with the European, and I have gone that direction with my forecast.

Again, see the video for much, much more...

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Quiet finish to 2013...

Not a whole lot happening over the next few days around the region. However, as a disturbance moves through late tonight, a little bit of light rain or light snow (although moisture is lacking in the dendritic growth zone, the part of the atmosphere needed to generate snowflakes) is a possibility around the Triad and Triangle regions. This will not be a big deal though.

Quiet weather with highs close to average will then unfold tomorrow and Wednesday.

Our next system arrives Thursday, followed by a big shot of cold air by Friday. Then we might have another big shot of cold air early next week.

Please see today's video for all of the details...

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