Wind, snow and sub-zero days ahead

Old Man Winter finally decided to show up for work.

Take your pick of winter weather favorites, and you'll probably see it in the forecast the next few days. Temperatures hover near the freezing mark tomorrow as another rain/snow mix rides in from the south around midday. Friday's system brings several hours of light snow, paving the way for Saturday's Arctic outbreak.

I'm 100% certain this weekend's inbound sub-zero shot will be the coldest air of winter so far. It's too early to say with a shred of credibility it will be the last, or the coldest of winter. Yes, we'll likely skew mild again later in this El Nino flavored winter. But it's only January 5th weather fans.

The NWS numbers above could be optimistic for Sunday in the metro. The overnight ECMWF runs sputter to generate a high temperature of -3 degrees Sunday afternoon. Throw in a good breeze and wind chills will hover in the 20s below zero.

Frozen tundra anyone?

Wednesday snow

In the short run, we deal with another potentially sloppy rain/snow mix tomorrow. The latest model runs favor an inch or two, but I also see the potential for preip to mix with rain again near and south of the metro.

A rain/snow mix arrives in the metro by around midday tomorrow. Expect potentially slick roads for PM rush Wednesday, and possibly again Thursday morning.

Friday's system look to track near Chicago, not the best track for heavy snow in the metro. But several hours of light snow could accumulate into very shovelful totals.

Here's a look at tomorrow's arriving system, as Friday's low pressure storm winds up in the Rockies.

California headlines feature heavy rain and mountain snow as a conveyor belt of storms spin ashore from the Pacific.

Several inches of coastal rain translate into several feet of mountain snows. Great news for California's water resources over then next week.

The LA Times has more on why California is focused on the flood threat, and welcome mountain snows to come.

To understand the power and potential dangers of El Niño, look at satellite images of the Pacific Ocean on Sunday. At least four storms were brewing — the farthest still getting going in Asia — and all aimed at California. It's this pattern, a series of back-to-back-to-back storms seemingly arriving on a conveyor belt, that concerns officials bracing for potential damage from the predicted winter of heavy rains. "El Niño storms: it's steady, not spectacular. But it's relentless," said Bill Patzert, climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. "It's not 10 inches in 24 hours and nothing afterward. It's a 1-inch storm, a 2-inch storm, followed by a 1-inch storm, followed by a 2-inch storm. 

"As this goes on for many weeks, then you start to soak the hillsides — then you get more instability. And then, instead of having 6 inches of mud running down your street or off the hillside behind your house, then you can get serious mudflows — 2 to 3 feet in height."