First Major Cold Snap Looms.
Of course now that winter is approaching, I'll be back to blogging. Hopefully I can do a lot better than last year in terms of accuracy. :)

Overall the weather will be rather calm the next 7 days. This weekend will be chilly, especially Saturday. We could see some valley frost Saturday night and again Sunday night. Next week looks fairly warm for most of the Western Carolina's.

After next week, a major pattern shift looks likely as cold air and storminess will be building to our north and west across the plain states. The season's last tropical system is likely to develop in the western Caribbean and move through the Bahamas and up just off shore of the east coast which should help deepen the trough diving into the eastern United States. Along with this cold shot, a widespread killing frost/freeze is likely for a good portion of the southeast including the western Carolina's. The mountains may also see their first northwest flow snow flurries or showers (no big deal).

Forecasted Temperature Anomaly Ranges: Through 10.26.12

Most of next week looks warm but you can see the Cold beginning to build along the Canadian Boarder. These are temperature anomalies, or how far above or below average temperatures are. So Montana's temperatures next week look to be about 6 to 12 degrees below average for this time of year and our temperatures look to be up to 6 degrees above average for this time of year.

Forecasted Temperature Anomaly Ranges: 10.27.12 - 11.1.12 (Maps by Kris Hartley)

Towards the end of October and the beginning of November a strong through will move into the eastern 2/3 of the nation allowing that very cold air along the Canadian border to spill into the south and east parts of the country.  Temperatures as you can see are forecasted to be significantly below average. Looking even further out: much of November as it stands now looks cold.

Updated: 10.19.12 at 11:56 pm.