February 18, 2025 Tuesday Weather Update

Extreme cold continues this week across central Lower 48

Good Evening!

Not much to update this evening as the current weather pattern has been baked in the cake for a while.

It’s cold. High pressure > 1050 mb has settled across the Upper Midwest and Central Plains. Calm winds mean temperatures can drop like a rock overnight.

Lack of winds also helps out by keeping wind chills minimally exacerbating, except in Texas where the polar front is plunging southward.

Wednesday morning Lows including potential records

Below zero in the Texas panhandle and only 3°F in Oklahoma City. Pushing -40°F in North Dakota. The cold pool moves east slightly with the core of coldest air over Omaha.

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ECMWF Precipitation Typed QPF through 90-Hours

Winter storm moves almost due eastward off the Carolina coast by late Wednesday.

If you watch the loop into Thursday and Friday, you see that the impacts almost entirely miss the Northeast coast — maybe some snow around Boston, if lucky. A few days ago, the track of this “bomb cyclone” was to the west by 200-miles, and would have been a blockbuster blizzard for 100 million population.

However, that doesn’t discount the emergency in North Carolina for heavy snowfall and icing / freezing rain.

Freezing Rain QPF

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Temperature Analysis 7:45 PM ET

19% of the Lower 48 is now subzero. 173 million population freezing.

Temperature Anomaly 7:45 PM ET

Lower 48 Temperature anomaly = -16.2°F below normal. The cold pool has made it into central Texas. Just brutal cold for the center of the US.