Freezing in the New Year!!

The jet stream has dipped well into southern Florida, bringing with it a frigid blast of Arctic air, which we were far from prepared for... I awoke to 27° outside, and our high is not expected to get above 44°. Currently, our temps are still below freezing, with clear skies!!! I know all you folks up north are thinking, WIMPS! We are simply not equipped or prepared for the cold spell we are currently enduring and have yet to face. Many children in south Georgia don't even have winter coats (don't generally need them). Boots, scarves, hats and gloves have already been ripped from the shelves by stockers to make room for the summer lines... need flip flops? We've got those on the shelves. Shorts? Sure, we've got 'em... Winter clothes...? Uh... sorry, we didn't expect winter weather... in WINTER! Someone left the A/C running at my office when they left on Thursday, so the first person to arrive faced 54°... inside!!! We are currently under a hard freeze warning. Our heating systems (heat pumps predominantly) are not designed for extended periods of extreme cold. Sure, up north, it gets cold all the time, it s#@ws and they frequently see negative temperatures, but because of that, they have the clothing, the boots, the furnaces... we haven't got any of that!!! If it were a quick thing, over soon, it wouldn't be so bad, but we have a second worse wave coming at the end of the week. They are actually forecasting a chance of SNOW?! on Thursday night... HERE!

...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY...
VERY COLD CONDITIONS WILL CONTINUE TO GRIP THE REGION FOR MUCH OF THE WEEK. A HARD FREEZE (up to 14 hours of freezing temps) IS EXPECTED AGAIN TUESDAY NIGHT WHEN MINIMUM TEMPERATURES ARE FORECAST TO DROP INTO THE UPPER TEENS ACROSS MOST INLAND AREAS. ALTHOUGH IT WILL NOT BE QUITE AS COLD ...SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES WILL CONTINUE TO IMPACT THE REGION WEDNESDAY NIGHT AS WELL. AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE IS FORECAST TO MOVE EAST ALONG THE GULF COAST THURSDAY AND THURSDAY NIGHT. LIGHT RAIN IS EXPECTED THURSDAY WITH THIS SYSTEM AND THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY THAT THE RAIN COULD BRIEFLY CHANGE OVER TO LIGHT SNOW OR FLURRIES BEFORE THE MOISTURE MOVES OUT OF THE REGION THURSDAY NIGHT INTO EARLY FRIDAY MORNING. A RE-ENFORCING COLD AND DRY AIR MASS WILL FILTER INTO THE AREA FRIDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND.

I would expect school closures, since as I said, kids just aren't equipped for this type of weather down here. It becomes a dangerously cold situation for them.

Now, Mini-Dew is headed up to Pittsburgh today with her father, attending her grandfather's funeral (after he sustained a head injury when falling on ice before Christmas). They are currently being inundated with snow; the remnants of a low pressure system off the coast turned out to be a blizzard up there over the weekend. Unfortunately, those remnant snow bands over Pittsburgh have earned a special weather statement.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAYS THERE CONTINUES TO BE BANDS OF HEAVIER SNOW SHOWERS SHIFTING SOUTHEASTWARD ACROSS THE AREA. TRAVELERS NEED TO BE ALERT FOR CONDITIONS SUDDENLY TURNING HAZARDOUS AS THE HEAVIER SNOW SHOWERS CAN CAUSE LOW VISIBILITY AND SLIPPERY SNOW COVERED PAVEMENTS IN SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW. SOME SPOTS COULD PICK UP A QUICK NEW INCH OF SNOW ACCUMULATION THROUGH 10 AM.

DRESS WARM AS WIND CHILLS ARE NEAR ZERO. KEEP HANDS AND FACE COVERED WITH GLOVES AND HATS.

My child is traveling into that?! She is a south Georgia kid, born and raised! She will certainly turn into a Mini-Dewdropcicle!!!

5:00PM my child should be riding into the worst of the snow in about an hour in Charleston, WV. She is in Bluefield, WV now, which is right at the line of Virginia and West Virginia.

Stay warm...
~Dewdrop