11:30 AM | *The month of November has featured widespread cold across the US and Canada and it looks like it will include one of the coldest Thanksgiving Days ever in the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast US*
Paul Dorian
12Z NAM forecast map of 850 mb temperature anomalies at 1PM on Thanksgiving Day; courtesy NOAA/EMC, tropicaltidbits.com
Overview
The month of November has been well below-normal in terms of temperatures across a very large portion of the US and Canada and one the weather highlights of this cold month may very well turn out to the coldest Thanksgiving Day ever in the Northeast US and Mid-Atlantic region. A bitter cold Arctic air mass will flood the northeastern quadrant of the nation on Wednesday night and temperatures on Turkey Day (Thursday) may struggle to escape the 20’s in Philly and New York City and to reach the freezing mark in Washington, D.C.
12Z NAM forecast map of actual 2-meter temperatures at 1PM on Thanksgiving Day; courtesy NOAA/EMC, tropicaltidbits.com
Details
This will be another cold week in what has been a cold month so far and it could very well include the coldest Thanksgiving Day ever in much of the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast US. Overall temperatures have averaged 2.8 degrees below-normal so far this month in Philadelphia and about 2 degrees below in DC and New York City. Temperatures will plummet on Wednesday night in the Mid-Atlantic region following the passage of an Arctic front and then will struggle to escape the 20’s on Thursday and freezing in DC – some 25 degrees below-normal for this time of year. The coldest Thanksgiving Day ever recorded in Philly took place in 1901 when high temperatures could do no better than 27 degrees. New York City has had only three Thanksgivings dating to 1870 when the high temperature failed to rise out of the 20s, according to National Weather Service statistics with the coldest featuring a high of 26 degrees on Nov. 28, 1901. The last Thanksgiving Day in Washington, DC with highs in the 30’s was 18 years ago on November 23, 2000 when the temp only reached 38.
The month of November so far has been well below-normal in temperatures across most of the US and Canada and this looks like another colder-than-normal week in much of the same area; courtesy Weather Bell Analytics, NOAA
The latest run of the NAM computer forecast model suggests temperatures on Thursday afternoon will be in the low-to-mid 20’s across the Philly and NYC metro regions and in the upper 20’s near DC. Needless to say, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City will feature extreme cold for this time of year and winds will be quite gusty during the morning hours. The cold air will try to retreat to the north by the weekend at which time moisture will be heading in this direction from the Gulf region. Stay tuned on the weekend storm.
Meteorologist Paul Dorian
Perspecta, Inc.
perspectaweather.com
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