January and it's going to get warm, and then it'll get cold

Get ready, we're in for a big time warm-up for early next week. It'll be a good opportunity to get outside, do some chores, take down the holiday the lights, get in some golf. Temperatures will be some 20 to 25 degrees above the average, which is in the low 40s this time of year.


This isn't "Global Warming", but just some of the natural variability that we see in the weather patterns, just like the arctic cold that visited the region.


I must say that the cheapskate in me likes when we're warmer because that means lower heating bills, but the meteorologist in me wants cold and snow. I've always loved when the weather extremes are occurring. That energy that the atmosphere can unleash is exhilarating.

I lived in New Orleans in the early 90s and we had some thunderstorms approaching my apartment. I was up on the 3rd floor and I had a bay window that faced west. I heard the tapping of hail on the glass and I immediately ran over to look. I cupped my hands around my eyes and I put my nose to the window. I had to see what was happening.

It might have been a few seconds, I'm not really sure how much time elapsed, but the voice in side my head told me to pull away from the window because hail could break the glass. Against my natural instinct, I pulled away. The hail never did get big enough to break the glass thankfully, but I have always rushed to see the weather, I guess that's why I decided to do what I do.

The warmth will only last a couple of days, then by Wednesday, we'll cool down into the 50s, still above average. We will get back to come colder weather by the middle of the month and one of our long range models is suggesting a chance for a winter storm here around the 16th. That's still a week and a half away, so I'll watch it, but experience tells me that the odds of that model being correct, this far out, aren't very high. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)