Waiting for cold air? It's coming next week

The mountains are likely to get a full dose of wintry weather Thursday afternoon and evening, with heavy snow expected to fall for several hours.

That's great news for the ski resort operators and their customers, as the 3 to 6 inches of snow will set the stage for a fun weekend. It's certainly welcome news to those folks, especially after last weekend's spring-like conditions.

Lower elevations, such as Charlotte, will get rain from Thursday's storm, although we'll be seeing a brief shot of winter-like weather next week.

After the storm passes Thursday, it looks like we'll have generally dry and seasonal conditions Friday through Sunday, with highs in the upper 40s Friday and the mid 50s Saturday and Sunday. But a pair of cold fronts will cross the region late Sunday and Monday, and when all that has been completed, an arctic air mass will be the controlling factor in our weather.

Despite full sunshine, we'll be lucky to reach 40 degrees Tuesday afternoon in Charlotte. Morning lows Tuesday might be in the teens.

It'll be cold (mid 40s) again Wednesday, but it appears as if the cold air will be a short-lived event.  High temperatures are forecast to be back in the mid 50s Thursday and Friday.

Meteorologists have been talking for weeks about sudden stratospheric warming at the north polar region, and the eventual displacement of bitterly cold air into Canada and the United States. Some of that very cold air has arrived in the United States, but it's been bottled in the northern part of the country.

When the cold air has tried to poke into the Southeast, it's been short-lived.  Looking ahead into early February, it looks like that pattern will continue.  That doesn't mean we can't get snow, sleet or freezing rain. The storm responsible for mountain snow Thursday will be working with only marginally cold air. But the short-lived cold air intrusions are good news to those who don't like winter.