Still looking cold for later next week

Computer guidance still indicates an outbreak of unseasonably cold air will push into the Carolinas next week, although it now appears as if the really chilly conditions might not arrive until Wednesday or even Thursday.

But everything basically looks the same as it did 24 hours ago.

A huge storm system is forecast to develop in the Aleutians on Friday, bringing winds of 75 mph and 45-foot waves into the Bering Sea. That system then will contribute to a kink in the jet stream, allowing polar air to dive southward into the continental United States.

This is a big change in our pattern, and computer models tend to have problems locking onto a solution. That means you might see a lot of changes in advanced forecasts over the next few days.

But barring something unexpected, it appears likely that we'll see temperatures later next week that are more like January than November.

There also are some hints of a storm system developing along the polar front later next week, but let's not get excited about that yet.