Winter ain't over yet

I've been marvelling at the recent warmth here, and kind of cursing at how filthy my car is and how it's pointless to wash it right now.

Well, that's going to change.

We'll flirt with cooler temperatures for the next 4 or 5 days, but the coldest blast of winter, if the models are even remotely to be believed, is nigh.

Right now temperatures over much of Alaska are in the -30s and -40s. The coldest I can find right now is at site PAQT, Nuiqsut, on the Arctic coast. It's -46 there. Over in Siberia, similar temperatures are also present. Verkhojansk, often the coldest place in the northern hemisphere, is -49.

Now, the models are dropping this ridiculously cold air on the prairies by the 20th of the month. Give or take a day or so. A surface high over 1040 mb over the Yukon and then sliding southward into Alberta. Thicknesses of about 490 dam, maybe lower. Ouch.

The silver lining to this cloud? You can then wash your car and not worry about it getting filthy again for a while.