Big Warm-Up Expected in Western U.S.

The well advertised Bering Sea storm has been making headlines all week for its current and expected impacts across North America. One of the biggest impacts from this storm will be its influence with the jet stream as the area of low pressure will help a large upper-level trough settle over much of the U.S. by later this week. This will result in very cold temperatures throughout the eastern U.S.

One impact that has not been talked about as much is the big warm-up expected across the west coast and Alaska. In response to the large trough expected to center itself over the eastern U.S., a large ridge is expected to setup to our west.

Check out where the latest run of the GFS model thinks this ridge will be positioned by Saturday morning:

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18Z GFS 200mb Heights & Winds valid at 6am Saturday (Courtesy: NOAA)

The Climate Prediction Center also predicts this ridge to usher in much warmer temperatures across the west this weekend and into early next week. Notice that portions of south-central Alaska have been given an 80% chance of seeing above-normal temperatures while locations in central California have been given up to a 70% chance of seeing above-normal temperatures.

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Temperature Outlook valid on November 15-19 (Courtesy: Climate Prediction Center)