There
is finally some relief after a week of snow and ice followed by an
earthquake. It was quite cold this past
week following the 12th coldest January on record for Columbia. It was the 11th coldest for South
Carolina as a whole in January. The
weather warmed after the first winter storm at the end of January. Little did we know that it was a warm-up act
for the next winter storm.
Most
of the snow and ice melted as the sun returned on Friday and a warming trend
began. A cold shot of air on Saturday
only slowed the melt, but the warming trend continued on Sunday. This week will be noticeably warmer this
week. In fact, temperatures will be in
the mid to upper 70s by Thursday.
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| The 7-day forecast for Columbia, SC, for February 18-24, 2014. Click on the image for a larger view. Image Credit: WLTX-TV. |
Enjoy
this brief interlude from the cold weather.
A cold front will pass through the Midlands on Friday with scattered
thunderstorms. There may be some severe
weather with the frontal passage.
However, it will be turning cooler over the weekend into next week.
The
cold weather is not over yet. Much of
next week is expected to be colder than normal.
The outlook from the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) is for a high
probability of colder than normal conditions.
This will wrap up the end of February into the beginning of March.
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| The 8-14 day outlook for the period February 25 - March 3, 2014. The panel on the left is the probabilistic forecast for Columbia, SC. This gives the probabilities of seeing above, below, or near normal temperatures or precipitation. It also gives you the normal values for the week. Click on the image for a larger view. Image Credit: NOAA\CPC. |
One
positive note is that it is unlikely that we will see snow and ice again this
winter. However, we may be trading that
in for severe local storms. It is
unlikely to see two slow years in a row.
