White Christmas in North Africa ? Wow !

[Anonymous]

Although not that important to us, I thought it was interesting to bring this up:

Accu Weather, 12/24/03:
"Rare" white Christmas for parts of the Mediterranean! - December 24, 2003: Snow has fallen over a wide swatch of southern and southeast Europe to North Africa, with exeptionl snow and cold reported in southern Italy (14 inches in Campobasso, 7 inches in Potenza and Prizzi), Tunisia (8 inches in Setif, 7 inches in Constantine), northeastern Algeria, and the Balkan peninsula. In Bulgaria, Veliko Turnovo picked up 13 inches of snow, Lovech picked up 11 inches, and 3.2 inches of rain fell in Sliven. Bucharest endured near-blizzard conditions, where snow lay 12" deep and was still falling.

Wow ! Hope they enjoyed it

[chadtm80]

Wow.. Impresive.. Does this mean anything for the conus???

[StormCrazyIowan]

Well well well......friggin AFRICA can get snow for Christmas but I can't??? Ohhhh santa, bad move!!! Can't wait to see what you bring me next year, I'll be on your OTHER list!!

[Anonymous]

Hopefully Santa will turn his butt around and bring snow to the southland next month !

[Anonymous]

Wow.. Impresive.. Does this mean anything for the conus???

It may well mean something. Many times on the Accu Weather or Intellicast teleconnection discussions, they pointed out the relationships of trough positioned over different parts of the world and their relationships to the CONUS. As far as I remember, deep troughs located in western Europe and also east Asia (as we're seeing lately) usually teleconnect to a trough over the eastern U.S. down the road (or at least it can). Long range models are hinting on arctic air infiltration into the northern and central US after Jan.5 along with a breakdown of the SE ridge currenty in place. This would be one week earlier than last year - where arctic air made a comeback around Jan.10. That ridge which was in central Canada recently with positive temp departures since Dec.19 is expected to retrogade west to Alaska or so, eventually pulling heights northward towards the pole and then result in trough amplification downstream into lower 48. How long it will take or if "very cold arctic air" moves into the deep south is yet to be seen - although conditions in the long range are setting up this type of pattern where this becomes more probable. Should be interesting to watch.