There’s been a few headlines lately about the potential of some much cooler air gracing us next week. Some have called it a Polar Vortex, others call it a cold spell. Either way, it likely won’t feel like July next week, especially around the Great Lakes.
Though there is resemblance to this past winter’s brutally cold weather pattern, a deep pool of cool air from the Gulf of Alaska will plunge into the Great Lakes early next week dropping temperatures as much as 15 degrees cooler than normal.
But, to call the pending cold snap a Polar Vortex might be a bit of a stretch according to meteorologist Larry Cosgrove “Poor wording combined with misunderstanding of the term make a mockery out of synoptic meteorology.”
Cosgrove, an energy meteorologist based in the U.S. wrote on his facebook page, that air mass doesn’t meet the “polar vortex” standard – its pressure isn’t low enough and the air isn’t sufficiently cold and truly Arctic in origin (i.e. not below freezing at 5,000 feet). “[On] 2 counts we fail to reach the standard for calling such an upper low a vortex”
Normal temperatures for Sault Ste. Marie for mid July falls in the mid 20’s , temperatures will dip only for a few days to the mid teens before rebounding to almost normal levels by the end of next week according to long range forecasts with chances of showers for most of the week. So yes, it will be chillier than normal, but after the winter we all experienced, I think we can handle it.
