Beware the fast and stormy Alberta Clipper!
The United States is blessed with a wonderful northern neighbor 鈥 except when Canada is in a generous mood and shares its winter weather. That鈥檚 when the U.S. gets clipped or mauled by screamingly cold weather. We call it a 鈥淧olar Vortex鈥, but the cold fronts have traditionally been called Alberta Clippers, Saskatchewan Screamers. Manitoba Maulers, or even Ontario Scary-o, depending on which Canadian province the storm started. No matter where they come from, they are fast, mean and bitterly cold.
Beware the fast and stormy Alberta Clipper!
All three storms form when hot wet air from the Pacific hits Central Canada. In an El Ni帽o year like this, Pacific winds off of the Northwest states and Western Provinces are warmer than ever. They blow inland, over the Rockies and crash into cold Arctic air sinking into the frozen Prairies. If this miserable cold hits a jetstream, look out. The fast and strong winds will whip that cold through the US and we won鈥檛 be happy about it. If it hits the cold alongside the Rocky Mountains, it鈥檚 a relatively dry Alberta Clipper. If it goes farther inland, it may come out of Saskatchewan, Manitoba or even the Great Lakes province of Ontario.
A cold Canadian storm clipping from Alberta to Virginia, freezing Chicago, Washington DC and New York City. Source: National 蜜桃恋人 Service
Of course, that鈥檚 not the end of the ride for the scary-o, screaming, clipping mauler of a storm. The jetstream usually carries it all the way to the East Coast, where it can bomb鈥攍iterally. This is the weather phrase for hitting warm, wet Atlantic Ocean air and exploding into an icy, blizzardy, wet mess. We saw this in January with Winter Storm Jonas and this past Valentine鈥檚 Day with Winter Storm Olympia. The hot Atlantic air holds a lot of moisture which precipitates out when hit by cold temperatures. Alberta clippers and their Canadian cousins hit the wet air like a train wreck. As a result, we saw snow in the Northeast, heavy rain in the Southwest and icy misery in the Mid-Atlantic states.
The Clipper 鈥渂ombs鈥 on the East Coast鈥攁nd it is a very wet explosion. Source: NOAA
So thank you, Canada, for the interesting weather. Could you please go back to just sending us maple syrup and good comedians?
James J. Garriss
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