It wouldn't be so bad if I got thanked for the good days as often as I get blamed for the bad ones. When in doubt blame the weather guy. People love to remind me when the weather is inconvenient.

Weather modification? Any company dumb enough to try to engineer the weather (or climate) would be composed of one mad scientist and 50 lawyers. Because you can't keep all the people happy all the time.

Forget the calendar, January makes an early appearance next week with highs in the 20s, single digit lows, a wind chill in the oh-zone. And ex-Typhoon Nuri may be responsible.

Scientists at UCAR in Boulder confirm that re-curving typhoons in the Pacific can energize the jet stream, resulting in a higher amplitude pattern and a spike in weather extremes downwind, over the USA. The soggy, windy remains of Nuri spinning off the coast of Alaska will pull bitter air southward into America.

In my experience: air that's 20-30F colder than average is usually preceded by accumulating snow.

No problems today; the atmosphere mild enough for rain showers. No travel problems are expected over the weekend but a storm tracking south of Minnesota may drop a few inches of slushy snow on Monday.
- Paul Douglas