Falling Into Winter. Polar Vortex and El Nino in the Wings. Watching Leaves Fall and Convection in the Atlantic.

I've been away as I'm on a road trip and taking a few days off to work my way from Hurricane Season mode to Winter Storm Season mode while trying not to hold onto a few more days of Fall before the leaves go whoosh in the wind next week. I'm in Baltimore. It's not my favorite city and I tend to bitch about Baltimore a lot but it has much to offer today. A stop between my mother-in-law living nearby and my daughters in New York. Good food at David Chu (kosher iconic place to eat) and watching as the first drops of rain begin to fall as a winter blast blasts through all the way down into the Carolinas and on towards Florida.

There's an area I've been watching for days and it may do something briefly before being caught by this strong cold front. I doubt the NHC will do much with it but pointing it out often on Twitter and Mike pointed it out this morning as well.


Chick from North Carolina puts it well on Twitter in the tweet shown below.. Hug your vegetables and kiss the farming good bye until next year. Winter is on the way and with it comes a freeze warning in many freeze areas that have not seen them since last winter. See his tweet below. My suggestion is hold onto whatever Hurricane Supplies you have and keep them for Winter Storm Warnings.

Chick Jacobs‏ @NCWeatherhound 11m11 minutes ago

While the flow later will indeed be more zonal (west-to-east) the air it's pushing our way is cold enough in its own right.  Also, an additional arctic system should approach later next week. It adds up to a cold stretch coming.

Chick knows Carolina Weather.

We are getting closer to the holidays and just as the Black Sunday Sales are beginning to show up in your mailbox so are the signs of El Nino in you Weather News Feed. Fires in California, a fast flow across the Caribbean and oh by the way it's snowing in Chicago. We are back to a normal sort of pattern as opposed to where people complain on TWC that they are still wearing shorts in December. Why anyone would complain about this I'm not sure but they do. Soon they will complain about the snow.

What's been interesting is that as we drove from North Carolina North the colors of Fall began to change as more reds fill in and there are less deep green pine trees and there are less leaves on the tree. As the Piedmont area enters "peak of the season" you begin traveling through areas that have peeked and look as if they are waiting for snow to begin falling. A little bit of this season and a little taste in the air of the next season; make that cold Arctic Air pushing down deep into the South. Snow is falling in all of the regular places .... those being Iowa, Illinois and Michigan. Soon the snow will move East and hit the higher spots where the elevation helps drop the temperatures a bit more. 

Sad images coming out of California as fires rage through areas I love and know well. That part of the state is beautiful, but so prone to fires. October and early November usually are fire season though when the chaparral is crisp and someone by accident or on purpose starts a fire it spreads in the night fast and furious. 

In Florida they are still "finding ballots" which kind of should be against the law. If your election bureau is run so badly those votes should be cast out along with the people who run that department and either start over or declare them invalid. I rarely get political but this is more a rant on Broward County as they in ways the "Ugly Stepsister" of South Florida. Parts of Broward are nice, here and there pockets of normalcy but compared to Miami Dade and Palm Beach they aren't ready for Prime Time. Hollywood is nice, I'll say that for it and obviously Las Olas when there are no suspicious bombs found and a sliver of beautiful homes along the waterways but the rest of Broward to me is pretty putrid. Sorry... just they keep trying to catch up and they always fall two steps behind. The FLL airport is beautiful, or was beautiful before their remodeling that now makes it look sterile and as if you landed in the Midwest somewhere. You really have to live in South Florida to understand the incompetency in some places along with the ineptitude and public corruption on both sides of the spectrum that exists in some places. Or as a friend simply writes regularly #BecauseFlorida. 

Weird is all I'll say but this whole election cycle has been strange and hoping a strong winter will keep people off the streets and home trying to stay warm rather than ranting at each other acting like they know best what's right for the rest of us. As much as I complain at times about North Carolina people are civil, friendly and polite. And when I get back the red maple tree in my backyard may actually be red.

As for the weather it's back being a normal sort of Fall Winter pattern that we missed for what seemed like a good decade. It's not a Winter From Hell but there is a Polar Vortex signature setting up and this should really ramp up the economy a bit as people begin to buy winter coats, boots and jackets again. Some may actually go skiing or take long trips to Florida where the sun shines bright and there will still be ballot boxes showing up deep into December the way square grouper washes up on the beach. 

Have a wonderful weekend. I'll update as I can depending on the service I can (y'all pray please for me on that one) and stay safe, stay sane and remember the Vets on Veterans Day Weekend.

Besos Bobbistorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter

You can watch in real time as the front pushes down across the East Coast and into the Deep South. Note the convection East of Florida ... 

Bear with me... I'm not on my regular computer trying to get to know this one... again and again.