Western Winter
It has been cold in the west as this picture of Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast can attest. Carrie emailed it to me just before she came to Utah for Christmas. Although the Northwest coast is now under the influence of the "pineapple express" from Hawaii and the snow is melting with resultant floods, Alaska remains super cold. Fairbanks has been 40 degrees below zero almost every day since Christmas; the minimum so far being -47 on Wednesday. For those who were on the cruise last summer, Skagway is relatively mild at 9 above, but the train stop on white pass is 20 below with a 50 below zero wind chill. As long as that pile of cold air remains over the western continent, it has the potential to swing out around a Pacific storm and back onto the Oregon Coast to return snow to that region.