Cold Weather May Come to Central U.S. Next Week, Forecasters Say
December 02, 2011, 9:11 AM ESTBy Brian K. Sullivan
Dec. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Cooler weather may descend on the central U.S. from the Canadian border to Texas next week as temperatures in the East become more seasonal, forecasters said.
Across the upper Great Plains to the Great Lakes, temperatures may drop to 3 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit (1.6 to 5.5 Celsius) below normal, according to 6- to 10-day outlooks published separately by Weather Derivatives and Commodity Weather Group LLC. MDA EarthSat Weather calls for the greatest cooling to occur in Texas.
MDA and Commodity Weather’s forecasts cover Dec. 7 through Dec. 11 and Weather Derivatives’ outlook is for Dec. 8 through Dec. 12.
Traders use long-range temperature predictions to gauge energy use and market fluctuations. Hot or cold weather can increase demand for heating and cooling. Power plants use about 30 percent of the nation’s natural gas supplies, according to Energy Department data.
David Salmon meteorologist at Weather Derivatives in Belton, Missouri, also calls for temperatures to fall about 6 degrees below normal from southern Texas to Alabama and central Tennessee late next week. The East Coast will probably be more seasonal.
Commodity Weather’s President Matt Rogers, based in Bethesda, Maryland, issued a similar forecast calling for seasonal temperatures across the eastern U.S.
MDA also calls temperatures to remain normal across the eastern U.S. with the exception of northern New England, which it predicts will be warmer than normal.
“The big question this morning is where does the pattern go next,” Rogers said in a note to clients today.
Longer-Term Forecast
In his 11- to 15-day outlook for Dec. 12 through Dec. 16, Rogers said the cooling across the northern Plains reverses and temperatures will rise 3 to 5 degrees warmer than normal. Weather Derivatives didn’t issue a corresponding forecast.
MDA calls for the northern Plains to become more seasonal and instead looks for the U.S. Southeast to become warmer than normal, while it predicts the Southwest will actually become cooler.
Rogers said there is some disagreement between computer forecast models.
For Dec. 11, the normal average temperature in New York is about 40 degrees, according to MDA in Gaithersburg, Maryland. In Boston it’s 37, in Chicago 29, in Houston 55, in Seattle 41, in Atlanta 46 and in Burbank, California it’ss 54.
--Editors: David Marino, Dan Stets
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net
