Blast of cold and snow possible for Thanksgiving weekend in northern Ohio

CLEVELAND - This will be a great weekend for preparing. Warmer temperatures means you'll be able to get outside and put up the holiday lightning displays, rake some leaves or pick up debris from last week's high winds.

I might recommend you fire up the snow blower and find your snow shovels.

Computer forecasts are beginning to hint at a big blast of cold air pouring down from the northwest right around Thanksgiving Day. What's more, favorable winds appear ready to crank up the Lake Erie snow machine for the first time this season just in time for Black Friday shopping.

One of our longer range forecasts, the GFS, brings a cold, upper-level low pressure down across the Great Lakes during the day on Thanksgiving. At the surface, a cold flow across the warm Great Lakes could mean heavy snows for many, including parts of northern Ohio into the holiday weekend.

This system is still a long way out. Fine details won't be known for several more days. But, the trend for colder weather for all of us in time for our turkey dinner appears likely.

The reason I am writing about this now? As many of you know, we are back to 1950s type ocean patterns. I remember vividly, my grandmother telling me stories about some big November snow events from that decade, including the great Thanksgiving Day snowstorm of 1950. That's when Army tanks were dispatched to pick up hospital and communications workers from their snowed-in homes across northern Ohio.

That, of course, was a major low pressure area that affected the entire state.

Not saying that will happen this year, but. Mother Nature liked late November snows in the 1950s, and current weather patterns are very similar. So, stay tuned. We'll keep a close eye on Winter in the coming days.