The drought adversely affecting shipping the Panama Canal region continues. The drought is linked to the El Nino of 2023-24. Until El Nino reverses to La Nina, the dryness in Panama is likely to continue or rain that does occur is not enough to ease the drought.

High impact weather, some elements life-threatening are developing with additional events ahead. Flooding rains into the East this week with Midwest blizzards followed by incoming air across an expanding U.S. snow cover next week. The January 2024 polar vortex pattern with dramatic impacts is ahead!

Using Graph Cast AI for the U.S. 10-day forecast reveals a colder look for the Great Plains to Texas while the East avoids the cold but has potent storms. The bitter cold strikes the Great Plains enhanced by snow cover. Arctic air reaches Texas although moderating south of snow cover. Several very low pressure El Nino storms lam the eastern part of the U.S. into mid-January.

The ongoing SW episode has already spawned historic cold from Northwest Russia to Scandinavia and is forecast to expand and intensify through middle January. Unlike the first arctic air outbreak, the ongoing event will eventually feature an upper-level high pressure “ridge bridge” over Alaska to Siberia by later next week enabling a cross-polar flow of arctic air from the Eurasia source region into North America helping to intensify the North-central Canada polar vortex and the attendant longwave low-pressure trough into the U.S.