After two days of cold, it might seem like a wintrier pattern is on the way, but that isn’t the case. Dry weather continues the next couple of days, but even after the blast of arctic air to start the week, temperatures are going to rise above average to finish it. Looking further ahead, a rain, not snowstorm brings more moisture to New England this weekend.

If you are a winter weather enthusiast, a skier or someone who makes a living plowing, these types of weather patterns are not good. Unfortunately, it’s going to last for a while. Looking out over the next 10 days I still don’t see any signs of a snowstorm.

The mantra this winter has been to look back at the last one when the lack of snow in the first half of January was followed by 90 inches of snow in 6 weeks, but that’s not going to happen this year.

The map below shows the forecast temperature departure through the end of the month. The red would be areas where temperatures are forecast to end up above average for January; the blue would be below average.

It’s important to remember this is a map for January when it’s cold. Therefore above average doesn’t mean warm, but it does indicate a lack of prolonged arctic air.

The cooler temperatures forecast for the southern tier of the United States are a result of cooler air and an active storm track. The prevalence of storms coming off the Pacific Ocean means lots of clouds and precipitation. The cooler air would also be a result of all the clouds associated with these storms, which means less sunshine.

On Sunday, we will see another example of the type of pattern we are in. As a storm tracks through the Great Lakes Sunday it will pull much milder air northward. This means even if precipitation starts as snow late Saturday, it’s changing to rain and the rain/snow line will move far inland, perhaps even making it to the mountains.

After the rain ends Sunday evening, colder weather returns next week, but so far any cold looks to be relatively fleeting. If we are eventually going to see some big snowstorms, the atmosphere needs to get its act in gear soon.