Sign Of Winter? Strong Storm System This Week

Does this photo scare you? Don't worry, nothing
like this is the forecast this week, but the first
chilly autumnal storm of the season
will cross the nation the next few days.  

In the summer, storm systems are almost always weak in the United States.

Yes, the cold fronts and other weather disturbance stir up severe local thunderstorms, but the parent low pressure systems with these gusty thunderstorms are not impressive at all.  

You know it's fall when larger low pressure systems start to move across the country. The first good one of the season is just starting to get going now.

It'll go from the central part of the country, up through the Great Lakes and on into Ontario and Quebec between now and Thursday

Had this been later in the autumn, it would snow in parts of the Upper Midwest. But it's still early in the season, so we don't have to worry about that yet.

Still, on Wednesday in northeastern Minnesota, they're expecting rain with daytime high temperatures in the mid-40s, with a stiff north wind, so it won't exactly be summertime up there.

And the snow isn't so far away. It's supposed to snow in and around Calgary, Alberta, Canada today. 

South of the storm system, summer heat and humidity still lingers, as it often does in September. With the cold front invading, expect some severe thunderstorms in and around Iowa on Tuesday, and in the southern Great Lakes area Wednesday.

There could be a couple strong tornadoes in and around Iowa Tuesday, says the Storm Prediction Center, but almost the entire storm threat will be for strong straight line winds.

The showers with the storm will sweep through the Northeast on Thursday.

Behind this storm, it will be chilly, with areas of frost possible from the Northern Plains this week and spreading easti into some of the mountains of northern New England, toward Sunday.