Rhode Island Long-Range Weather Forecast: Warm January Gives Way to Wintry February

The weather may feel more like April than January in the coming weeks. But don't expect it to last.

Forecasters have released an updated winter weather forecast for the rest of January and early February in Rhode Island - and it may not be what you'd normally expect.

The weather is expected to be unseasonably warm over the next couple weeks as mild Pacific air travels to Rhode Island. Surface winds will prevent cold air - the so-called "Polar Vortex" - from traveling from Canada to our region.

But that's likely to change by the time February rolls around.

A central U.S. storm could signal another pattern change at the end of the month as a storm travels toward the Great Lakes, then Ontario, Canada, funneling colder, perhaps arctic air southward and eastward, AccuWeather Senior Long-Range Meteorologist Jack Boston said in an AccuWeather release.

That could mean "snowy conditions" in the Northeast by the end of January and early February.

"January may end with near to below-average temperatures and a return of snowy conditions around the Great Lakes and part of the Northeast," Boston said.

Here is what the National Weather Service and AccuWeather are saying in the long and short term.:

• The upcoming pattern for the remainder of the month will have some people "changing up their outerwear on a daily basis," according to AccuWeather.
• We'll see temperatures with highs close to 50 in the coming week, but there will a lot of clouds and some rain events.
• Sunday night's Patriots playoff game is expected to be classic miserable New England weather: Temperatures hovering just above freezing with rain.

In many parts of the nation, early January lived up to its wintry reputation, according to AccuWeather.
At one point this past week, snow was on the ground and freezing temperatures existed in every state except Florida, thanks to a snowstorm that swept from the Northwest to the Southern states and then to the coastal Northeast.

Patch file photo