Weekend Weather Spotlight: 11-6-20

Two main weather systems will be tracked over the next few days, one in the west and another tropical system. 

First, in the west, a large scale trough slowly builds inland and will bring scattered rain and snow showers to much of the western third of the country. Several inches of snow are expected in the mountainous regions especially into ID and western MT where over a foot is likely, and some even in eastern MT north of I-90 and I-94 could potentially get afoot as well. A few inches will be possible as far east as northwestern ND by Monday morning. Further east a ridge continues to move east and will contribute to unseasonable warmth with record or near-record highs today from northern NE northeast to northern lower MI, and possibly some records over the weekend further east as well. 

Finally, another tropical system is being tracked and it is Eta and is expected to become a tropical storm in the western Caribbean early today. Eta is expected to initially move north and east passing to the west of the Cayman Islands on Saturday, moving over central Cuba on Saturday, and has a chance to affect south FL and FL Keys by Sunday evening and overnight. There is some uncertainty with this system by Sunday, but there is a good chance Eta could be a strong tropical storm as it gets close to FL with the potential of becoming a hurricane. Though the exact track is hard to predict currently, there is a chance one or two landfalls in FL are possible, one in the Everglades National Park in far southern FL and/or the FL Keys Sunday evening or overnight. Looking further ahead Eta could meander in the eastern Gulf close to the coast of FL into next week before getting steered northeastward into the southeastern US by the trough currently building into the west.