NOAA forecasts major December cold blast for nearly all the USA

Dr. Roger Pielke Sr. Alerts me to this map from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center and says:

Cannot recall last time I have seen such a cold anomaly forecast across almost entire USA.

Neither can I, have a look:

UPDATE: This map from Dr. Ryan Maue of WeatherBell shows that over 75% of the USA will be below freezing for overnight lows on December 8th:

Dr. Maue writes:

CONUS average low temp of 17°F for Dec 8th according to ECMWF 12z is exceptionally cold — there will surely be record lows.

Source: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/814day/index.php

The only state not showing a cold anomaly is Hawaii, the southernmost parts of Florida and Texas are also spared.

The 6-10 day outlook shows the western half of the USA and Alaska in a deep cold anomaly:

Source: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/610day/index.php

Maybe it has something to do with the “cold blob” I pointed out yesterday?

The precipitation forecast shows the northernmost part of the USA as having above normal precipitation, which translates to heavier snow in the northern plains and northern Rockies, along with heavier snow in the Great Lakes and Northeast:

Source: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/814day/index.php

NOAA CPC description of these charts:

The 8-14 day Outlook gives the confidence that a forecaster has, given as a probability, that the observed temperature, averaged over upcoming days 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 will be in the range of one of three possible categories below (B), normal (N), or above (A). For any calendar 7-day period, these categories can be defined by separating the 30 years of the climatology period, 1981-2010 (30 years), into the coldest 10 years, the middle 10 years, and the warmest 10 years. Because each of these categories occurs 1/3 of the time (10 times) during 1981-2010, for any particular calendar 7-day period, the probability of any category being selected at random from the 1981-2010 set of 30 observations is one in three (1/3), or 33.33%. This is also called the climatological probability. The sum of the climatological probabilities of the three categories is 100%.

Graphical Information

The colored shading on the map indicates the degree of confidence the forecaster has in the category indicated, where “B” and blue colors indicate “below-normal” and “A” and orange-red colors indicate “above normal”. The darker the shading, the greater is the level of confidence. The numbers labeling the contours separating different shades gives the probability that the indicated category (A, B, or N) will occur.

The probabilities of all three categories are implied on the map, and sum to 100%. The forecast probabilities given on the map generally fall far short of complete confidence (100%) in any single category. When the probability of the above (A) or below (B) category is greater than 33.33% by some amount, the probability of the opposite category declines by that amount, while the probability of the middle category remains at 33.33%. In the event that the N category is greater than 33.33%, the probabilities of both the “A” and “B” categories is each reduced by 1/2 the amount that the “N” category exceeds 33.33%. When the probability of “A”, or “B” reaches 63.33% or higher, the odds of the opposite category reach a minimum allowed value of 3.33%, while the odds of the middle category are allowed to drop below 33.33%.

The dashed contours on the map give the average of the temperature over the set of 30 observations for the calendar 7-day period during 1981-2010, in degrees Farenheit.