By S.R. Nunnally

December is off to a snowy start, at least in the Midwest.

According to an AccuWeather broadcast:

“The multi-faceted storm system moved through the Plains states into the Upper Midwest as the calendar flipped to December. Severe thunderstorms, snow, ice and damaging winds are all a part of this system, depending on which side of the storm you are on. On Thursday, the storm paralyzed much of the central and southern Plains into the lower and middle Mississippi River Valley and is blamed for at least two deaths.”

I told you yesterday that this same storm cancelled 200 flights at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. Well, let's up that figure a bit. At Chicago's O'Hare airport, more than 400 flights have been cancelled.

And as our “man on the ground” Bryan Bottarelli noted this morning from his home in Chicago, “This storm is heading toward Baltimore.”

How could it not? Just look at the path this storm cut across nearly the whole width of the Lower 48:

(via AccuWeather.com)

It's strange to think such a strong winter storm is headed our way. At 9:00 a.m. EST, the weather here in Baltimore was a foggy 67 degrees.

We're not the only ones with warm weather, either, with a number of cities tying or beating old record highs on Thursday:

Alma, GA: 84 degrees

Nashville, TN: 77 degrees

Raleigh, NC: 77 degrees

Binghamton, NY: 60 degrees

Boston, MA: 69 degrees

Portland, ME: 62 degrees

That really passes up your clichéd “Indian Summer,” and brings to mind such words as “climate change” and “global warming.” I've been working on a Special Report that deals with a number of predictions, including rising temperatures. Be sure to keep an eye out for the announcement.

In the mean time, let's get back to this huge storm.

It's dumping large amounts of snow and sleet in very short periods of time, and is also bringing severe drops in temperatures -- anywhere from 10 to 30 degrees. In fact, as this storm moved across the Southwest, temperatures at New Mexico's El Morro National Monument were a record low of 23 degrees.

I don't need to tell you what that means. You've heard me say it before. Natural gas consumption will rise, and so will prices.

AccuWeather predicts a drop of 22 degrees for Baltimore between today and tomorrow. From a high of 72 today, temperatures are supposed to drop to 50 degrees on Saturday. We'll have to wait and see if we get any snow.

I'll keep you all updated.

Until then, be careful and stay safe.