Highlights:
- Dry midweek
- Rain changes to snow
- Turning bitter
Changes Await…The midweek stretch will feature dry and unseasonably mild conditions. A storm system will deluge the Tennessee Valley today, but will be too far south to impact our weather. We’ll shift our air flow around from the northeast today to more of a southerly direction Thursday afternoon. This is in advance of our next storm system that will deliver showers as we wrap up the last work week before Christmas.
While confidence is beginning to increase in the evolution of things as we head into Christmas weekend, important details are still a bit “iffy” and will require additional fine tuning over the next day, or so. With that disclaimer, here’s how we see things playing out:
A cold front will slip southeast Friday night and a surface low will move northeast along the boundary Saturday. The general consensus this morning is that this wave of low pressure will track further southeast when compared to yesterday’s data. This would yield a colder solution, locally, and subsequent faster changeover to a period of wet snow Saturday. In fact, if trends continue, we may have to bust out the first snowfall map of the season for Saturday. Hope for a White Christmas is very much alive and kicking.
MUCH colder air will drill southeast Christmas Eve and with enough upper level energy in place, we forecast an additional period of snow and snow showers Christmas Eve. Bitterly cold temperatures will take control for Christmas and into early next week.
Upcoming 7-Day Precipitation Forecast:
- Snowfall: 1″ – 2″
- Rainfall: 0.25″ – 0.50″
Highlights:
Hang in there as we continue to sort through the data over the next few days. Once confidence increases (for or against an event), you’ll be the first to know! 🙂
Recent operational data (GFS and Canadian included) has suggested a sprawling high in the range of 1050mb+ descending into the eastern slopes of the northern Rockies. Such a regime would be plenty capable of spreading sub-zero temperatures east into the Ohio Valley (with or without snow on the ground). Add in a biting north wind and wind chill values would drop to levels of dangerous and deadly levels if any length of time was spent outdoors. Some of the latest data paints a picture similar to shades of the famous ’13-14 winter (20° to 30° below zero chill factor). If you have travel plans over the Christmas holiday, please plan in advance to have a winter survival kit packed and loaded. It absolutely never hurts to be prepared.