For The Rest Of This Afternoon: A warm front now located over the eastern Great Lakes will continue to push eastward towards our area during the rest of this afternoon.
Skies will become cloudy during the early afternoon hours and there is the expectation that there will be some scattered snow showers moving through starting by about 4-5 pm. These scattered snow showers are then expected to continue into this evening. Temperatures the rest of this afternoon will be near 30 Degrees. Winds will be West to Southwest at 8 to 17 mph.
Tonight: That warm front will push through the region during this evening bringing with it a continuation of scattered snow shower activity throughout this evening.
As that warm front moves to our east, the scattered snow shower activity will come to an end by about midnight tonight with skies then remaining cloudy during the after midnight hours.
Localized snow amounts of about a dusting can be expected in areas that do see snow shower activity late this afternoon and this evening.
Low temperatures will be between 15 and 20 Degrees. Winds will be Southwest at 5 to 10 mph before midnight and Northwest at 5 to 10 mph after midnight.
Friday & Friday Night: An area of high pressure will briefly control the weather during the day on Friday.
Skies throughout the day on Friday will be sunny and high temperatures will be near 35 Degrees. Winds will be West to Northwest at 6 to 12 mph.
Partly cloudy skies are expected on Friday night with low temperatures between 25 and 30 Degrees. Winds will be Southwest at 8 to 16 mph.
Saturday & Saturday Night: A cold front will push through the area during the late afternoon and evening hours of Saturday.
Generally cloudy skies are expected throughout the day on Saturday. Fairly widespread rain showers are expected to begin across the entire area during the late afternoon hours. These rain showers are then expected to continue into the evening hours before ending by about midnight Saturday night.
Once the rain showers end, skies will remain cloudy during the after midnight hours of Saturday night.
High temperatures Saturday will be between 40 and 45 Degrees. Low temperatures Saturday night will be near 30 Degrees. Winds on Saturday will be South to Southwest at 10 to 15 mph. Winds on Saturday night will be West to Northwest at 10 to 15 mph.
Sunday: Skies will start out partly sunny during the morning, but will become cloudy as a storm system approaches the area from the southwest. The chances are increasing that this storm system will bring plowable amounts of snow to the entire area during Sunday night into early Monday morning.
High temperatures Sunday will be between 35 and 40 Degrees.
There Is An Increasing Chance For Plowable Amounts Of Snow To Occur On Sunday Night Into Early Monday Morning: An area of low pressure is expected to ride along a frontal boundary during Sunday night bringing the likelihood of snow to the entire area that occurs throughout Sunday night and lasts into the early parts of Monday morning.
While there is still uncertainty as to how close this storm will track to our area, there is an increasing chance that this storm system will track near the Cape. Should this occur, it would mean that we would see enough snow so that the plows and snowblowers would need to be pulled out.
One aspect of this storm that is still fairly concerning is that the temperatures are expected to crash during the storm. This means that the precipitation might actually start as either rain or a very wet snow during the very late afternoon and evening hours of Sunday and then become a fluffy snow by the after midnight hours of Sunday night. It also means that any wet surfaces from the initial rain or wet snow will flash freeze leading to some very icy conditions by midnight Sunday night. These very icy conditions will combine with the snow accumulating on top of the ice to lead to some extremely slick conditions during the late night hours of Sunday night into Monday morning.
Here Is My Latest Thinking Based On All Of The Available Information: A snow-rain mix looks to begin during the late afternoon and early evening hours of Sunday and then change to all snow during the first half of Sunday night. This snow is then expected to continue through the after midnight hours of Sunday night into the very first part of Monday morning.
Snow then looks to come to an end just after sunrise Monday morning.
Snow amounts of 3 to 6 inches is looking most possible right now based on what I’m seeing in the data. Be aware that this snow will be accumulating on top of some very icy ground conditions leading to some potentially extremely slick travel and walking conditions Sunday night and Monday morning.
Temperatures are expected to crash from the middle 30s during late Sunday afternoon and early Sunday evening to the middle 20s by midnight Sunday night to between 15 and 20 Degrees by late Sunday night. Temperatures on Monday will only rise to near 25 Degrees. As I already mentioned, this means that a flash freeze of any rain or wet snow that melts on contact late Sunday afternoon and early Sunday evening looks quite possible leading to some very icy conditions during the after midnight hours of Sunday night right into much of Monday.
I will continue to keep very close tabs on this storm and will have many more updates as needed over the next couple of days or so.
Very Cold Temperatures Are Expected Throughout Much Of Next Week: Next week still looks very cold as an Arctic air mass settles over our area.
Tuesday and Wednesday look to be the coldest days next week with high temperatures between 14 and 19 Degrees on both days. Low temperatures Monday night and Tuesday night will be near Zero. It also looks to be windy on both Tuesday and Wednesday and this will lead to wind chill temperatures of around Zero during the daytime hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. It also looks like wind chill temperatures of minus 10 to minus 20 can be expected during the nighttime hours of Monday night and Tuesday night.
In addition to all of this, it still looks like a storm system will develop near the Gulf coast on Tuesday and then head east-northeastward across the southern United States towards the North Carolina coast by Wednesday. This storm system has the potential to bring a rather major snow and ice storm to a large part of the Deep South from east and southeast Texas through much of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the Florida Panhandle and the Carolinas during Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.
The question remains where will this storm go after it reaches the North Carolina coast. I still think that this storm system will stay well offshore and leave us dry and cold for the later parts of next week. That said, it’s certainly possible that this storm could still curl up the coast and try to give us some snow late next week. Again though, I think the chances are higher for a near miss with the storm later next week. Either way though, it is a storm that I’m watching closely and I’ll have updates as needed.
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