Wet weather will stick around into the first weekend of 2021
QUICK WEATHER FORECAST:
- Tonight: Rain showers, wet snow showers mixed after midnight, low 30
- Thursday: Mostly cloudy, high 37
- Friday: Early morning light wintry mix changing to all rain as temps warm, wet, high 54
- Saturday: Mainly cloudy, high 46
- Sunday: Early AM wet snow, high 42
FORECAST DISCUSSION:
Good Wednesday Evening,
It has been a wet and breezy day today with temps that topped in the upper 40s here in the city, but mid to upper 50s south and east of town. Rain showers will remain scattered the rest of the evening as the moisture moves east. The colder air will catch up with the backside of the system and give us some wet snow after midnight.
The snow should be fairly quick to move through the area this evening, and will push south well before daybreak. I expect that we could see some morning snow showers in our south/southeast counties, but given that temps pushed into the mid to upper 50s today, the roads should remain wet.
Thursday drier air will temporarily move in with mostly cloudy skies giving way to some sunshine during the day but a cooler day with highs only in the upper 30s. We will see clouds increasing quickly from the southwest overnight Thursday. Temps will make the overnight tricky.
Thursday night around 9-10pm we will see our surface temps fall just below freezing. Expect the numbers to stay below freezing at the surface through about 3-4am on Friday morning. As light precip. starts to nose its way up here, there will be warmer air coming with it.
I expect initially we will see the warm air overriding our colder surface temps, which could be problematic, as this would mean light freezing drizzle after midnight Friday morning to before daybreak on Friday. Road surface temps should remain above freezing, but sidewalks/driveways could be slippery.
Friday temps will quickly surge and slick spots should not be an issue by mid morning as temps will push into the 40s and eventually the 50s during a wet Friday. Friday night that system will pull northeast and will drag a weak front across our area. This should bring drier air for Saturday, but a lot of clouds and temps in the 40s, falling late.
A secondary spoke of energy will pivot southeast into our area overnight Saturday night into Sunday with a chance of rain showers mixed with snow showers. This should end around daybreak on Sunday with highs in the lower 40s.
Next work week will be fairly pleasant for early January. I would call them bonus days as highs will be about 7-9 degrees above normal, and no major storm systems are expected in the first half of next work week.
-Dave