Weather! Clear, cool for the Christmas Parade

Thursday will see skies start out clear to partly cloudy, with clouds building in later in the day as a small disturbance moves across the area. We shouldn’t see any significant precipitation from this system, but I can’t completely rule out some scattered and very light flurries.

December 2, 2010; 7:48 AM • by Weather Dan

The temperature in the last 24 hours has fallen 32 degrees, from an overnight high of 66 degrees at 8am down to 34 degrees at 2am this morning. I hate to say it, but it’s going to be a while before we see 66 again.

High pressure is going to be the primary weather maker (or weather preventer) for the next couple days. Thursday will see skies start out clear to partly cloudy, with clouds building in later in the day as a small disturbance moves across the area. We shouldn’t see any significant precipitation from this system, but I can’t completely rule out some scattered and very light flurries. Nothing should accumulate, and there’s no reason to panic. Temps will make it into the mid 40s before dropping into the upper 20s overnight.

We’ll see clearing again on Friday, as the disturbance moves out and high pressure moves back in again. Highs Friday will reach the upper 40s under partly to mostly sunny skies, and fall back into the upper 20s overnight.

Saturday morning conditions look clear and cold for the Christmas parade. Temperatures will be in the low 30s for the start of the parade, peaking in the afternoon in the mid 40s. A clipper system from the Canadian plains will be approaching the region into the evening. Clouds will increase in advance of the system, and as it passes offshore Saturday night, there’s the chance of some precipitation of the solid variety. It’s hard to say exactly what’s going to happen this far out, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see either rain, at most an inch of snow, or some combination of the two. Overnight lows will fall into the upper 20s again.

I need to stress that it’s really early to say anything with certainty about exactly when it’s going to snow or exactly how much we’ll get, but clipper systems like this one don’t generally produce a lot of precipitation to begin with. Don’t panic, don’t raid the grocery store, don’t cancel your weekend plans.

The clipper is gone by Sunday, and we get another day of cloudy skies and highs in the mid 40s and lows in the upper 20s. Otherwise, it should prove to be relatively uneventful.

I’m still keeping my eye on a system projected to affect the area at some point next week. There’s still a lot that has to fall into place, and I’ll have a full update on Monday.

December 2, 2010 7:48 AM 0