Weather! Quietly ringing in the new year

Welcome to 2011! I’ve got a couple notes about last week’s weather, and a quiet forecast to help you ease back into the work week and your resolutions.

January 3, 2011; 1:12 AM • by Weather Dan

Welcome to 2011! A couple of notes/errata from while I was out:

First, the National Weather Service stated that they were adjusting the snow totals for Richmond International from the Dec 25-26 storm.

DUE TO INCONSISTENCIES IN THE PRELIMINARY DATA FROM LAST WEEKENDS SNOWSTORM FOR THE RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT…AND AFTER COORDINATION WITH THE CONTRACT OBSERVERS…WE HAVE MADE ADJUSTMENTS TO THE TOTAL SNOWFALL AND LIQUID EQUIVALENT AMOUNTS FOR THE WEEKEND STORM.

THE CORRECTED SNOWFALL VALUES FOR RIC:
DEC 25TH: 2.7” SNOWFALL / .23” LIQUID EQUIVALENT
DEC 26TH: 1.6” SNOWFALL / .13” LIQUID EQUIVALENT
STORM TOTAL: 4.3” SNOWFALL / .36” LIQUID EQUIVALENT

Thus, the total was revised down from 6.6” to just 4.3” at the airport, and will be the total entered into the climate records.

For those keeping track at home, Richmond finished the month of December with 8.0 inches of snowfall.

Second, Richmond’s high on December 1 was 67 degrees. The high on December 31 was 57 degrees. In between, the high never made it above 48, marking a streak of 30 consecutive days in which the temperature did not rise above 50 degrees. This streak is the longest for the month of December in Richmond and is 5th all-time; the longest stretch was for 34 days, from January 10th to February 12th, 1948.

Mother Nature is taking advantage of the early part of this week to do a post-holiday detox, just like many of the rest of us. High pressure will be the story for most of this week, giving the resolution-laden among us at least a fighting chance to run that first mile before the weather gives them a convenient excuse to resign and admit defeat for another year.

A cold front passed through in the evening hours of Sunday night, meaning while Monday will still be warmer than many days in December, it will represent a pretty big cooldown compared to this weekend’s upper 50s for highs. Highs tomorrow will only reach the mid 40s despite partly to mostly clear skies. Overnight lows will fall into the mid 20s.

Conditions will repeat on Tuesday, though temperatures will get a slightly bigger boost, reaching the low 50s. Another weak cold front will move across the area Tuesday afternoon and evening, increasing cloudcover but not bringing anything in the way of precipitation. Lows again fall into the mid 20s overnight.

Our next precipitation chances may come from a system developing over the Great Lakes around Friday. I’ll have a better look at that system and what’s in store for the rest of this week and the weekend on Wednesday.

January 3, 2011 1:12 AM 0