A Roller Coaster Ride For This Week. You name it, We're going to get it !

12/8/08: Monday AM
Discussion:

A Roller Coaster of a ride is on tap for this week, as Mother Nature wants to throw everthing at us in a 5 day period. We start off today Very Cold as we continue to hang onto the Arctic air that moved in over the weekend. Many areas did see a Coating to 1" of snow Saturday night, followed by strong winds and Very Cold Conditions on Sunday. Here I received 0.4" of snow Saturday night.

Today we can expect Mostly Sunny Skies and continued very cold, with Highs in the low 30's. The winds will decrease so it won't feel as harsh. Tonight continues quite cold with lows in the low to mid 20's, with Partly Cloudy Skies.

Tuesday is where the changes begin as a SW flow of milder air, and a warm front approach from the south and Southwest. Clouds will increase throughout the day and temps will rebound to near 50. Tuesday Night We'll begin to see some precip. move in as low pressure, developes in the southern Plains and moves east. Periods of light rain and mild temps in the 40's can be expected.

Wednesday will be unseasonably warm, and quite wet with some periods of rain, as our Plains system cuts to our west and a strong cold front approaches. Winds and warm air will increase ahead of this front, and we could actually break the 60 degree mark. This will be very short lived as a very strong Cold front moves in on Wednesday night and temperatures drop quickly throught the 40's during the evening and back to the 30's later at night. A few thunderstorms and steady rain will develop later Wednesday into Wednesday evening. Later Wednesday night the cold air really rushes in and a second storm develops over the SE States. This could cause some problems, from later Wednesday night into Thursday, as the rain will likely mix with or change to Sleet and Snow, especially west of PHL.

So for Thursday, we can expect some mixed precip of Rain, Sleet, and Snow possibly changing to all snow during the day. Temps will remain in the 30's and the exact track of the storm from the SE States will determine, just how much of a threat for Snow and Ice this system will bring. Some models are suggesting we get a brief change over with little accumulation, and some are indicating a chance for accumulating snow and a storm track, just off the M/A Coast. It's really too early to say just where this storm tracks, but this needs to be watched and some areas could get accumulating snow on Thursday, Especially North and West of Philly.

I'll have more on Tuesday Night or Wednesday with the Ice and Snow threat for Thursday or possibly a Thursday Night into Friday Event, as the 12z Euro and now the GFS are showing a seperation in which a 12 to 18 hour period of the precip and these two systems is possible. Like I said in my write up a Complex set up.

Take Care,
Ruggie