Rain & Drizzle to Start the Week! Colder Air Returns in Time for the Winter Solstice!

Good Morning,

As the first in a series of low pressure systems to impact the weather in the Eastern Region this week reaches the coastal plain today, there will be a tendency for spotty rain to taper to some drizzle...

Fog is going to be a problem for a while, and it could reduce the visibility to less than a mile in some places, mainly this morning...

Because there will be plenty of clouds all day long, and it will be rather damp (especially early, when the fog will be the most widespread), the temperature will have a difficult time getting out of the 40s in most places...

There may be some locations near and to the south of the Mason-Dixon Line (for example, in the Greater Philadelphia Area and in South Jersey) that reach the lower or middle 50s, but the farther north you go, the chances are much greater that the light, northeasterly winds near the surface will prevent any milder air from pushing into the Tri-State Area or into southern New England...

And, as we had pointed out late last week, there is some 'wintry weather' being encountered early today across northern andvcentral New England, as well as in portions of upstate New York... So, the wedge of chilly air is going to take quite a while to get wiped out of these areas today, with various forms of precipitation this morning near Boston and in southern New Hampshire gradually changing over to plain rain...

Tonight, as another wave of low pressure begins to make its move into the mid Atlantic states, we are expecting a fairly persistent, steady rain to spread out across much of the Eastern Region again... And, much like early today, it should manage to taper off tomorrow morning...

However, unlike today's cloudy scenario, the tendency for tomorrow's wave of low pressure to intensify as it heads out into the Atlantic will cause the winds to increase as they shift around to the west (and, in some cases, the northwest)... In addition to causing some drier air to get pulled into the area, which will cause enough mixing to get the sun to come out for a while, the winds will probably average 12-25 mph with some gusts as high as 35 mph tomorrow afternoon and early tomorrow night... Because the air aloft in the wake of this departing storm system tomorrow isn't going to be all that cold, we stand a very good chance of not only seeing a few hours of sunshine, but also getting temperatures tomorrow afternoon to peak in the mid 50s, or even the upper 50s if all the pieces were to fall into place...

Rainfall totals for the first half of today should average less than a tenth of an inch in most places, then tonight into tomorrow morning, this "next wave" will bring a general 0.50" to 1.00"...

On Wednesday, a bubble of high pressure is expected to bring a temporary period of dry weather, with some sunshine and a relatively light wind... Most temperatures will either be in the upper 40s or the lower 50s, and roughly 6-10 degrees ABOVE the seasonal averages...

Later this week, it looks as if another storm that will be emerging in the Plains states during midweek is going to be playing a significant role in the weather across the eastern third of the nation...

With some early sunshine expected to fade behind clouds on Thursday, it should still be rather mild in the afternoon... But, we expect a low pressure system in the Ohio Valley on Thursday night to strengthen as it tracks to the north and east on Friday... For most of us, this should mean that Thursday night will bring some rain to the I-95 corridor -- and, while we can't totally rule out the possibility of some more rain on Friday morning, the odds do seem to favor now that there will be some drier air getting entrained into this storm system as it starts to push into the St. Lawrence River Valley in southeastern Canada...

It should be pointed out that there could be enough cold air 'wrapping around' this storm system on Thursday night to change rain over to snow before it ends across portions of upstate New York (which would include the Catskills and parts of the Hudson Valley), as well as across much of central and northeastern Pennsylvania...

But, farther to the south and east, in cities like New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, the more likely scenario is that it will "dry out" early on Friday before it gets cold enough for any changeover to occur... But, Friday has the potential to be a fairly WINDY day, with temperatures holding steady, or slowly falling through the 40s...

Have a good day!!!