Feeling Like Christmas By Week's End

Temperatures took a step down this week – kind of hard not to when we were in the low-70s just a week ago. We dropped down to a couple of days in the 40s and 50s for highs – much more typical for early December, but with bright sunshine, the weather at the end of last week has been rather nice.

A slow-moving cold front will ease east over the next few days, with warmth out ahead of the front bubbling temperatures into the 60’s for the start of this week. The front will need the help of three disturbances to push the front on through, with each of the three bringing a shot of rain between the Monday night into Tuesday morning timeframe through Thursday.

Rainfall with the first two shots will be modest and intermittent – enough to dampen things up but it doesn’t look overly excessive. Mixed in between those rounds of showers and steadier rain could be areas of drizzle and light fog as there will be plenty of low level moisture out ahead of this front.

The front should push through Tuesday night or early Wednesday with the second wave of low pressure, slowly sliding south of the region and bringing cooler temperatures in.

The third wave of energy that develops along the front – in the Thursday timeframe – will finally push all of this mess far enough away from the coast.  Most computer modeling so far keeps the bulk of precipitation south of our area, generally across Delaware and perhaps extreme Southern New Jersey.

It’s possible that precipitation in the third wave falls in the form of snow so any slower nudging of the front through our region could result in some light rain and/or snow in our area on Thursday morning. Odds don’t favor it but it’s not a definite “no” for precipitation at this point. After this final wave moves through, weather will trend colder for the remainder for the week.

A secondary, reinforcing shot of colder air will cross the region for the weekend, with the possibility of high temperatures in the 30s on Saturday in what would be our coldest day since “Snowtober” in our area.

The coldest air of this airmass will center over the Great Lakes and Minnesota. Highs in the teens will loom over Minnesota and Wisconsin on Friday and Satruday (see the graphic). Temperatures in the 30s here are still a bit cool given how mild we've been recently. It may not necessarily look like Christmas but it will likely feel it like it by week’s end.

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Tom Thunstrom is the editor and publisher at Phillyweather.net.