Good Tuesday everyone... here is hoping this blog finds each of you doing great. We are getting closer and closer to the big day as Christmas is only a few days away. Everyone is hoping for that magical white Christmas and some will get it courtesy of leftover snow from this past weekend's monster.

Speaking of... I want to share a pic from the West Virginia Turnpike...



Hundreds, if not thousands, were stranded in their cars for hours as the storm dumped nearly two feet of the white stuff around them. I thought that pic was worthy of a showcase!

As far as the weather is concerned today... we have a streak of light snow that will move into the northern parts of the area early this morning. It will be interesting to see how much of this holds together and how far south it can get. Either way... areas closest to the Ohio River have the best shot at squeezing out a light accumulation and you can track the flakes here...



Much warmer air is going to try to fight in over the next few days but the snow on the ground is going to act like a schoolyard bully and beat it back to the west. Areas that have the most snow cover will be MUCH colder than areas that do not. You can really see that very well on the GFS temp maps...



Both this afternoon and Wednesday afternoon will feature 30s for highs over the snow and 40s for those without snow. The same goes for Christmas Eve as warmer air ahead of our big plains low tries to fight in over the snow. It FINALLY wins the battle for a few hours early Christmas as temps head toward the low 40s right in front of a strong cold front.

The concern is that any precip that tries to break out ahead of the storm and before Christmas Eve may be a bit of a mixture in the colder areas. That would change to plain rain into much of Christmas Day before enough cold air digs in for some flakes late in the day from west to east.  Here is how that looks on the GFS...

Christmas Eve


Christmas Day




That low will produce one heck of a blizzard for the plains into the western Great Lakes this week. It will also cut off from the main flow and should produce systems that rotate around it and into our region from the northwest. These will likely produce frequent light snows and snow squalls around here this weekend into early next week.

As the blog likes to do... we are timing the next storm producing pattern by the middle of next week as we get set to close out 2009. This looks like a bowling ball type of low that rolls west to east to our south.

That's all I have for you crazy kids today. Have a good Tuesday and take care.