The huge cyclone over the Midwest has already caused thousands of cancelled flights. Snow has been falling there, and now the system is moving east/northeast. There was a small area of low pressure over us yesterday. Now that low is being absorbed into the larger one. A powerful cold front is moving in from the west as I write this weather blog.
Travel will be difficult from the Ohio River Valley up into the northeast states today. However, there will be a large portion of the country that will be dry.
Locally, temps were in the 40s and 50s this morning. There were a few showers with a small batch of rain and a wintry mix moving in from the west.
There were some gusty winds out of the southwest along with a lot of clouds. So that’s partly why we started so mild. The strong cold front will sweep through the area during the mid morning. It will create some scattered rain showers with a brief wintry mix.
There won’t be any accumulations of any frozen precip if it falls. Air temps and ground temps will be too mild for that. Having said that…surface temps will fall fast today. We’ll drop through the 40s through midday into the upper 30s. We’ll dry out with some gradual clearing through the afternoon. I can’t rule out a few flurries later today if some moisture lingers for a bit. It’s possible, but not likely.
Temps will drop to near 30 degrees this afternoon. Wind chills will be near 20 later today.
The wind will be very strong out of the west. Wind gusts will be up to 40 to 45mph.
The winds will stay strong for most of the day.
This strong wind will lead to some possible power outages today. If it’s not too late, then secure your holiday decorations as well as your garbage cans. Another problem from the wind will be tidal flooding. However, This will be over 2 limited areas. Minor to moderate tidal flooding is expected on the upper Eastern Shore as well as the sound-side of the Outer Banks.
Tonight we’ll be super cold for this time of year. Temps will drop down all the way to the teens. It will be a good idea to slow-drip the faucets. The wind will also still be gusting to around 30mph, and this is going to put the wind chills down to near zero degrees. The range in the region will be between -5 to 15 degrees.
There are wind chill advisories issued for tonight and tomorrow morning for the whole viewing area.
We’ll be dry for the most part tomorrow. With a very strong upper level low overhead I can’t rule out a couple of flurries. However, it will be very dry at the surface. Temps will only warm to near 30 degrees tomorrow afternoon. Wind chills will be in the teens and 20s.
Hey it could be worse. Look at the temps over the Midwest! Winds will taper off later in the day.
Luckily things should settle down for Christmas day. We’ll have a good amount of sunshine. High temps will rise a bit to the mid-upper 30s. Winds should decrease. Then as we go through next week we’ll warm up quite a bit. High temps will be in the 50s by Wednesday. 60s by Thursday.
Safe travels and happy holidays!
Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler
