Headlines
Warming trend begins today
Rain arrives for Saturday
Turning colder for the start of the new week (snow?)
Meteorologist Mark’s Vlog in a Flash
48-Hour WX
Seven-Day Forecast
Daily Forecast Summary
Today & Thursday: Mostly sunny. Warmer.
Friday: Partly cloudy skies. Continued mild. Showers may develop late into the night.
Saturday: Showers likely, with perhaps a rumble of thunder.
Sunday: Cooler. A chance for showers.
Monday: A chance for rain & snow showers. Cold.
Tuesday: Partly cloudy and chilly.
Threats
By Sunday, colder air will be moving in. By Sunday night and Monday, moisture may be plentiful enough to, at the very least, lead to a rain/snow mix. This is too far out to be very confident in wintry precip amounts, but confidence is high enough to begin mentioning this new wintry threat that could come by Monday. Stay tuned.
Meteorologist Mark’s Snow Scale
On This Day in Wx History
1989– Gusty winds, associated with a strong cold front, caused widespread power outages across the Hawaiian islands. Sounds like trouble in paradise (ha).
Almanac
Yesterday’s National Temperature Extremes
High: 89° at Camp Pendleton, California
Low: -29° at Peter Sinks, Utah
Today’s National Wx Hazards
Accumulating snowfall can be found across New England today. More snowflakes may fly across the northern border of the US, as well as across the northern Rockies. A new storm system begins organizing in the Southwest.
Tomorrow’s National Wx Hazards
That storm in the Southwest strengthens, while yet another system moves into the Northwest (an active pattern evolving!). Heavy snows could fall throughout the higher elevations of the Rockies and especially across parts of Colorado. This could help make for a wonderful ski season for the Christmas holiday!
Weather Shots
This beautiful snow picture was taken by @RandySmall near the Mt. Baker ski area of Washington state last week. He noted that eight inches of fresh snow had just fallen the day before. What a Christmassy scene!
NASA Nerdology
I should begin by noting that another ISS flyover is expected this evening at 4:47. It will be visible for six minutes and reach a maximum height in the sky of 43°. It will rise in the north-northwest sky and set in the east-southeast. I’ll try to remind you but I forgot to do that yesterday. Oops.
I’m also seeing reports that the Northern Lights will be unusually far south tonight and Tennessee was on one of the maps. That is a rare thing, for sure. I’ll look into this some more. If it’s legit, I’ll send out a special blog post this evening. I’ve seen those lights from the plateau before but it was probably 20 years ago. They appeared as a slight reddish hue on the northern horizon (I thought it was a structure fire’s glow!).
On this day in in 1992, the Galileo spacecraft took 15 images of the moon through 3 different-colored filters as it flew by. These pictures were compiled into this false-color mosaic, showing us details of the moon’s surface in bright colors. How cool is that picture?!
