Today: Sunny and pleasant. Get outside if you can!
Saturday: Increasing clouds, with a chance for showers by afternoon. Rain becomes likely overnight.
Sunday: Scattered showers. Showers turn to snow overnight. Light accumulation possible.
Monday: Chance of light snow and/or flurries. Light accumulation possible. Cold.
Tuesday – Wednesday: Partly cloudy.
Thursday: Chance showers.
We will find ourselves in a pattern that will favor some light snow/snow flurries for Sunday night and Monday. An active jetstream will send some disturbances our way in this time period. Though weak, these systems do have the potential to squeeze out some moisture in the form of snow flakes.
Meteorologist Mark’s Wx Discussion
Today is a great day to get outside! We always need to enjoy these pretty days in the middle of winter. They don’t last too long!
Sure enough, our next storm system moves in tomorrow. There are indications that we could have some thunder with our rain Saturday night. Severe storms are not expected but don’t be surprised if you hear thunder. Then, as colder air moves back in, we’ll see a chance for light snow Sunday night.
Yet another storm system looks to move in by the end of next week, bringing us more rain. At this time, there are no indications of severe storms or snow with that system, but I’ll keep an eye on it.
On This Day in Wx History
1951- The worst ice storm in Nashville’s history begins, causing a complete stalemate of transportation in Nashville for two days. Frozen precipitation starts during the evening, with 1.6″ of snow and ice accumulating by midnight.
Almanac
Yesterday’s National Temperature Extremes
High: 78° at Hollywood & West Kendall-Tamiami, Florida
Low: -33° at Ely, Minnesota
Today’s National Wx Hazards
Snowflakes are flying across the Great Lakes and New England, while another big storm system brings mountain snows and valley rains to the western US.
Tomorrow’s National Wx Hazards
The big storm system out west moves east, bringing rain to the South, mixed wintry precip in a swath from Kansas to Virginia, and snows for the upper Midwest.
Weather Shots
I snapped this picture yesterday evening. You’re seeing the rising of the first Full Moon of 2021! What a beautiful sight it was! Look east again this evening to see that big moon. It will still be at 99% illumination this evening.
NASA Nerdology
Yesterday was the anniversary of the Challenger explosion off the coast of Florida. Satellite was able to detect the smoke plume from that tragic flight. Notice all the cloud cover out over the ocean. That is from cold northwest winds interacting with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream Current. Those cold temperatures compromised the O-rings on the shuttle, causing them to become brittle and leading to one of the worst disasters in NASA’s history. The mission was under pressure to launch because the astronauts were expected to talk with President Reagan that evening during a national address.
Instead, Reagan addressed the nation to comfort us during this incredible loss.
“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives,” Reagan said. “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God. ‘”
