Two Chances for Nasty Weather By the Weekend
Even though it’s still relatively early in December, the weather is acting like the middle of January. For this time of the season, the normal high should be around 55 degrees; we’ve been lucky to see 50. And, the next few days aren’t likely to be any better.
Tomorrow, the weather takes a turn for the worse, and brings us a chance of freezing rain or ice. We have a similar situation developing to what we had last week, with a high pressure system in the northeast, and a low approaching from the southwest.
This type of weather brings on what is often called “the wedge” by local forecasters, but is also known as cold air damming. What’s happening is that the high pressure system in the northeast is moving cold air into our area. Meanwhile, the low is bringing in warmer, moist air from the southwest. The cold air gets trapped underneath the warmer air by the Appalachian mountains, and gives us a cold, east wind, cloudy weather, and the chance of freezing rain.
The question is whether it will get cold enough due to the wedge to cause the precipitation to freeze, or whether it will stay warm enough, just like last week, to just give us a cold rain. The National Weather Service is betting that the freezing stuff stays to our north, although it might reach Gainesville. The highest risk of a problem is Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning. Later in the day Thursday, temperatures should warm enough to give us just rain.
The wedge is expected to dissipate by late Thursday evening, and bring us sunny weather by Friday, and into Saturday. Then, another low approaches on Saturday evening, and brings us another chance of snow or freezing rain, although without the wedge.
The good news is that after these two systems move through, things look a bit nicer for Christmas week. But, it’s going to remain colder than normal, with a relatively dry period between December 21st and the 27th.
It’s too early to say Spring is around the corner, but the good news is that the sun is already starting to set later in the evening, and a week from tomorrow is the shortest day of the year.
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