A pattern change will make for a much more active weather pattern this week (December 4-10), leading to two things–cold air and the chance for snow.
Monday, Dec. 4: Monday is going to be a gorgeous start to the week before the intrusion of cold air. Expect mostly sunny skies and a high temperature at around 50 degrees, which is a few degrees warmer than average.
Tuesday, Dec. 5: High pressure will then push offshore on Tuesday as a cold front, which is the leading edge of the cold air, approaches. In the morning, it should be dry and cloudy, but the afternoon will become wet with a light rain moving in.
Wednesday, Dec. 6: Tuesday’s rain will continue overnight, pretty heavily. As you wake up on Wednesday, there may still be a few lingering, light rain showers, but the bulk of that rain will have already pushed through. Otherwise it will be a mostly cloudy day with falling temperatures.
Thursday, Dec. 7: Thursday will be a beautiful day–if you like the cold. Sunny skies will look nice but it sure won’t feel nice–at least in my opinion–because high temperatures will struggle to get out of the 30s. We can all blame the pattern change, ushering in cold air all the way from the Arctic.
Friday, Dec. 8: The cold air will last for at least a week, so you’ll definitely still be feeling it on Friday. This is also when the weather gets interesting. The pattern is set up pretty perfectly for the potential development of a nor’easter, and the models have started to hone in on that potential. The chance for our first snow is present on Friday, but I still have several questions: Will there be a nor’easter or coastal storm, where will it be positioned, and how cold will the air be? Of course I’ll keep you updated at jacksonsweather.com throughout the week.
Saturday, Dec. 9: A few snow showers are possible on Saturday from the potential coastal storm but also because of the sunshine and cold air aloft, which may develop snow showers over the Northeast. What I am certain about is that it will still be cold with a high about five degrees below average, at around 40 degrees.
Sunday, Dec. 10: Sunday may be even colder–back into the 30s–and yes, there is the chance for a secondary coastal storm. As you can tell, the pattern is very volatile. The key messages are that it’s going to get cold this week but there is tremendous uncertainty on whether we’ll have a storm that will produce any snow. If we do get a storm, then there is a very good chance we’ll see snow.