Monday Morning Weather Summary: Relief From The Cold

Good morning. For many of you the moderation in temperatures this week will be very welcoming. Today is the last day that temperatures will hover around freezing then we have a warm up coming for the rest of the week.  After a light winter precipitation event tonight, temperatures move into the upper 30's then towards 50 as we get to Friday. The bad news is rain will move in for Friday and Saturday with what I think will be a wintery mix to the north and maybe some New England mountain snows.  By Sunday however temperatures drop back below freezing but its only a short spurt. We will have a pattern change that moderates things for about 10 days then winter should return by the end of January.

Starting with later this afternoon, a light round of winter precip moves in...

Expect some minor impacts with this.

Warmer air then moves in as a ridge of high pressure develops in the east...

As we get to Friday, a low pressure system will cut just to our west bringing with it a cold front that stalls close to the east coast...

A low pressure system then develops along this front as seen above.

However with high pressure to the north I think the models are overdoing how much inland this low cuts...

What will probably happen is this low jumps a little sooner to the coast due to the high pressure which would result in rain for the mid-atlantic but a wintery mix for New England and what I believe can be Mountain snows Saturday...

This will be worth watching closely for any ski fans.

Regardless, cold air then moves in again in its wake Sunday...

This will not be nearly as cold as we just saw but will put a chill back in the air.

We then have our "January Thaw" pattern develop by the middle of next week...

Notice how a trough develops off the west coast of California and bleeds into the US. This causes mild Pacific air to move into the country. The question becomes how long does this last. I believe it lasts a week to 10 days then we go back to a winter pattern. 

Stay tuned, I will be taking a closer look at this weekend as well as the pattern change in the coming days.