Astronomical Winter Began 9:59 AM, Near Record Warmth Coming...

Despite today being very chilly & the Winter Solstice (shortest day), our forecast for later this week brings back the warmth that has been mostly around since mid November.  Christmas weekend will feel Spring-like with near record warmth.

Due to the tilt in the Earth's axis as it rotates around the sun, we are seeing the shortest day & that typically means colder weather.  But not this year as the core of the cold has remained up in Canada.

An upper low/disturbance moving through the southern stream has brought down very chilly air all the way down to the Yucatan.   This has pushed the Gulf muggies away with no signs of return flow taking place.

You can see the core of the cold (single digits) is up over the northern states with some warmth starting to show up to our west.  That warming trend will continue into next week making for a way too warm Christmas weekend.

The clearing line is coming our way and Wednesday will see all day sunshine with less wind.  You'll still need the sweaters and jackets through midday.

Finally, I had lunch today with the last 2 people I was allowed to hire.

A young Chris Franklin came to me as an intern during high school (Brother Martin) over 20 years ago.  He went on to get his meteorology degree from South Alabama, returned to FOX 8 as our morning meteorologist for a number of years before moving over to Ch. 4 where he now is their Chief Meteorologist.  Kim Vaughn received her meteorology degree from LSU-Monroe and spent several years serving as the "relief" weathercaster at FOX 8.   Wanting a more stable schedule (plus more pay!), Kim works for a local Engineering firm. Kim was the reason I studied for the AMS CBM (Certified Broadcast Meteorologist) test back in 2008.  She easily passed it but "Gramps" had to go back to the books to relearn stuff!  I consider them my "children" (I'm old enough!) and miss those fun years of being their mentor.  Great memories!   Stay tuned!