Santa's On His Way With Umbrellas & Rain Slickers By His Sleigh.

As a young child, I loved when it snowed on Christmas Eve.  We knew Santa would have an easier time if he had snow to slide under his sleigh.  But fear not young at heart, though it will be a slick, wet ride over most of the country tonight, Santa will make it.

The green colors signify rain while the baby blue colors are when it's snowing.  Note the mild air surges into Canada with 60+ up to St, Louis & Louisville, 50+ Minneapolis to Chicago with even International Falls in the 40s!

There is an upper low over Kansas that is triggering rainfall ahead of the cold front.  The lime green circle on the satellite view indicates where the jet streams are splitting creating the greatest lift.  This is much welcomed rainfall that should finally contribute to rising river levels during the next few days.  The problem is the upper low will close off and slow down slowly bringing colder & colder air to us. Here are the predicted model upper air graphics.

I've drawn the upper features over the satellite view with the next computer graphic from this morning.  Models say the upper low will close off by Monday night & only move near St. Louis by Wednesday night.  Finally by Friday night it's off the East Coast.  As you can see, over time our upper flow becomes northerly and that will bring down the coldest air so far this winter season.

Computer guidance is indicating all of the North Shore will see freezing temps later this week.  As I mentioned yesterday, that guidance may not be cold enough and even parts of the South Shore could deal with a light freeze.  We'll know better as we get closer like always.  Finally,

We will end up in the top five driest years, but not the driest.  MSY already is at 1.21" with several more hours of rain to come.  My guess is we'll end up as the 4th driest courtesy of one of the top ten wettest Decembers.  Enjoy your families & Merry Christmas Gang!  Stay tuned!