White Christmas, arctic blast and slippery travel

COLUMBUS QUICK FORECAST

• Today: A few flurries/snow showers, frigid. High 21
• Tonight: Partly cloudy, slight chance of flurries, cold. Low 15
• Saturday: Mostly sunny, cold. High 32
• Sunday: Mostly cloudy. High 43(22)
• Monday: Mostly cloudy. High 36 (34)
• Tuesday: Mostly sunny. High 33 (22)

FORECAST DISCUSSION:

Merry Christmas!!! It is a Storm Team 4 Weather Alert Day for wintry conditions that will make travel difficult this morning. Watch out especially for elevated roads, on-off ramps, and untreated roads. Because of the rain yesterday there may be a coating of ice under the snow. There will still be some scattered flurries or snow showers today but probably no additional accumulations for our Christmas Day.

The main story today is the frigid temperatures. We’re starting out around 15 and we will only get up to about 20. Winds will be brisk and frigid at 10-15 miles per hour. Wind chill is in the single digits, around 0-5 and won’t get higher than about 10 all day.

Surface high pressure centered well to our south will nudge its way into the Ohio Valley tonight. Skies will stay mostly cloudy but the temperature will once agin dropped into the mid-teens with a 5-10 mile per hour wind and wind chills in the single digits above zero.

Tomorrow will be mostly sunny under the influence of the high and not as cold. The high will be within a few degrees of freezing, around 30 in Columbus.

The high will move off to east and a frontal system out of the Rockies moves into the Ohio Valley. Sunday will be a warmer day with highs well above freezing and into the low 40s. That will be short-lived. Monday will be colder with steady or falling temperatures in the mid-30s.

Tuesday will be sunny and cold with a high near freezing. Expect rain Wednesday but it will be warmer with highs in the 40s. Thursday the rain will turn into snow.

Merry Christmas!

-Bob