Up and down week ahead for Columbus area
QUICK WEATHER FORECAST:
- Tonight: Rain showers early, slow clearing later, low 38
- Tuesday: Clearing skies, high 50
- Wednesday: Rain likely, high 43 & falling later
- Thursday: Mostly cloudy, cooler, high 37
- Friday: Sct'd light flurries, high 37
FORECAST DISCUSSION:
Good Monday Evening,
It has been a warm day for the 16th day of December as expected with wet conditions. Temps have been running at least a dozen or more above normal for this time of the year as most of us climbed into the 50s today. We will see rain showers ending early tonight, giving way to mixed clouds later with the west wind relaxing, and lows dropping to the mid to upper 30s, 10+ degrees above normal.
Tuesday should be a much nicer day, mainly because it will be dry. Temps will be a few degrees cooler with most of us climbing back to the upper 40s to lower 50s for highs with a light west breeze. Tuesday night clouds will increase again, and another wet weather system will move up from the southwest for Wednesday. This will lead to highs in the lower to mid 40s in the morning, and then falling in the afternoon with the best rain chances early.
Wednesday night will be mostly cloudy with low near normal in the upper 20s. Thursday will be a more typical December day, rather cloudy, with highs in the upper 30s. Friday scattered flurries will be possible on a rather blah day for the final full day of Autumn, highs will be back in the upper 30s.
Saturday, Winter officially starts early in the day, and it will feel like it, with partly sunny skies, and temps struggling to get near 30 during the day. This will lead to a chilly night for Saturday night for the Buckeyes home playoff game. We will see temps in the upper to middle 20s at kickoff, with a light north-northwest breeze that will drop wind chills into the upper teens for most of the game.
Sunday will start off cool in the teens and climb to around freezing with more sunshine. We will see temps swing up a bit on Monday with clouds increasing and temps back near normal in the upper 30s to near 40. It is looking more and more likely that a "green Christmas" will be in the future for us this year too. Longer range models are coming into phase with warmer air. Likely the high that will give us colder air late this weekend will shift to the east, and a southerly flow will develop into the middle of next week.
The models are trying to bring a system through near Christmas, something we will watch closely this week, but with the temperatures likely to be well above normal, this would likely be in the form of rain showers. More to come....
-Dave