Light Round of Snow; Sunny this Wknd

Good afternoon folks! I thought I would be able to produce a blog before 9am this morning, but alas schools remain closed and we are splitting roles at the house between work and entertaining the little ones. I'll keep this discussion short as time is limited, but the silver lining to me dragging my feet is that we have a much better handle on the upcoming winter storm than we did this morning. It looks like the low pressure system and available moisture will be too far to our east for any real threat to materialize, however light snow is still expected to fall late Thursday afternoon into Friday afternoon. A front will cross the region Thursday, exiting the area around midday and rain will fall across our lower elevations, but the higher elevations above 4000' will see all snow. Colder air pours into the region after the front, allowing any lingering moisture to kick over to snow for all elevations, but by then (mid - late afternoon hours) moisture will be limited so nothing more than token flakes are expected. A piece of energy rides along the frontal system to our southeast and develops a low pressure system off the coast, pushing moisture back over the front and cold pool of air that forms from a high pressure system to the northeast. This cold air damming setup will not push far enough into our region on Friday but it doesn't really matter anyways as most elevations will experience light snow falling Friday morning, winding down around the mid - late afternoon hours. This will be more of a open the curtains and enjoy the snow falling kind of day, with limited accumulations, perhaps an inch at most for most of the region; possibly 2" above 4500'. This system exits Friday evening and high pressure sets up shop across the area this weekend, extending into Monday, followed by a possible rain/snow event next Tuesday. Temps Friday through Monday will be below normal by 6 - 10 degrees, with the average low for the valley in mid January around 48°F and highs the next four days holding to the upper 30's - low 40's.

Plan for rain on Thursday unless you live above 4000' then plan for snow, with precip starting around the pre dawn hours and extending through the day, peaking in coverage around sunrise. Most of the region will pick up a quarter inch of rain and for those who experience all snow, you may end up with an inch. Temps push into the low 40's for the valleys but only manage to reach the low - mid 30's above 4000' around midday, dropping shortly thereafter as cold air pours into the region post frontal. Overnight lows will plummet to the upper teens - mid 20's alongside northerly winds around 10 - 20mph.

Precip picks back up Friday mid morning, peaking around midday and fizzling out by the late afternoon hours, with all the fun occurring to our south and east. It'll be a cold day with temps only reaching the mid 20's above 4500', while the valleys hit the mid 30's. Light snow will make up most of the morning hours and it should be a gentle snowfall, with a dusting to an inch possible before the rush hour commute. Temps overnight settle into the low - upper teens under clearing skies.

Lumping Saturday through Monday into the same time period, we'll experience sunny skies after Friday but temps will only warm to the low - mid 40's in the valleys, while the higher elevations reach the low 30's. Overnight lows will dip into the upper teens - mid 20's each night under clear skies.

Sorry for the quick and dirty post but better late than never. If anything changes I will produce another post tomorrow but if not, I'll hold to the normal schedule of every other day and post a new discussion Friday morning. ENJOY!