Despite a rainy Saturday, the weather cleared on Sunday allowing for a great day on the slopes. Several resorts opened up this weekend thanks to the hard work of snow-making teams. Check out Blue Mountain in Pennsylvania Sunday evening! 

Monday 

Monday will be dry and mostly clear with seasonable temperatures in the 30s and 40s. It will be the best day of the week with scattered rain showers and warming temperatures moving in on Tuesday. 

Tuesday 

Rounds of rain showers will affect the region this week due to several storm systems passing to the north and through the Mid-Atlantic. Tuesday will see the first part in the form of scattered rain showers as temperatures stay in the 30s and 40s.

Wednesday

Warm air surges north Wednesday into the low 50s as precipitation will mainly fall in the morning, with a few scattered rain showers throughout the day.

Thursday

Dry air moves in Thursday with temperatures staying cool to the north (40s) and warming up to the south (50s). Clouds will increase throughout the day ahead of the next larger storm system with chances of wintry precipitation.

Let’s look at these rain showers and how much rain could fall before we talk snow on Friday and beyond. Here is the GFS model’s depiction of precipitation type and intensity from 7 am Tuesday, December 6th to 10 am Thursday, December 8th. 

Rain will not be intense this week, but remain consistent over several days. Here is a look at the Euro (left) and GFS (right) model’s rainfall totals from Tuesday to Thursday. 

Friday and Beyond

Our main attention draws to Friday as a large storm system tracks into the region from the west. This storm will move west to east and allow for cold air to stay on the north side of the storm, bringing the possibility of accumulating snow.

The storm system will move off of Long Island and strengthen on Saturday, December 10th, complicating the forecast of how precipitation bands strengthen over the weekend. It also remains in question where the cold air source for this storm will come from. 

There will be some cold air to the north, but it is not the arctic air we need for widespread snow. 

• A storm track through central PA will mean snow could fall in the northern Mid-Atlantic.
• A storm track through WV and MD will mean snow could fall throughout WV, MD, PA, and north. 

Check out the Euro (left) and GFS (right) model’s depiction of precipitation type and intensity Friday, December 9th. 

There is a lot of uncertainty for precipitation type and snow accumulations this far out, but it is good to see winter weather back in the forecast. The better news is that winter weather will continue to be in the forecast next week. 

The storm track is finally changing as I have been mentioning over the last week. The timing was a little off, but it is good to see the jet stream dip south and allow for several chances of snow in the region next week starting on Monday, December 12th.

Let’s look at the Euro model’s predicted upper-level pattern from Monday, December 12th to Friday, December 16th.

The cool colors show cooler temperatures and favorable conditions for precipitation. The warm colors show warmer temperatures and a northerly storm track for the region.

The puzzle pieces are finally coming together so let’s keep on this hype train!

Have a great Monday, thanks for reading, and I will have the next forecast Wednesday morning. 

Zach Butler, Meteorologist for the Mid-Atlantic Daily Snow.