Brrrr!

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Bundle up....a frigid arctic airmass continues to plunge into the eastern US, and this will put our region in the deep freeze for an extended period of time. Some Piedmont spots will not make it above freezing today, especially around the Triad.

Look for widespread teens for lows each night through the middle of next week.

Precipitation chances remain limited for the next several days. I continue to watch a wave that will drop our way late this work week. The airmass still looks quite dry as the system swings through, but any precip that would get wrung out with that system would be snow. But right now, precip amounts on the modeling are quite insiginifcant, if they are even showing precip at all.

Plenty of time to watch that.

In the meantime, throw another log on the fire. Please remember to check on anyone you know that might not have adequate heating, and leave your pets inside.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend. I will be back on the air Tuesday morning.

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Damp finish to 2009....Frigid air coming....

The minor winter weather event continues to pull away from our region today. However, another area of low pressure will continue to give us the chance of some drizzle and light rain at times today and tonight with highs in the lower 40s and lows in the mid to upper 30s.

New Year's Day will feature lots of morning clouds, but some afternoon sun should work in with highs in the 40s. Then, the big plunge of arctic air will arrive.

Highs this weekend through next week will only be in the 30s with low in the teens most morning. This will be an impressive, sustained blast of cold air.

It looks like it will be cold and dry through mid-week next week with the storm track suppressed to our south. However, there are lots of indications in the medium range modeling that a storm system could roll through around the end of next week. Lots of cold air around.....it bears watching.

I want to take a moment and say a big thank you to you for stopping by the blog this year. It has been a great year, and I look forward to rolling through 2010 with you.

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5pm update....

Radar returns are certainly impressive upstream over Georgia and the Deep South. Sure looks like this system could over-perform at bit tonight in terms of precip amounts.

The air is cold and dry....dewpoints are in the mid to upper teens in many spots. So I still expect a period of sleet, and maybe even some snow in spots, as the precip moves in, with the best chances being along and west of roughly I-85.

A Winter Weather Advisory has been hoisted up in the mountains and the adjacent foothills for tonight, and certainly some accumulation of sleet and even snow are quite possible there.

In the Piedmont, the sleet will kick over to rain, and freezing rain in spots that can wet bulb below freezing. I don't expect any major accumulations, but a dusting of sleet or a glazing on some elevated surfaces can't be ruled out.

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Bit of wintry precip tonight....frigid this weekend

Above is today's edition of the Carolina Weather Video. Give it a look...

Dry through the day today...although you will likely see some returns on the radar, most of it shouldn't be able to reach the ground until this evening.

Precip will settle in this evening and tonight, and as that occurs, temps in many spots could drop to at or below freezing. Some sleet or freezing rain looks possible for a while, but I don't think this is a huge problem. But we will keep an eye on it.

Tomorrow now looks mainly dry, although some drizzle could occur at times.

A frigid airmass will arrive this weekend, and it should largely stick around through next week. At the moment, it looks like storm systems will remain suppressed to our south, meaning cold and dry weather. But this is the type of pattern where you have to watch for surprises.

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Lots of cold air....

Give the video above a look....lots and lots of cold air on the way. One storm system moves through Thursday, and I show you what wintry precip might be involved in a few spots on the front and back end of it. Right now, all if it looks insignificant outside of the mountains.

Early next week, the European model pops some snow around the region while most other modeling is dry. I show you why in today's video....

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Cold air here to stay....

Today will be chilly and breezy with highs in the low to mid 40s under a partly cloudy sky. This is the next in a continued series of blasts of cold air headed our way. Lows tonight will drop well down into the 20s, and highs tomorrow will only be in the lower 40s despite a sunny sky.

Clouds will roll in Wednesday, with the next shot at precip arriving later Wednesday night. As the precip moves in, an initial period of freezing rain looks possible, but at this point I expect it to be brief and fairly insignificant.

A chilly rain could linger through much of Thursday, and then as another piece of energy dives in, if we can keep precip around long enough into Thursday night, a period of light snow would be possible. But that portion of the forecast is surrounded by question marks.

What is not in question is the cold air coming over the New Year's weekend. This will likely be the coldest air so far this season with some highs in the 30s and lows in the teens.

There is the potential for another system around next Tuesday or so that bears watching.

I see no end to the cold and occasionally storm pattern right through mid-January.

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