Thursday, January 8, 2009

Near-Average Temps Expected Friday

Seasonally cold and dry air continues to settle into central Virginia tonight under clear skies and light northwest winds. Temperatures will fall into the range of 25-28 degrees by early Friday morning. I expect full sunshine on Friday, but with a cold air mass in place, temperatures will only reach the mid 40s. Some high and very thin cloud cover will move into the area late in the day ahead of our next storm system. The latest data continues to suggest a decent chance of rain Saturday night into early Sunday. Have a great Friday!

Zach

Whipping Winds and Cold Trends

Winds were pretty gusty overnight in Central Virginia as the recent storm system finally exited to our northeast. Gusts in Richmond were up to 41 mph Wednesday night, and remained in the 20 to 30 mph range early Thursday morning. I expect the windy conditions to continue most of Thursday, with sustained winds in the 15 to 20 mph range this afternoon.

The good news about Thursday is the sun! We will have some cloud cover in Central Virginia, but we will see the sun for extended periods of time today. Snow showers stretch from Maine southward into the Appalachians Thursday morning on the backside of this exiting low pressure system, and some flurries may make it into Central Virginia this afternoon.

A deep trough has set up on the eastern half of the U.S., with a ridge in the west. This pattern will hold through the next week, which will mean colder temperatures for Virginia and also several chances for precipitation as storm systems track along the trough. At this time, it looks like much colder air will be settled in place over Virginia by the middle of next week, and stay here for many days.
--Carrie