Cold Rain, Then Cold Wind Cold Theory in the Cold

Now

Showers, cold. Despite a breeze with a south of east component, heavy clouds and light showers are keeping temperatures from reaching 50° in most of the Washington metro area this afternoon. Precipitation amounts through 5pm have been only 0.1" at National and 0.05" (all of which fell in the last hour) at Dulles.

Rainfall should be heavier overnight, however, as a developing low pressure area in the mid Mississippi and lower Ohio valleys gets cranked up on its way to the eastern Great Lakes by tomorrow. Following the passage of this very deep low, strong winds should bring another shot of cold air in for the rest of the weekend. The National Weather Service has issued a High Wind Watch for Saturday evening through Sunday morning for the potential of sustained winds at least 40 mph or gusts at least 58 mph throughout the local blogging area.

Pictured: One model's prediction of a very strong (980 mb) low centered over southern Canada Saturday evening. The closely-spaced isobars indicate strong winds over the Mid Atlantic area; from NCEP/NWS

Tonight and Tomorrow

Rain, then windy and colder. Rain will become heavier tonight, with temperatures steady in the upper 40s to near 50°. The rain will end as showers by mid day tomorrow. Southerly winds ahead of a strong cold front could push temperatures into the low 60s around the middle of the day, but strong northwesterly winds following the frontal passage will bring falling temperatures through the rest of the afternoon and into tomorrow night.

For the outlook through the rest of the weekend, scroll down to Camden's post below.

Climate Corner

The RealClimate blog today revisits the issue of global cooling claims made in the 70s. Newsweek has just done a re-evaluation of their 1975 article titled, "A cooling world." They conclude in the cold light of today that huge improvements in data collection and modeling technology have made "any forecasts from 1975 as inoperative as the predictions being made around the same time about the inevitable triumph of communism." The real lesson here is: Don't get your science from the SCMSM (so-called mainstream media).