It Came Upon a Midnight Drear

Now

Showers, cool. As the low which brought all that snow to Denver gradually spins down over the Great Lakes, convergence of Atlantic and Gulf moisture to the east is putting a damper on holiday cheer along much of the East Coast. Here in the Washington metro area, persistent light rain showers had put a mere 0.04" of water into the official measuring bucket by early afternoon, although that total has now slightly more than doubled. This month has just today been mathematically eliminated from breaking the record for driest December (0.19" in 1889), although only by a few hundredths of an inch so far.

Temperatures have barely budged all day, staying in the range of 45-48° for the last 24 hours. This Seattle-like pattern will be slow to clear out as we head into the holiday weekend.

Surface weather map and satellite picture at 1m today from HPC/NCEP/NWS

Tonight and Tomorrow

Showers continuing, cool. Showers, fog, and possibly some periods of heavier rain will continue through this evening and overnight. Temperatures will remain within a couple of degrees of where they are now, in the upper 40s. Conditions will start to dry out by the middle of the day tomorrow. If enough sun breaks out by early afternoon, highs could reach 60°, although the models are being somewhat optimistic about the timing on this, IMHO.

For the outlook beyond the weekend with Larson's Long-Range, scroll down to Josh's post below.

Mediaorology

Andrew's Sunday Undercast on why climate change and broadcast meteorology don't seem to mix was picked up by the USA Today Weather Guys on Wednesday and by the Weather Channel blog yesterday. Both of them had some very thoughtful responses to the issues raised; I think Dr. Cullen's were especially insightful. WeatherTalkers, are you listening?

One thing I noticed about the posts at USA Today and TWC was the fact that, despite being national in scope, they each had only 1 comment. The one at USA Today was especially bogus. We are fortunate here at CapitalWeather.com to have such a literate, well-informed, and enthusiastic audience. Please continue to share your input with us in the future (but be prepared to be challenged if you don't back up your assertions with facts).

Programming note: PM Update will be on "standby mode" next week. To steal a phrase from Comedy Central, however, whenever weather breaks, we'll fix it, posting as news warrants. We look forward to sharing with you the wonderfully wild and wacky world of Washington winter weather when our regular schedule resumes after New Year's. In the meantime, we send best wishes to you and your families for a happy, healthy holiday.