Watching a Wintry Washington Week

Now

Sunny, cold. A weak low pressure wave which gave some scattered snow flurries to the region yesterday, mainly to the east of the metro area, deepened rapidly well offshore to help pump in colder temperatures today. Readings struggled to reach freezing in most locations with a brisk northwesterly breeze; highs were 33° at National, 32° at Dulles, 31° at BWI.

The month has now dropped out of the top 10 warmest Januaries. As Jason has already noted, this week is likely to be the coldest so far this season, with at least one chance of some wintry precipitation later in the week.

Surface weather map at 7am today from HPC/NCEP/NWS shows a deep low off the Atlantic coast

Tonight and Tomorrow

Mostly clear and cold, then slight chance of flurries. Tonight will be mostly clear and cold with diminishing winds. Lows will be near 20 in the city to the mid teens in the 'burblands. Tomorrow will be partly cloudy and continued cold with a 30% chance of snow flurries, mainly late in the day, highs near 37°.

For the outlook through the rest of the week and the Snow Lover's Crystal Ball, scroll on down to Jason's post below.

Capitol Climate

The House Oversight and Government Reform committee is holding a hearing tomorrow "regarding political interference in the work of government climate change scientists." The witness list includes a NASA scientist, a former staff member at the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, the Director of the Scientific Integrity Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and science policy researcher Dr. Roger Pielke, Jr. of the University of Colorado. Montgomery County Congressman Chris Van Hollen is a member of the committee.