Raindrops Falling on Your Head

Now

Cloudy, cool. Following sunny skies this morning, clouds have overspread the Washington metro region this afternoon ahead of a low pressure area developing in the Mid-Mississippi Valley. By mid afternoon, rain and showers on radar had reached as far as the southern Blue Ridge and most of West Virginia. At 4pm, Charlottesville reported light rain had just begun, with only a trace accumulated. The rain will move into the area this evening, generally from southwest to northeast.

Temperatures are on the mild side for this time of year, reaching the upper 40s in most places. The daily highs were: National 50°, Dulles 48°, BWI 47°.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Rain, mild. Rain, developing this evening, will continue overnight, with temperatures nearly steady in the low to mid 40s. Rain will end tomorrow morning, with decreasing clouds in the afternoon and highs 50-55°, but turning colder late in the day and at night.

Scroll down for Camden's outlook through the rest of the weekend and New Year's Day.

Mediarology/Meteor-ology

One of the things the atmosphere does for you is to keep raindrops falling on your head at times, but it also keeps other, nastier stuff from falling and killing you. Today's SciFri on NPR reported that NASA's Near Earth Object Program is tracking a 50-meter wide asteroid, discovered when it was near the Moon, which is on its way to a 25% chance of impacting Mars. The object, if it hits on Jan. 30, could produce quite a show. Since the atmosphere of Mars is less than 1% as dense the Earth's, an object of that size could do some significant damage, creating a crater about half a mile wide.

Mars image from NASA/JPL