Wintry Wind Whips Washington Some Slight Snow Seen Soon?

*Wind Advisory* in effect through 1am tonight. Significant risk of power outages.

Now

Variable clouds, windy, cold. Gusty northwesterly winds following a strong cold frontal passage have knocked the temperatures down at least 10° this afternoon from a morning high of 53°. That makes the 43° at 5pm the low for the day so far. The humidity drop is even more dramatic, with dewpoints crashing from the mid 40s this morning to the upper teens now. Peak wind gusts reported include (in mph): BWI 47, Camp Springs 49, National 47, and Ft. Belvoir 51. Radio reports indicated that local utilities had experienced several thousand power outages by early this afternoon.

Strong winds will continue into tonight as the colder air sets the stage for a "clipper" system racing southeastward toward the region with some light snow possible for Wednesday.

Tonight and Tomorrow

Windy, colder. Gusty winds will continue through this evening, but will diminish somewhat by morning. Lows will be generally 28-34°. Mainly clear skies and northwesterly breezes tomorrow morning will give way to increasing clouds late in the day with highs 41-45°.

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

Trivia Notes

• December 1 is the latest date in the season on which 1" or more of snow has never fallen in Washington, so Saturday's infinitesimal trace of frozen precipitation tied the record for the date.
• Today's record of 1" is the second lowest for the month of December.
• Today's sub-headline is a former Googlenope.

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

Want to pick winning investments? Studies have found that stock markets around the world tend to go up more on sunny days than cloudy ones.

Political Science

A local newspaper has an op-ed piece today, "A New Green Economics", by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in connection with the opening of the international climate conference today in Bali.

As those negotiations get underway for a follow-on to the Kyoto climate agreement, the NYTi's Dot Earth blog notes that the newly-elected Prime Minister of Australia, as his first official act, has signed the Kyoto Protocol. Blog author Andrew Revkin notes that "leaves the United States and Liechstenstein as the only industrialized countries not bound by the pioneering, but troubled, pact . . ."