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Weather Blog: Unseasonably Warm for Christmas

Posted at 7:06 AM, Dec 23, 2019
and last updated 2019-12-23 08:06:28-05

Good Monday bloggers,

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas. This year these holidays coincide and the weather looks great. The second night of Hanukkah will see temperature in the 40s, then Christmas Eve and Day will see highs around 60°. The average high is 38° and the average low is 21°. Is this record Christmas warmth? It is not. The record high for Christmas Eve is 66° (1955) and the record high for Christmas Day is 67° (1922).

TODAY-CHRISTMAS EVE:
If you are traveling this week, the weather will be pretty calm until Friday-Sunday. There are storm systems in the southeast USA and southwest USA today and tomorrow. So, there could be some delays from Atlanta to Miami and Los Angeles. We will see unseasonably warm weather with high clouds. The clouds will be thicker on Tuesday and the wind on Tuesday will pick up to 10-25 mph from the south-southwest.

CHRISTMAS DAY:
Highs will be in the low 60s around here and at midnight as Santa arrives temperatures will be in the low 50s. It will be a bit windy. Fortunately, the reindeer fly and do not need snow to pull Santa. The only snow falling will be found in the southwest USA across Utah, Colorado and the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico.

THURSDAY:
This will be a calm day with highs here in the 50s, but a cold front will be moving through. If the front is faster it will be 35°-45° on Thursday. The storm for Friday-Sunday will be in southern California.

Where is the storm now? It is moving east into the Gulf of Alaska near the western Aleutian Islands. So, we have not seen our final solution with this storm as it is far away and over water where data is sparse. Below is our latest thinking.

FRIDAY-SUNDAY:
Rain chances will increase Friday into Friday night. The snow will be confined to I-80, southwest into Colorado. The storm will exit Saturday night and Sunday. There will likely be an area of accumulating snow on the backside of the storm. The track will determine how much snow, if any, we see. If the storm tracks farther north, we will see rain followed by colder air and little to no snow. If you are traveling during the last weekend of 2019, keep in touch with the forecast.

Have a great and safe holiday week.