Warmer Days Ahead

i heart my hood by caroline_k on Flickr
The first day of winter was wintery. Imagine that. Search Google News for first day of winter to find hundreds of lazily written news items about the not so amazing coincidence that winter weather occurred on the solstice. We did enjoy reading the reports of thundersnow occurring from Seattle to Maine.

If you've been outside this morning you may have noticed the flesh-freezing wind chills. Fear not, the winds should steadily diminish through the afternoon as the deep weekend storm moves further out to sea and is replaced by a massive Arctic air mass. The storm that produced a few inches around the city dropped more than a foot over much of eastern New England.

Today will be the coldest day since last February, with a sunny high only in the mid 20s. Over the next couple of days the high will move eastward, warming us up and probably bringing rain. Tomorrow should warm to the freezing mark. Cloudy skies will return by tomorrow afternoon. By Wednesday those clouds are expected to be thick enough to bring rain and the high will be in the upper 40s. Christmas Day is expected to be warmish and sunny, with a high in the mid 40s. Friday, Boxing Day, appears to be a transition to a rainy weekend.