Clear skies and rain will alternate through New Year's Eve. A weak high pressure system has pushed out yesterday's dreary drizzlyness. Clouds will start building in later in the day but not before we reach a high in the low 50s. Rain, associated with a low pressure system moving up the Ohio and then St. Lawrence Valleys, should arrive around midnight. New York is at the eastern boundary of the expected rainfall. It is kind of a tossup as to how long the rain will last. Maybe just a few hours but we may be in store for a good soaking that lasts well into tomorrow morning.
That storm will be far away by tomorrow afternoon. Skies will clear and we should again have a high near 50. The clear skies may last throughout the day on Sunday before rain is expected to arrive once again Sunday night. As the temperature falls Sunday night the rain will likely turn to non-accumulating snow. That process will reverse with daytime heating on Monday. New Year's Eve is looking mostly dry and cool. Evening temperatures are expected to be in the 30s.
The warm weather today and through the weekend will bring December's average temperature to about three-tenths of a degree below normal. That doesn't sound that interesting but is pretty remarkable given that the first two-thirds of the month were more than five degrees below normal. Through November, 2007 had been the eighth warmest year in 113-year record for the lower 48 states. Only February and April were cooler-than-normal. Across the globe, according to the National Climatic Data Center analysis, 2007 stacks up to be the fifth warmest year since global records began in 1880. Seven of the eight warmest years on record have occurred since 2001. Gothamist will have the New York City numbers for 2007 sometime next week.
Track of tonight's storm, where we once again miss the snow, from AccuWeather.com.
