Tuesday, December 31st, 2013 - Evening Weather Discussion

This forecast for the impending storm on Thursday night into Friday has been nothing short of a frustrating nightmare.  What yesterday at this time was looking like a blizzard and had me running to the gas station to fill my gas canisters is now looking to me like a 3-5 inch snowfall.  The European ensemble mean was even less impressed with this storm than the operational run.  The snow will likely start lightly and fall intermittently and lightly throughout the day on Thursday, then become moderate on Thursday night and into early Friday morning, ending in the morning.  As this storm departs, temperatures will plummet on Friday morning to the single digits and may remain there all day, then likely drop below zero on Saturday morning.  Then another storm will form along a strong cold front that will be approaching on Monday.  This storm is likely to bring us light rain starting around mid day on Sunday and continuing into Sunday night, prior to becoming heavy on Monday morning.  The storm will likely intensify quite a bit, bringing us strong winds as well on Monday that could gust over 30 mph.  The combination of heavy rain and melting snow, as highs may reach the 50's on Monday morning, will likely lead to some flooding on Monday.  Also, the softened ground from the heavy rains and melting snow, combined with the strong winds could cause some trees to fall, which would likely lead to some localized power outages if this all happens as the European model is showing.  In addition, as the cold front moves through the rain will likely to change to snow showers and temperatures will plummet from the 50's to the 20's in a matter of a few hours.  This may very lead to a flash freeze situation, which could cause some icing issues on roadways by Monday evening.  Then it will be very cold on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week with lows dropping below zero and highs only in the upper single digits to mid teens.  Then another storm will approach toward the end of next week, bringing another chance of rain or snow.  This is one seriously crazy weather pattern.