12/26- Thursday Issues?

Good Monday all-

A FREEZING RAIN ADVISORY is up for Hartford & Litchfield Counties beginning at 1 PM today.

Christmas is over- can you believe it? Now as we head into the final week of 2016 we have a few things to keep our eyes on. The big one is Thursday, but we also have to get through some showers tonight and tomorrow as a cold front moves through the region. The freezing rain advisory for northern Connecticut is because temps will be either at or just above freezing, but the ground will be below and thus you have a problem! Highs will be seasonable for much of the week with temperatures almost exclusively in the mid 30s...but tomorrow will be exceptionally warm, and New Year's Day may hit 40 as well. For revelers in Times Square on Saturday, it looks like a very typical night- it should be about 30 degrees at the stroke of midnight with partly to mostly cloudy skies as we ring in 2017.

The major question in the next week is exactly what a storm system will do on Thursday. We have some divergence on computer models. The Euro is forecasting a major snowstorm for all of New England on Thursday- such a scenario could produce double-digit snowfall for most of Connecticut. Right now, however, I have doubts about the extent of the cold air in place and the timing of the transfer of energy from a clipper to a nor'easter. The GFS is a bit too late for anything significant in our area. Right now, I'll take the safer middle road with steady, moderate mixed precipitation for Thursday. If it is all snow...then we have a really big problem (don't panic, but a pure snowstorm could produce upwards of 20"). I will be watching it closely...as I said, it's early...but at least some travel impacts are likely in that timeframe. The next name on the WFSB name list is Breanna, and this has a pretty decent chance of being just that.

Today in weather history- December 26, 2010- Blizzard Adrianne strikes Connecticut, with intense winds and producing over a foot of snow in portions of the region. My house in Wallingford picked up 9", but the wind is what made it memorable as I couldn't see the house across the street from me for much of the event! This storm is also remembered as the beginning of the epic winter of 2010-11...the second snowiest winter ever recorded in Connecticut. Over 60" of snow would fall in the next five weeks!

Note that I will be out of town quite a bit the next few weeks, from January 2-8, and again from January 13-19. I will update when I can but it will almost certainly be spotty in that time period. Of course, if a big storm is likely...this is the place you can come for information!