WEATHER BLOG: Cold & Clear

The day is very cold start across the Northeast and in the mid-Atlantic states, and the sky is also mainly clear.

Since yesterday afternoon, the wind has made it feel even colder, but it is now starting to diminish as a high pressure system starts to build into region.

So, while the balance of the day will be cold with temperatures in the 20s, it won't be as windy. Therefore, it won't be quite so harsh this afternoon. The weather pattern is going to get much more challenging to forecast this weekend, especially on Sunday.

But this doesn't necessarily mean that there'll be large quantities of snow headed your way.

We talked a bit yesterday about some of the 'key players' in a scenario that will be drawn out over a prolonged period of time.

In other words, some spots could encounter a snow shower as early as late tomorrow afternoon, which would occur as the result of both a slow-moving front and a weak 'clipper' pressing southward out of eastern Canada.

It should be pointed out, though that this probably would be precipitation confined to upstate New York, northeastern Pennsylvania and New England.

Then on Sunday, Sunday night and Monday, the focus of our attention will start to shift to a low pressure system which will develop in either the central or southern Appalachians.

We're definitely going to lean in the direction of 'playing up' sleet and rain across a larger area, and 'downplaying' snow along the I-95 corridor between New York City and Baltimore.

In fact, with a recent trend favoring a more northerly track of this wave of low pressure, we're beginning to think that mostly RAIN (and not too much of it) will occur in cities like Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. until it gets close to 'the tail end of the event', when that wave begins to depart for the Atlantic Ocean on Monday night and some colder air starts to filter back into the mid-Atlantic region.