Saturday Looks CRAZY!

It's December, so our schedules at work are not normal. I worked over the weekend, but I've been off for the past 2 days. I'm back in the studio tomorrow, but I had to look at some data because of all of the chatter about Saturday. As I glance at just the temperatures, I can see that we are likely going from the 20s.... to the 60s... and back to the 20s in less than 48 hours:

In addition to a huge swing in temperatures, we have some precipitation that will be moving through. So... the forecast gets even more tricky. Here are my thoughts as of right now and these thoughts may change between now and Saturday:

• Strong storms are going to be possible, especially from I-40 southward. 
• Sharp temperature gradient will exist across Region 8 Saturday afternoon.
• Coldest air of the season plunges in for Sunday.
• Some wintry weather is possible late Saturday.
• Any wintry weather would likely be sleet... with some snow late.
• Any wintry accumulation would likely be LIGHT.
• Timing of wintry precipitation would be Saturday night to Sunday morning.

Here's what the data shows for temperatures on Saturday at 6:00 PM. You can CLEARLY see the cold front:

Typically in these type of situations, the precipitation ends before the cold air arrives. That may not happen on Saturday night. We have a disturbance passing through after the cold front that could spark off some sleet and then snow. This is what radar could look like at midnight on Saturday night:

And then as we go toward Sunday morning, we may change to snow:

It's too early to talk about accumulations, but it appears that it would be LIGHT. If you have Sunday morning plans, you will want to watch this forecast over the next few days.

In summary, it's going to be really cold... then warm with storms... then cold with wintry mix... then just cold. My gut feeling tells me I'll be working extra over the weekend. Let's hope that changes.

Have agood night and I'll see yah tomorrow...

Ryan