It was an outdoor dinner kind of Christmas around WABBLES with near record heat settling in. While the warm weather should stick with us through the weekend, we look to be cooling quick as we bring 2025 to a close.
Springtime in December: Friday and Friday Night
We’ve spent much of the holiday week watching weak disturbance after weak disturbance push through the region with our warm air in place. Without any major systems pushing through here to drop temperatures, we’ve stayed mild, but also quite cloudy, a theme that continues into our Boxing Day.
Mr. Heat Miser is taking his sweet time packing the RV and heading back out west, and as a result, we’re going to be pushing 70º! For the day after Christmas!
While it won’t be very sunny, the mild air will offset some of the stray showers or sprinkles we’ll have in place so that you can enjoy that post-Christmas porch sit.
By Friday night, we’ll still be enjoying mild conditions throughout the region as we continue to lack any major cold fronts cooling us off…yet. As a consequence, we’re looking at lows only falling into the upper 50s to near 60º. You read that right, lows. Average lows for December 26 should be around 30º. That means we’ll be waking up Saturday morning to temperatures nearly 15º warmer than average afternoon highs and 30º warmer than average lows!
Our weak disturbance from the daytime on Friday should be scooting off to the east, taking any small chance at showers with it. So we’ll be dry and mostly cloudy as we head into the weekend.
Changes Ahead: Saturday and Sunday
Our warmth looks to peak during the day on Saturday as the pattern starts to turn more actively active during the day.
We’ve been tracking a low pressure across the upper midwest that’s been getting its act together along the US/Canadian border. That, combined with weak high pressure scooting to the east, will help warm things up yet again into the day on Saturday.
We’ll be well within the warm sector of this system as southerly flow will help highs top the 70º mark into the afternoon. Perhaps a tick or two higher if we can manage to see some sunshine. We’ll look to stay mainly dry during the day, but increase the clouds during the afternoon hours. That’s as we watch this system from the north try to throw showers and perhaps some thunderstorms our way.
[pivotal map]
It’s not unusual to see a line of showers and thunderstorms form when we see an arctic front intrude upon a warm and relatively moist environment. Widespread severe weather doesn’t look likely, but a couple of strong storms with gusty winds cannot be ruled out as this front goes through on Saturday night. That should help lows drop back into the upper 40s as the front goes through…which will also help gear us up for some bigger changes to close out the holiday weekend.
Winds sharply switch around from the south to the north and west on the other side of our front, which should quickly start to usher in much colder Canadian air back into the region late Sunday night
Much like Saturday, Sunday’s high is expected to be in the lower to middle 60s. We should drop quickly into the 50s by late Sunday night and early Monday morning behind the front thanks to gustier northwest winds. By the time the sun rises Monday, temperatures should be crashing back into the 30s…for highs!
Closing 2025 Cold: Into Next Week
The final days of the year look like they’re going to match the first days of it 12 months ago: cold.
A more arctic airmass settles into the Ohio Valley, which should keep highs from moving a whole lot on Monday. Even as skies finally clear out and we see the sun again, it won’t matter a ton, because the modified Arctic air in place will have Monday highs struggling to make it out of the 20s! Talk about a shock to the system!
The clear skies continues into Monday night with lows back into the middle and upper teens. That’s right, winter is back!
Another chilly day expected on Tuesday, or New Year’s Eve Eve, as highs only make it to near freezing. Hey, at least it’ll be mostly sunny!
We’ll try to moderate things at least back above freezing as we head into New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, but we’re not getting warm by any means, as highs look to peak in the upper 30s to near 40º…back below average as we kick off the New Year.
That’s it for me for now! You can always keep up with the latest on all of our social media platforms. Have a tremendous day and a great weekend!