6:00 AM | ***A wintry mess on Saturday with some accumulating snow/ice...watch for slick spots on the roads***
Paul Dorian
6-Day forecast for the Washington, D.C. metro region
Today
Mainly sunny, windy, cold, highs in the mid 30’s
Tonight
Increasing clouds, quite cold, winds becoming light and variable, lows in the lower 20’s
Saturday
Mainly cloudy, cold, snow and sleet likely to develop during the early-to-mid morning hours and should transition to a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain later in the afternoon and then perhaps to plain rain by day’s end in some spots, accumulations of a coating to an inch or so possible before any changeover to freezing rain/rain, watch for slick spots on the roads, low-to-mid 30’s for late afternoon highs
Saturday Night
A wintry mix or plain rain, best chance for the wintry mix is to the north and west, best chance for the plain rain is in the District and to the south and east, cold, near freezing for overnight lows
Sunday
Becoming mainly sunny, windy, cold, mid-to-upper 30’s
Monday
Mainly sunny, quite cold, lower 30’s
Tuesday
Mainly sunny, quite cold, lower 30’s
Wednesday
Mainly sunny, still quite cold, low-to-mid 30’s
Discussion
Strong high pressure will build over southeastern Canada today and temperatures here will struggle to reach the middle 30’s. Winds will continue to be brisk gusting up to 30 mph or so, but they won’t be as strong as yesterday. Clouds will thicken up in the overnight hours and precipitation will head this way early tomorrow from the Ohio Valley. Given the cold and very dry air mass in place on Saturday morning, the initial batch of precipitation is quite likely to begin as snow and/or sleet in the early-to-mid-morning and there can be accumulations of a coating to an inch or so. During the afternoon, it'll turn somewhat milder in the upper atmosphere, but the low-level cold, dry and dense air mass will be reluctant to give up its ground. As a result, surface temperatures will struggle to climb above the freezing mark for much of the day; especially, in suburban areas to the north and west and this can lead to some icing problems on untreated surfaces. By tomorrow night, surface temperatures should climb above freezing in the immediate DC metro region, but some freezing can still occur in areas to the north and west. Another cold, windy day is in store for the area on Sunday and the new work week will begin with quite cold conditions.
Meteorologist Paul Dorian
Perspecta, Inc.
perspectaweather.com