7:00 AM | ***Front-end accumulating snow/ice later Sunday/early Sunday night from significant winter storm***

6-Day forecast for the Washington, D.C. metro region

Today

Mainly sunny, becoming windy, colder, highs near 45 degrees; N-NW winds increasing to 10-20 mph; gusts to 30 mph

Tonight

Mainly clear, quite cold, still windy, lows in the upper teens

Saturday

Partly sunny, windy, quite cold, mid-to-upper 20’s for afternoon highs

Saturday Night             

Mainly clear, quite cold, near 15 degrees for late night lows           

Sunday

Thickening clouds, cold, breezy, snow likely by later in the day, lower 30’s; snow-to-sleet-to-rain at night with some icing

Monday

Mainly cloudy, cold, chance of a mixture of snow, ice and rain early in the morning, partly sunny for the mid-day and afternoon, upper 30’s

Tuesday

Mainly sunny, windy, cold, mid-to-upper 30’s

Wednesday

Partly sunny, chilly, near 45 degrees

Discussion              

A cold air mass will push into the region later today and tonight riding in on increasing northerly winds and all backed by strong Arctic high pressure building into the southeastern part of Canada.  It remains very cold on Saturday and Saturday night and then attention will turn to our south for the second half of the weekend.  Low pressure will develop by early Sunday morning in the southeastern states and this system will then make a move to the northeast and it’ll encounter an Arctic air mass that will be quite reluctant to give up its ground.  As a result, a significant snow and ice event is likely to take place across interior sections of Georgia and the Carolinas on Sunday morning and mid-day.  After that, moisture from this storm will push into the Mid-Atlantic region and with the cold, dense air in place, a period of snow and sleet is likely on the front-end in the DC metro region. Early accumulation estimates are on the order of several inches - perhaps 2-5 inch range - with the highest amounts to the northwest of DC, lowest amounts to the southeast. The snow and sleet will likely changeover to rain later Sunday night with some icing still possible N/W and the winds will get quite strong. Coastal flooding is possible in the Delmarva Peninsula with high tides Sunday night/early Monday and damaging wind gusts are possible along those coastal sections.

Meteorologist Paul Dorian
Arcfield Weather