7:00 AM | ***An icy mess is on the table for early Thursday...wintry mix at the onset of the storm with small accumulations of ice and/or snow possible...changes to plain rain in the afternoon***
Paul Dorian
6-Day forecast for the Washington, D.C. metro region
Today
Mainly sunny, cold, highs in the lower 40’s; N-NW around 5 mph
Tonight
Mainly clear, quite cold, lows in the mid 20’s
Wednesday
Mainly sunny with late day high clouds, cold, lower 40’s for afternoon highs
Wednesday Night
Becoming mainly cloudy, cold, a wintry mix is likely to break out late at night, upper 20’s for late night lows
Thursday
Mainly cloudy, cold, wintry mix in the morning changes over to plain rain in the afternoon, small accumulations of snow and/or ice are possible before the changeover, mid 40’s late in the day for highs
Friday
Mainly cloudy with the chance of AM rain, chilly, breezy, mid-to-upper 40’s
Saturday
Mainly sunny, cold, lower 40’s
Sunday
Mainly sunny, cold, upper 30’s
Discussion
Low pressure has pushed into the central states and will generate blizzard conditions in the Northern Plains with heavy snow and powerful winds. This storm will push to the northeast tonight and the blizzard conditions will extend from the Dakotas and Minnesota into the northern half of Wisconsin. Meanwhile, on the storm’s warm side, severe weather is breaking out already today across Texas and Oklahoma and the threat will shift eastward into the Lower Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys from later today into Wednesday.
The initial primary surface low pressure system will grind to a halt and weaken as it reaches the Great Lakes due to a strong blocking pattern in the atmosphere over Canada. This will lead to the development of a secondary storm system near the east coast on Thursday resulting in widespread precipitation on Thursday in the Mid-Atlantic region. The precipitation will likely break out in the DC metro region in the wee hours of the morning on Thursday and an icy mess is on the table for the morning commute. Precipitation will then change to plain rain on Thursday afternoon as easterly winds bring in some low-level milder air and the winds will kick up as well. In fact, heavy rain and strong easterly winds are possible here late Thursday and Thursday night as the storm intensifies near the Delmarva Peninsula.
Meteorologist Paul Dorian
Arcfield Weather