Festive Lights Snows Possible Leading into the Holiday
Focus Overnight Friday and Perhaps Christmas Holiday
The prospect for a White Christmas continues to relatively bleak for the majority of the region, however, there is a relatively strong likelihood of some areas receiving a light snowfall over the next several days, This first such opportunity will present itself overnight Friday into early Saturday morning, which is the timeframe that was initially introduced last Saturday.
The overall long wave pattern, as initially outlined last weekend, is fairly conductive to a significant winter storm along the northeast US coast. In fact, there is a chance that a period of light snow will engulf a portion of the area on Friday evening as the low pressure area is in its incipient stages.
However, what has become apparent over the course of this week is that there will be a lead piece of energy that will prevent the trailing wave from amplifying fast enough to provide a major storm system for the forecast area.
This mitigating factor is exacerbated the by fact that the MJO is just now beginning to emerge from phase 5.
This also acts to inhibit trough amplification on the east coast.
The end result is thus a retardation of the evolution of this system, which does not begin to coalesce with the lead energy until the predawn hours of Saturday, when it is ready to exit area.
This causes the precipitation shield to remain light and recede rapidly towards midnight on Friday and into early Saturday morning, effectively ending the event before it can provide most locales with an appreciable chance of a White Christmas.
However, there is a subtle suggestion that all hope may not be lost courtesy of a meager piece of energy on Christmas itself.
Be that as it may, odds of catching a glimpse off Santa twerking down the chimney maybe slightly more robust than those of a white Christmas for the vast majority of the area.
Extended Range Preview for Balance of 2024
Beyond the Christmas holiday and towards the New Year, there are signs that the anticipated warm up will be muted to some extend by the emergent agreement that the apex of the ridge node will maneuver into Canada an the Davis Straight.
This would act to trap modified polar air beneath the block and potentially force any storm systems further to the south, which could introduce some wintry precipitation chances across at least a portion of the area.