Another Brown Christmas?

Last year's Brown Christmas wasn't a surprise, given that it was an El Nino winter.  But we had higher hopes for this Christmas.  Still, the ground is bare out the window with only 2 weeks until Christmas.

We will be seeing some weak storms bring us some moisture over the next few days.  The first of these storms should arrive Thursday afternoon or evening.  This isn't good timing for snow.  But it does look like we'll start off dry enough to give us a little snow.  Probably less than an inch by Friday morning.  And some computers don't give us any snow at all.


The problem, as you can see above, is that after our 50% chance of snow, the computers expect the precipitation to change to rain with the next system on Friday night and Saturday.  Temperatures are expected to be in the upper 30s on Saturday, with 1/4" to 1/2" of rain.

There is another weak system due early next week that could bring us a little snow.  But again, it's a low chance.  After that, high pressure develops over the western US with a deep cold low pressure off the coast.  We could still see some moisture from this pattern next week.  Whether it's in the form of rain or snow is hard to say at this point, but the overall pattern would favor rain.  This pattern looks like it will hold until Christmas if not beyond.






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