Calm before the cold for the midweek in Columbus area

QUICK WEATHER FORECAST:

• Tonight: Partly cloudy, light to calm wind, low 23
• Wednesday: Partly cloudy, more clouds late, high 42
• Thursday: Rain showers, mild day, high 44
• Friday: Icy roads early, snow, blowing snow, falling temps, daytime high 11 (and falling)
• Saturday: Blustery, very cold, few flakes flying, high 9

FORECAST DISCUSSION:

Good Tuesday Evening,

It has been a nice day today with temps close to normal and sunshine today. Temps will slowly fall back into the lower 20s overnight with little to no wind and scattered clouds. Wednesday we will see partly cloudy skies giving way to more clouds later, and highs in the lower 40s.

Clouds will thicken up overnight Wednesday night with lows near freezing. Temps will warm up on Thursday as rain arrives in the morning. Rain will be on and off all day with temps pushing into the middle 40s. Temps will remain in the lower 40s Thursday night as the cold air and the next round of colder moisture arrives.

Temps will be near 40 at midnight with rain falling, and then quickly the temps will plunge. It will bring a quick changeover to snow early Friday morning. While I do not anticipate freezing rain being an issue, we will see more of a flash freezing type event. Where rain that is on the ground will quickly freeze with snow falling on top of it with very cold temps.

In fact, temps could drop to the lower teens by daybreak with wind chills running below zero, likely into the negative teens during Friday morning. Snow showers will be possible during the day on Friday, making travel very difficult as winds blowing 20-30mph with gusts at 40-50mph in the area. This will reduce visibility with snow showers falling, and blowing of the light snow on the ground.

Temps will fall Friday into single digits during the morning and afternoon on Friday with wind chills potentially dropping to -20 or colder in spots during the afternoon. Snow showers will continue into Friday night, with temps falling to just above zero. Outside of the city, especially north, it is likely we will see sub-zero temperatures with wind chills in the negative 20s.

While Saturday will be a nicer day compared to Friday, it is still going to be quite terrible. We will have highs likely to stay in the single digits all day, which if we stay below 10° would be the first time since Feb 19, 2015. Wind chills will also start near minus 20, and climb to the minus single digits during the day with flurries flying.

Christmas will start off very cold with the 10th coldest start at just 5°, and the afternoon highs will only top in the middle teens, the 4th coldest on record for Christmas under mostly cloudy skies. We will start to turn around on Monday with temps back in the middle 20s with mixed clouds.

Tuesday expect partly sunny skies, with highs near 30 on Tuesday. Shockingly looking more long term, the models continue to show warmer temps later next week. We should have temps near normal around 40 by Wednesday, and into the upper 40s to 50s by the end of the week into next weekend, remarkable.

-Dave