For The Rest Of Today: A northwesterly wind flow behind the cold front that pushed through the area yesterday will produce some building cumulus clouds by this afternoon. This means that a mixture of sunshine and clouds is expected for this afternoon. A few isolated rain showers are also expected this afternoon, especially in the Berkshires, the hilltowns of Western Mass and in the Worcester Hills. High temperatures this afternoon will be between 45 and 50 Degrees. West to northwest winds will gust up to 25 to 30 mph at times today. Tonight: Any cumulus clouds and isolated rain showers will dissipate around sunset with clear to partly cloudy skies expected tonight. Low temperatures tonight will be between 25 and 30 Degrees. West winds will gust up to 25 mph at times tonight. Tuesday: Gusty west winds will continue on Tuesday with gusts of up to 30 mph expected at times. Skies on Tuesday will be sunny with high temperatures will be near 45 Degrees. Wednesday & Thursday: An area of high pressure will bring lots of sunshine to the area on both Wednesday and Thursday. High temperatures Wednesday will be between 45 and 50 Degrees. Much milder temperatures are expected on Thursday with high temperatures of between 65 and 70 Degrees. Thursday Night & Friday: A frontal system is expected to move through the area late Thursday night and Friday morning. This means that widespread rain showers are expected late Thursday night and all of Friday morning. Some clearing is expected behind the front during Friday afternoon. Low temperatures Thursday night will be near 35 Degrees. High temperatures Friday will be near 45 Degrees. This Weekend: An area of high pressure will build right over the area during Saturday bringing lots of sunshine to the area throughout Saturday. High temperatures Saturday will be between 40 and 45 Degrees. A weak frontal boundary may pass through the area during Sunday bringing a mixture of sunshine and clouds and the possibility of a couple of rain showers. High temperatures Sunday will be between 45 and 50 Degrees. Outlook For Thanksgiving Week: Early indications are that things could turn quite stormy next week and unfortunately it could impact any Thanksgiving travel you may have. Weather model data points to the increasing likelihood that an upper level trough of low pressure will swing eastward into the northeastern United States. This will lead to some colder than average temperatures for at least the first half of next week. At the same time this is happening, an area of low pressure is expected to move into northern New England during Monday and Monday night with the possibility for the development of a secondary low pressure system near the south coast of New England or near the Cape. The big unknown right now is whether there will be sufficient amounts of cold air around to produce widespread accumulating snow or not. At this point, my thinking is for precipitation to range from all rain in the Connecticut River Valley and the Blackstone Valley from Monday afternoon through Tuesday to a mixture of rain and snow in the Worcester Hills, the Hilltowns of Western Mass and the Berkshires. With that said, it’s not going to take much of a change in the weather pattern for this potential storm to produce all snow across all of Western and Central Mass. Even an all rain event will still lead to some traffic issues across the region for next Monday afternoon, Monday night and Tuesday, so be aware of this. An area of high pressure is expected to build into the area for Wednesday with maybe a weak frontal system moving through on Thanksgiving Day. This potentially means that Wednesday will be dry, but cold and Thanksgiving Day may feature some scattered rain and snow showers. Late next week and the weekend of November 27-28 could feature another redeveloping coastal low pressure system that may need to be watched for a mix of rain and snow or even perhaps some accumulating snow. One final thing to mention that I’ve been pondering when looking at the data is that the years 1989 and 2005 are showing up as analog years to the weather pattern. Interestingly, both years featured widespread accumulating snow during Thanksgiving week. So, obviously the forecast for next week and the possibility of snow is something that I’m keeping a very close eye on. Weather Outlook For The Month Of December: There are strong signals in the data that suggest the month of December, as a whole, could be a cold month across Western and Central Mass. It is looking increasingly more likely that a big upper level high pressure ridge will set up shop over the western United States and a large upper level trough of low pressure will be in place over the eastern United States throughout December. This sort of weather pattern would lead to well above average temperatures across the western United States and well below average temperatures across the eastern United States. Cold Decembers such as 1963, 1977, 1980, 1995 and 2005 are all showing up as analogs to the potential weather pattern for December. A perusal of the data for those Decembers reveal that temperatures were upwards of 5 to 10 degrees below average across Western and Central Mass. Given what I’m seeing in the data, I have concerns that we will see similar cold that affects our area throughout December. As for snow in December – I do think that December could be a somewhat snowy month and I think that the odds are quite high that there will be a White Christmas this year. My forecast is for total snowfall for the month to range from 10 to 15 inches in the Connecticut River Valley and the Blackstone Valley to 15 to 20 inches or so in the Worcester Hills to upwards of 25 inches of snow possible for the month in the Berkshires. Thank You: As always, I thank you for your continued support. If it were not for you, I would not be able to do a job that I love so very much – forecasting the weather for Western and Central Mass. If you have not done so already, please consider donating to help alleviate the costs required for producing these weather forecasts for Western and Central Mass. Thank you so much in advance!!