WHITE CHRISTMAS CHANCES, BITTER COLD NEXT WEEK:

It’s been great while it lasted. After 5 straight days of above average temps (including a high of 51 degrees in Valparaiso today!), we’re about to get a dose of reality to end December. Let’s talk temps first…

ARCTIC AIR RETURNS TO THE US:

A large ridge will develop out over the Gulf of Alaska resulting in a large trough over the United States. The result? Arctic air will flood into the US beginning this weekend. Take a look at where the arctic air is late Friday into Saturday:

It begins to flow into the northern US Saturday into Sunday:

Those are high temps not making it to zero in Minnesota. It really starts to make its move into the Midwest and ultimately NW Indiana on Tuesday:

And Wednesday:

And Thursday:

And it doesn’t appear that it will vacate the area anytime soon after that. So those with New Year’s Eve plans may be in for a cold one.

So we’re confident that we’ll have bone-chilling cold around next week–but will we have snow for Christmas? We have two distinct chances for some snow–both of which models don’t agree on–but here they are…

White Christmas Chance #1:

A storm system will move through Friday into Saturday bringing that colder air in. An area of rain or wintry mix looks to develop Friday and depending on how much moisture arrives with this system, and how quickly the cold air moves in, we may see a changeover to snow Friday night into Saturday morning. It could stick. The GFS really wants to give us a white Christmas as of now…

White Christmas Chance #2:

A weak system will slide through the Great Lakes on Christmas Eve Day and into Christmas Eve. We may see some snow showers with this, although the majority of the activity looks to pass to the north.

Beyond Christmas Chances:

Models have been pretty consistent with an area-wide accumulating snow POTENTIAL sometime in the December 27-30th timeframe. Just a heads up! We’ll obviously pass along the latest on ANY snow system. I mean, that’s what we do!