A wet, windy ride for Santa! 🎅
Hello everyone! This is Ben Noll checking in with the weekly weather update for the Hudson Valley.
With the big snow storm now in the rear view mirror, many have asked: what’s next? Disruptive winter weather looks unlikely over the next week. If that’s all you wanted to know about, you can go. If not, feel free to read on for the wet, windy, and briefly warm Christmas outlook…
This week will feature several disturbances, starting with the chance for a bit of light snow today, leaving behind little or no accumulation.
A dry day on Monday may give way to some snow showers on Monday night and Tuesday, again with little or no accumulation expected from the festive flakes.
A ridge of high pressure will move in on Wednesday, bringing the pick weather day of the week. Enjoy it, because it will go downhill after that…
On Thursday, a front will gather over the Midwest and Ohio Valley, en route to the Northeast. For the Hudson Valley, a southerly breeze will develop out ahead of the front. This will lead to milder temperatures and hasten the pace of the snow melt. Showers from the front could begin affecting the region by the end of the day before becoming a soaking rain overnight.
Santa’s sleigh will be in for a wet, windy ride on Christmas Eve 🎅 🛷 🌧️
Some of the rain could be heavy early on Christmas morning. With mild temperatures, heavy rain, and melting snow, some ponding of water will be possible on road surfaces.
The departure time of the rain on Christmas Day is currently uncertain, so keep an eye on the forecast if you have plans.
A sharply colder air mass will make its way into the Hudson Valley later on Christmas Day. This will give way to a chilly and breezy but most likely dry weekend.
The weather for the week of the 28th looks variable with some unsettled periods likely. Will 2020 let us off lightly or have one last parting gift? Stay tuned to find out!
Days to slowly get longer
On Monday, we welcome the winter season — the solstice officially takes place at 5:02 am.
On this day, at solar noon, the sun’s direct rays fall at 23.4 degrees south of the equator (called the Tropic of Capricorn). For New Yorkers, this means that the noon sun angle is at its lowest point in the sky of any day of the year.
The Hudson Valley has a day length of about 9 hours and 10 minutes in contrast to the 15 hours and 11 minutes that occur on the summer solstice.
While the arrival of winter and shortest day may remind you that there’s plenty of cold, sometimes snowy, weather to come, there’s a silver lining: the days now start getting longer until summer arrives in June.
Tuesday has a day length of 3 seconds longer. You have to walk before you can run, right? 🙃
I hope you have a merry week 🤗
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