Bryan’s Breakdown: Tracking high-impact winter storm late this week; bitter cold Christmas weekend

We’ve seen continued flurries and/or light snow showers as we’ve worked through the day, but some good news, we will turn “off” the snow machine, at least temporarily as we work into the overnight hours and working into the beginning of next week.
Expect scattered flurries to be the rule as we work into the overnight hours tonight. Cold temperatures remain as we drop into the middle 20s heading into Monday morning.
First half of next week
For the beginning of next week, we will keep the clouds in the forecast for Monday through Wednesday.
High temperatures remain in the lower 30s for Monday and into the middle 30s for Tuesday and Wednesday.
We then turn our attention to our first high-impact winter storm that will move into the region as we work into the second half of next week.
High-impact winter storm late next week
The forecast models are tracking an area of low pressure that will work through the Ohio valley and into the great lakes as we head into the end of next week.
The ultimate placement of the low pressure system will dictate the type of precipitation we see for Thursday before colder air moves into the region as we head into the end of the week on Friday.
As of right now, we will bring a wintry mix of snow and rain in the forecast on Thursday as that low-pressure center works off to the north and east.
High temperatures will head for the mid-30s by Thursday afternoon.
As that area of low pressure continues to work off to the east Thursday night into Friday morning, we will take any wintry mix over to snow.
It will also be increasingly breezy on Thursday, with windy conditions expected for the end of the week on Friday as the low-pressure center moves away from the region and colder air starts to move in behind this system.
With the strength of this low-pressure system as it moves off to the east and the northwesterly flow kicking in, bringing in that colder air, we will keep the chance of snow showers and breezy winds in the forecast as we head into Christmas Eve on Saturday.
Some forecast models show wind gusts upwards of 35 to 45 miles an hour possible as we go through the end of the week on Friday and Saturday.
Regarding snow accumulation for the region, it is still too early to tell how much snow will fall with this system through the end of the week and the first half of the weekend.
There is still a great deal of uncertainty in the placement of the low-pressure system.
Where the system tracks will ultimately determine what types of precipitation we see on Thursday into Friday morning, and how much snow we see through the end of the week and in the first half of the weekend.
Over the last 24 hours from Saturday afternoon into Sunday afternoon, models have not changed a whole lot, which means we are beginning to see some consensus, but we still have the finer details to work out.
Currently, the forecast models do not have this system rolling into the United States until Tuesday night, so I think as we go from Tuesday night and into Wednesday, we will start to get a better handle on what this system will do.
Expect changes to this forecast to possibly happen as we go into the first part of next week leading up to this storm.
Christmas weekend forecast
Behind this low-pressure system, heading into the holiday weekend for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we will get some of the coldest air we’ve seen in quite a while.
Expect high temperatures to drop into the teens, with wind chills at or below zero as we go through the weekend.
It will certainly feel like winter as we ring in Christmas next weekend.
We will keep clouds in the forecast on Christmas Day with the winter storm moving east of the area.
We will start off in the single digits for air temperatures and only hit the teens by Christmas afternoon. Wind chills will remain at or below zero as we work through the end of the weekend as well.
Stay with WDIV Local 4 News and the 4Warn Weather Team, we’ll keep you 4Warned as we head throughout the week ahead!