A series of strong storm systems will begin to pound the northwest through the weekend bringing potentially 6" to 12" of rainfall along the coast, heavy snowfall in higher elevations, wind and cold lasting through Sunday. As a trough, or dip, in the jet stream continues to strengthen a ridge of high pressure will build over the middle of the country. This will allow unseasonably warm air to lift north into Midwest this weekend. With the warmth, however, will come the threat for added cloud cover and fog. Moisture will lift north from the Gulf of Mexico along the western edge of another ridge of high pressure in the southeast. As this moisture lifts into Illinois and Wisconsin it's possible it may interact with a few frontal boundaries that will lay draped across the Stateline. Looking at some of our ensemble forecasts through the weekend they do point to a very mild air mass in place by the beginning of next week. If clouds or fog are not as thick as I anticipate them to be it's likely temperatures Sunday and Monday will top 60° making for a very warm start to December.
The next question: Will we break any record high temperatures this weekend? The answer to that is...unlikely. Record highs for Saturday through Monday are in the middle 60's. Without a substantial amount of sunshine reaching those numbers will be hard to do but if more sunshine peeks through Sunday and Monday it's possible we could get close.
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