Unseasonably Warm Stretch Continues into the Christmas Holiday

If you missed out on enjoying the gorgeous weather we saw over the weekend, more is on the way. Temperatures to start out this morning were in the low 30s, which is typically around our average highs for late December. To compare even further, our morning lows on average at this time are in the teens. That should give you a general idea on how the rest of the day will go. There may be some high clouds that float over the region, but highs today will climb into the low 50s under plenty of sunshine. If travel plans are a part of your Monday schedule, it looks like very little is going to slow you down. Today is another one of those days where you need to take advantage of the nice weather at hand. Either head on outdoors, or open the windows and let all that fresh "spring-like" air into your home.

A cold front that is sitting to our northwest is set to pass through the area late this evening into tonight. This frontal boundary will be moisture starved, but is set to switch our surface flow to the northeast. This will help a little bit of moisture filter in off of Lake Michigan and allow for some patchy dense fog to form overnight into Christmas Eve morning. If you have to be out and about for work, or traveling for the holidays, this may slow you down a little bit on our way out. Please be sure to give yourself a few extra minutes during your early-day routine. The fog should let up by the mid to late morning hours.

The forecast for Christmas Eve features a nearly identical forecast to today's, but a few more clouds are going to be likely. Temperatures are going to remain 20° above average for Christmas Eve, and for Christmas Day. That's right, Santa may need to shed his jolly red suit for something a little less warm. Highs into Christmas Day could approach the low to mid 50s under mostly cloudy skies. Not the warmest Christmas on record for the Forest City, but pretty close to it. Despite the cloud cover, dry conditions remain in place as the active jet stream stays well to the north of the Stateline. For those that want a white Christmas, it looks like we will have to wait till next year.