Wednesday November 26, 2008 at 11:03 am Thanksgiving Weekend Forecast

The forecast is always extra important on holidays, but the Thanksgiving forecast is especially significant due to the high number of travelers. Last week was particularly cold with high temperatures not exceeding 47 degrees, and four days had highs of 40 degrees or colder. The rest of this week and the upcoming holiday weekend will be different.

Our weather pattern shifted to allow warmer air into our area compared to last week, but we are still running below average in terms of high temperatures. High temperatures have been below average since November 14th, but we should be at or very close to average over the holiday weekend. Abundant sunshine is expected on Thanksgiving with high temperatures near and in the lower 50s across the greater Washington area. A weak cold front will move through our region on Friday, and this introduces a slight chance of a few showers. Rain showers, that is. If we happen to see rain, it will be very isolated and accumulations minimal (less than 0.10"), so it shouldn't interfere with travel. Extra clouds should be the main result of this front.

Despite the passage of the cold front, no big drop in temperatures is anticipated. This front won't be like the fronts we saw last week. Instead, we are expecting the winds to shift a bit and temperatures to remain near 50 degrees for highs with morning lows near freezing Friday through Sunday. However, late Sunday an into early next week our weather pattern should shift again.

This shift in our weather pattern could be conducive to the formation of coastal lows, and these storms in particular pose their own forecasting challenges this time of year. Timing, developing, path and precipitation type are some of the challenges, so there remains much uncertainty at this time. Though as of now, we are expecting the chance of rain late Sunday and into Monday. Another chance of precipitation comes on Tuesday.