Quiet Thanksgiving, Cold Weekend!

Good Morning!

A cloudy start to the day here in the blog area.  Mild readings hang out for awhile longer, so while the holiday looks great, we shuffle the deck a bit for the holiday weekend.  Let me pop the hood and we'll see what we have...

SUMMARY:  Not a whole lot of change from the post yesterday to speak of.  As I write this, we do have some scattered showers coming and going in the blog area, with mainly cloudy skies, though I see some patches of blue sky right outside the window off to the northwest.  We'll stay in this pattern today then it will just be mostly cloudy tonight.

GETAWAY DAY AND TURKEY DAY:  Tomorrow will be the biggest travel day of the year, as everyone takes to the road and in some cases the skies, to be with loved ones for Thanksgiving and the start of the Christmas season.  The forecast to come into or get out of south central Michigan looks good!  Sunshine moves in after lunchtime with a high in the mid 50's.  Rain not expected tomorrow or Thanksgiving Day for that matter, with sunshine and temperatures pushing 60 on tap for Thursday!  The only place you'll have some travel headaches is if your car or plane are bound for the Pacific Northwest, as a strong low is spinning off the coast of Washington and British Columbia, bringing gloomy and stormy weather to that part of the world.  Now, late Thursday here in Michigan, things start to change.  Let's talk about that.

PRECIPITATION:  Early Friday, a low pressure center that's dragging a cold front with it will be sitting in Canada just above Lake Superior.  That low is out ahead of a trough that will be shoveling his way in here hard from the northwest.  As it all gets here, winds turn northwesterly and the door opens for some cold polar air.  The air getting bulldozed east will have been almost 60 degrees, so when the cold front comes in and halves those readings, expect some rain, then as we get down by the freezing mark in the lowest part of the atmosphere, perhaps some light snow.  I don't see much snow out of the deal if we get any, just some flurries, or maybe a dusting to a quarter-inch on the high side.  Let's take a look at the National Weather Service five day forecast:

5 Day Precipitation Forecast

Our precipitation will be mainly in the top half of the Lower Peninsula and the U.P., with flurries or nothing as you work south of I-94.  We get lucky in that while we have a big temperature swing setting up, it doesn't appear that we add a lot of moist air to the mix, otherwise that front would cause more than a few headaches.

The visible satellite shows clouds over the area right now, but there are some breaks here and there, so even though the quick look forecast graphic says overcast, peeks of sun are possible depending where you're at...

Here's a look at the current temperatures in the area:

And this is the forecast for Jackson and surrounding areas including Parma and Hanover-Horton:

Today, mainly cloudy skies, you'll see a peek of sun here and there though, a stray shower can't be ruled out, high 55, winds S calm to 5 MPH.

Tonight, skies clearing, nighttime low near 40 again, south winds stay calm to 5 MPH.

Wednesday, some clouds early, then becoming mostly sunny, continued unseasonably mild, high 57.  Winds variable, calm to 5 MPH.

Wednesday night, mainly clear skies, low around 41, winds variable, calm to 5 MPH.

Thanksgiving Day, give thanks for mostly sunny skies and mild spring-like conditions, temperatures near 58, some spots could post a 60.

Black Friday, changes happen, cloudy skies with a few scattered showers early, then cloudy and cooler, high  46.

Saturday, a mix of clouds and sunshine, sharply cooler, temperatures fall back to a bit below normal, with a high of only 38.

Sunday, skies continue partly sunny, high of 40.

Monday, a mix of clouds and sunshine, seasonable, high 41.

There's a look at your forecast for the next six days, I do hope that you have a great day!  Blessings.