Aside from frigid air and isolated corridors of snow and showers, today will end the workweek on a calm note.
We can thank the intense arctic air mass over the nation for the clear and dry skies. As it settles in, so does its high pressure, fighting off most storm development. Remnant lake moisture will fall as flurries in parts of the Great Lakes and Appalachia, although some of western New York might tread through a few inches of snow under slightly heftier snowfall. Over in the Rockies, any remnant light snow showers or flurries in Colorado and western Kansas are set to taper off by tonight.
The most troublesome weather will drape over the Pacific Northwest ahead of a warm front, hitting heaviest late this afternoon and tonight. Western Washington and the Cascades will observe moderate to heavy rainfall most of the day, with mixed precipitation and snow with increasing elevation. Western Oregon will see rainfall starting in the afternoon, folks in the valleys and Puget Sound can expect lighter showers.
Aside from a few scattered, light showers in southern Texas and Key West at the edge of the massive high pressure system, the vast majority of the nation will keep to dry grounds. The high pressure system in the eastern two-thirds of the nation, however, is weakening as compared to earlier this week, spurring on higher temperatures toward the weekend.
Stay vigilantly well-dressed and well-equipped for a still feisty bite of frost though. Most of the U.S., save for the tallest peaks of the Northeast, will break above zero degrees. High temperatures in the single digits and through the tens zap warmth out of the Northeast and higher Appalachia. Twenties to just below freezing will be more the scene for some Rocky peaks, the Low Plains, the Midwest, and the Mid-Atlantic.
Temperatures break above freezing into the 30s and 40s in the Deep South, the High Plains, and the western mid-elevations, while 40s and 50s litter the Intermountain West, Pacific Northwest, and central Florida. More temperate 60s and even 70s heat low-lying areas in California and the Desert Southwest.
