Wednesday warms up before rain and winter weather return this week

Today was a nice return to normal January weather across Middle Georgia with sunshine and highs in the upper 50s.

Tomorrow will be our last nice day for a while with partly to mostly cloudy skies and highs in the 60s.

By Thursday a cold front will approach the area (timing right now looks like morning hours) bringing our next chance of rain.

Rain chances will likely hang around for most of the day on Thursday as cold air filters into the area.

This arctic air mass will stick around through the end of the week and lead to the potential for winter weather on Friday.

This whole forecast is very complicated and ever evolving so just hang in there.

This general set up will lead to what we call overrunning, where the cold air that is in place will force warm moist air from the gulf to to slowly overrun that base of dense, cold air.

With this set up it is typical to see clouds, rain, and during winter time freezing rain and sleet.

We are still seeing some pretty big model differences in what to expect for the end of the week.

At this point the best case scenario is what the European Model is showing, which is a quick switch over to wintry mix/freezing rain Friday afternoon.

The European Model is forecasting that the system will quickly move out of the area, clearing by Saturday.

That being said, the American (GFS) model is more aggressive with a freezing rain solution for Friday evening and through the day Saturday.

There is still a while before we will have a better idea for what to expect, but know that freezing rain and ice are possible.

Above is a general map of impacts that are possible through the start of the weekend.

There is some indication that we could see significant ice accumulation, but I will hold off on potential totals until tomorrow.

Unfortunately it doesn’t look like we will see much in the way of snow with this system.

Despite the complicated forecast for the end of the week into Saturday, Sunday is looking like a cold and clearing day.

Another round of showers will be possible as early as Tuesday afternoon.