Dreary, Dull, Damp, Dim and Dismal

Thursday 9 a.m.

The morning weather map featured a low pressure area centered north of Lake Superior with a cold front extending south through western Michigan and then southwest past Memphis, Tenn. In the southerly flow of moist air ahead of this system, there is a large area of rain. It was cold enough for ice when rain began in the middle of Pennsylvania (and we even saw some snow outside of AccuWeather's headquarters), but most of the snow from this system will be confined to the mountains from the Adirondacks through the Green and White Mountains and on over to northern Maine.

As this storm heads out to sea, dry air that is still milder than average will promote fine weather in most of the Middle Atlantic states and New England tomorrow and Saturday. For Sunday, a storm variously depicted by the models could bring substantial snow and rain. It has been a week of flip-flops by the models. The problem is a changing assessment of how the upper-air currents supporting the storm interact with another branch of the upper-air flow crossing southern Canada and the northern U.S. In the meantime, this picture shows what kind of afternoon it will be from Washington, D.C., to New York City. I took the picture when my wife and I were visiting our younger son and his wife in Taiwan two years ago.