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What Will Your New Year's Eve Weather Be Like?

Dec 29, 2010; 1:26 PM ET

This is my last shift and blog posting for 2010, and I won't be back at my desk until Tuesday. I will be enjoying some long awaited time off for the holiday season. I will be joining fellow blogger (and son), Brian, and his girlfriend for much of the time. I am sure am looking forward to that!

So I thought I would give you some idea of what to expect weather wise for your New Year's Eve festivities. In general it will be just cold and mostly precipitation free in the Western states. There will be a little leftover snow or snow shower activity in the eastern Rockies but nothing like the snow that area will get Thursday and Thursday night. Farther west, the only place that might get precipitation is the area from portions of the Bay Area to southwestern Oregon. Here there could be a little rain. This is not a lock, however, as whether it rains or not will depend on how quickly a small low moves east and south through the eastern Pacific. However, it's about the only place that could get anything this far west.

The cold is what will be most noticeable in all the West. A large cold air mass dominates the Great Basin to the Pacific. You really will have to bundle up anywhere in the Great Basin and Rockies with temperatures as cold as the single digits, both above and below zero, by midnight. Vegas is a big place to be on New Year's Eve, but it will be frosty cold on the Strip for the fireworks. Mostly clear skies will allow temperatures to fall to the middle 30s by midnight. Even along the West Coast in the major cities, it will be chilly. Expect the 40s in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco and at or just below 30 in Seattle and Portland.

From the NAM model, here are the projected temperatures at 10 p.m. Friday night.

I hope every one of you will have a good and safe New Year's Eve. Please remember, if driving, don't drink, not even a little. Make it a good start to 2011, not a tragic one. Write to you all next year!!

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com

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About This Blog

Ken Clark
Ken Clark's Western U.S. weather blog tackles daily weather events with commentary from one of the most experienced and trusted Western U.S. weather experts.

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