Fickle December

Fountain in my grandparents' backyard.

For a while it may have seemed like it would be another southern December wearing shorts and flip-flops.  The average high temperature for the first four days of the month in Tupelo was 59 degrees!  We reached 65 on the fourth.

Canada has been kind enough to lend us some cold air, though, so morning lows between December 6th and 14th were mostly in the middle 20s and even teens!  We even got to see a few snow flurries on Sunday, the 12th.  It wasn’t enough to build a snow man, but I suppose many of us will take what we can get!  High temperatures that day were in the middle 40s, so the snow just refused to stick around.  (Pun intended.)  But we did plummet to 14 degrees on on the 14th.  And that led us to the 15th….

The picture to the left is from my grandparents’ backyard.  Morning lows around the freezing mark allowed for the fallen precipitation to freeze.  (Hence the term freezing rain.)  Many kids woke up to school being cancelled on the 15th due to the weather conditions–and for good reason.  Several bridges were iced over causing numerous wrecks around North Mississippi and Alabama.  A few people also told me about family members falling while going outside, resulting in a couple of trips to the hospital.  Highs on the 15th and 16th actually got back up to 59 and 60 degrees, respectively, so any icy patches soon melted.

It’s often said that if you don’t like the weather in this area, stick around for a little while.  That holds true to this coming week as we will be on a warming trend.  High pressure will remain over our area tomorrow, allowing daytime highs to reach the upper 40s.  As it moves off to the east, we will see temperatures hit the middle 50s on Monday to even lower 60s on Tuesday!  Just for some perspective, the average high for this time of year is around 42 degrees.

Rain chances do come into play as a cold front comes through the Southeast on Tuesday.  Morning lows will be in the mid 40s, so there is no chance of another freezing rain event!  As high pressure builds back in on Wednesday, we will see cooler temperatures–upper 40s to lower 50s–through the end of the work week.  We will contend with some more chances for rain Friday as a warm front heads our way.  However, a strong cold front will follow behind it sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday.  Though it’s still a week away, it’s not out of the question to forecast some snow flurries Christmas Eve or Day, as daytime highs do not look to budge out of the 40s.  (And I think that’s being generous!)