Sunny, warm day expected on Thanksgiving

Right now, it looks like the heaviest rain and most hard travel conditions, in our area anyway, will be Thursday night into Friday morning.

High pressure firmly in place will bring warm sunshine. Temperatures will slowly climb back to the 70s Wednesday afternoon, then around 80 degrees on Thanksgiving Day. However, most of that rain will remain concentrated over northwestern sections of the viewing area Saturday before moving south and east Saturday night.

Wednesday is a dry and milder day for the region. “Temperatures may struggle to rise above 40 degrees for the lowlands, with wind chills dipping into the teens and 20s for many”, wrote the NWS meteorologist. Heavy rainfall with lightning is expected for Thursday night into Saturday afternoon.

For the meteorological fall of September through November, Madison has had 11.50 inches of precipitation, 4.12 inches above normal, and 34.29 inches since January 1, 2.09 inches above normal.

Thanksgiving Day features an even greater warm-up with morning temperatures in the 60s and highs in the upper 70s.

Those traveling around the Minneapolis area on Thanksgiving Day may have to deal with up to 3 inches of snow throughout the day. The overall pattern will keep storm systems away from the southeastern states, and our next chance for rain will not come around until late in the weekend.

Heavy rain is expected again Friday with a high of 54 during the day.

This morning was a bit warmer, but still below freezing.

Mt. Hood Meadows will be open for holiday skiing Friday through Sunday, according to a news release issued by the resort Tuesday. Usually this happens in January and early February.

Colder air continues in the eastern part of the country, including Florida, today. Since this data is the outlier of the solutions, we have ignored the model for this system.

If you are staying in town this week, chilly weather continues for us Tuesday morning.