Rain continues this evening with record warmth on tap for Christmas Eve

The Met Office’s south west summary reads for Christmas Eve reads: “Today: Heavy rain, accompanied by gusty winds, will clear to the east this morning”. “Freezing levels will steadily drop giving the chance for some mixing or flakes into Thursday morning for the Lower Mainland with temperatures hovering at or just above the freezing mark”, says Sonnenburg.

It’s already the warmest Christmas Eve on record in London, breaking the previous all time high, set on this day in 1964. Numerous major metropolitan areas in the Northeast will likely see some of the warmest Christmas Eves and Christmas Days on record. Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport set a record high of 65 degrees in 1990. Highs will continue to flirt with the records and winds will start to howl but rain chances remain low.

More rain is possible Thursday night, but our thunderstorm threat will begin lessening a bit.

According to the National Weather Service, there may be a chance of showers throughout Thursday evening, but those showers will taper off.

The warmer than usual weather spawned waves of thunderstorms that snapped tree branches in Swansea and knocked down power lines in the Mascoutah area.

More clouds will pass through on Christmas Day but it will stay dry with high temperatures near 50 and a light easterly breeze.

Forecast confidence remains unusually low for this weekend and beyond. Overnight lows will range from the mid 30s to the upper 40s. Sunday warms up again, thanks to a brisk southwest wind, and we may challenge records once again with near-70 degree temperatures to close out the weekend. Colder air moves in on Saturday night and into Sunday.

Tonight… Mostly cloudy, with a low around 11.

Christmas Day brings cooler temperatures, but still keeps us well above average.

Dan Zarrow is the Chief Meteorologist for Townsquare Media New Jersey.