Quiet now, but active weather returns soon

The skies have been cloudy, but the warmup continues around southern West Virginia. Highs today wound up in the mid to upper 40s in most areas, a few degrees warmer than yesterday.

Tonight, there will be some clearing, but the big story will be the mild temperatures, not only tonight, but also tomorrow. Lows tonight will be in the upper 20s and lower 30s, above the normal for the first time in a while. Highs tomorrow will be in the lower to middle 50s ahead of our next storm system.

Tomorrow afternoon and evening, showers will make their way into the state from the west as a low-pressure center passes off to our north. The low will pull some moisture into the region from the Gulf, and this will give us good chances for rain and decent rain totals over the next couple of days.

The precipitation starts as rain, but as the night goes on and the cold front swings through, the rain changes over to snow, starting in the high elevation locations before spreading to most of the region.

With the influx of cold air, temperatures on Friday will stay fairly steady. The cooldown behind the front is only temporary, as the weekend will start with pleasant weather for late December, with highs in the lower 50s and plenty of sunshine. Sunday will be cooler as a moisture-starved front will push through and drop the highs into the lower 40s.

The active weather ends the extended forecast, as a series of disturbances will push into the area beginning Monday evening, giving us another chance for all types of precipitation. Once again, it starts as rain, but this time there will be a small chance for freezing rain on Tuesday morning. Once again, however, most of the precipitation will fall as rain. The final disturbance on Wednesday will feature all rain. The good news with all this moisture is that it will basically end the drought that has plagued some parts of the state for several months now.