Christmas Day will be gray and dreary across much of the United States, presenting hazardous travel conditions in many areas.
Areas in the northeast will see temperatures reaching the 40's and 50's, melting snow and ice. Combined with rain, this release of water could cause localized flooding across the region. Nearly two inches of rain is expected to fall in Nassau and Suffolk Counties in New York from December 25 to Christmas Day. On the day before the holiday, flights at LaGuardia, Kennedy, and Long Island MacArthur airports in New York were delayed by up to 15 minutes due to the precipitation. Flight delays could extend through the northeast and Midwestern states through Christmas Day, meteorologists report. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is advising travelers to check with airlines before flights, to check on the latest delays.
Skies on Christmas Day are expected to start cloudy, with clearing starting later on, in most areas of the northeast.
Snow is predicted to fall in regions surrounding the Great Lakes, starting as rain before turning into snow from Michigan to Missouri on Christmas Eve. The Great Basin and Rocky Mountains are predicted to see significant amounts of snow over the two-day period.
"A broad area of steady rain is expected from Florida to New England, with the heaviest rainfall occurring south of the Virginia state line. The Southeast states will also have some strong to severe thunderstorms ahead of the cold front," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials reported on their Web site.
The soggy conditions are driven by a complex storm system over the eastern United States. This system is forecast to drive low pressure from the Gulf of Mexico into the Great Lakes on Christmas Eve.
This severe holiday weather has attracted the attention of NASA, which is studying the weather systems from satellites.
Tornadoes were seen in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia on December 23. Systems spawning the tornadoes were tracked by the Geostationary Satellite Server (Goes) observatory, operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The ISS-RapidScat instrument aboard the International Space Station was utilized to measure wind speeds within the system.
"In addition to RapidScat imagery, NASA created an animation of visible and infrared satellite data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite that showed the development and movement of the weather system that spawned tornadoes affecting the Gulf Coast of the U.S. on Dec. 23 and early Dec. 24," NASA officials reported.
A white Christmas is expected from Washington state into the Great Plains, as widespread snow showers cover the region with frozen precipitation.
