As we head to the end of the year, we have several weather stories to monitor. First up is the West, where much of the region and especially California had to deal with extremely heavy rainfall the past 5 days. Totals have been impressive over much of the state:

Our stations in Ventura County experienced the heavy rain on Christmas Eve with every station receiving over 3″ of rain. The big winner was Ranch Campana High school that received 3.79″ from this storm.

More rain is expected through Saturday but not nearly as heavy as what they saw earlier this week:

The best news from this system is the Sierra snow that has already fallen and the snow that will fall through the weekend. Look at the difference between December 20th and Dec 26th:

Northeast Snow and Freezing Rain

Back across the Eastern US, we turn our attention to a quick moving storm that will bring freezing rain and moderate snow to Pennsylvania and New York. First up the snow will fall in a relatively narrow band across the region but totals will be impressive with 8-12″ possible from Syracuse to Albany, NY and 3-5″ possible for New York City:

South of there across Pennsylvania the story will be freezing rain. High pressure to the north of the storm system will funnel cold air south while warm air is advected north over the cold air. The result is a significant ice storm for the state and even for Western New York:

The storm has already started across the region and will quickly spread wintry precip throughout the day on Friday and end early Saturday. Below is a general timing animation that starts with 1 pm Friday and goes through Saturday 11 am:

This isn’t the only system we have to watch before the New Year. A potent cold front will sweep across the country starting Sunday, bringing snow across the Great Lakes, the potential for more freezing rain across the Northeast and some rain across the Southern part of the storm:

The Great Lakes will get the most snow but it will generally be in th 3-5″ range outside of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan:

Arctic Blast for the end of 2025

As far as temperatures go, many locations had either their warmest Christmas Day on record or a top 5 warmest. Locations setting records included Denver, Charlotte and Greensboro, NC and even Lubbock, TX:

The cold front mentioned above is going to put an end to the extreme warmth we’ve seen over the last several days, sweeping well below average temperatures all the way to Florida:

Lows in the 20s will make it all the way to the Florida panhandle with 30s well into the Peninsula on New Year’s Eve morning:

This cold looks to stick around for the first part of the year as indicated by the 5 day temperature anomaly below for Dec 29 – Jan 3: