Dec 4: Cold is Here, Snow for Mid Atlantic and South Rain

The cold we've been talking about all week has arrived and lows across the Midwest this morning were in the single digits and even below zero:

Sunrise in Iowa City may have looked warm with the bright sun, but the steam billowing into the sky was a clear indicator to how cold it was. Their low was zero degrees:

That cold air made its way into the Northeast today, with the arctic front kicking up snow showers and triggering snow squall warnings. While not under a warning at the time of the video below, Syracuse was gusting to nearly 40 mph with heavy snow and poor visibility: 

Tomorrow morning, additional record lows are possible from the Midwest to the Northeast:

This cold air will set the stage for some snow across the Mid Atlantic and Southern Appalachians. Generally 1-3" is expected with some locally higher amounts of 3-5" possible in the higher elevations: 

Just south of there, some icing is possible but most amounts look light at this point. Still, it only takes a glaze of ice to make travel treacherous so be sure to check road conditions before you leave in the morning:

This wintry precip will start overnight tonight and be mostly gone by midday on Friday. The below images are a general timeline of what to expect: 

For the Southeast and especially Gulf Coast, rain has been the story for much of the day. The New Orleans skyline from Loyola was blocked by heavy rainfall late this morning:

As of 3 pm on Thursday, some impressive totals have been reported: 

This part of the country has some of the worst drought right now, with the Florida Panhandle and parts of Southwest Georgia in the extreme category:

Additional rainfall through the weekend and into early next week will be impressive and by next week's drought monitor update (every Thursday morning), we will hopefully see some improvement:

The current shot of cold weather will be mostly confined to the Northern tier but next week's shot will get shared all the way to the Southeast: 

For example, look at Birmingham, AL. Monday will be the coldest high with Tuesday morning have the coldest low: