Dec 19: Outlook for the Holiday Week

We now have a good idea of what the weather will be like across the country for the Holiday Week. First up, the West which has been extremely wet the past 10 days, especially across the Northwest: 

Through Christmas Day, this will be the most active part of the country and California will now get in on the action, with the potential for over a foot of rain in the Sierra and even Southern California with the potential for significant rainfall: 

This will be the result of a true Pineapple express, an atmospheric river that originates in Hawaii, pumping moisture into the Western US: 

This will also lead to beneficial snow for the mountains in the West with many locations having their least snow start to the Winter on record: 

For everyone east of the Rockies, the big story heading into the holiday week will be widespread warmth and even record highs. Everyone outside of perhaps New England will have above average temperatures from Saturday the 20th to Saturday the 27th: 

There will also be the possibility of record highs each day, especially across the Central US. Two of these examples are below, including Christmas Day: 

The good news is that much of the week will be relatively dry with only a couple of weaker systems to track. One of those will spread rain and some snow from Mon night to Tue night: 

This system could also bring just enough snow to make a White Christmas hail mary for parts of New England: 

Remember, the definition of a White Christmas is either 1" of snow on the ground at 7 am Christmas morning or snow falling on Christmas Day. Below is the forecast snow depth for Christmas morning: 

For the week between Dec 27 and Jan 3, the same trend seems to continue with above average temperatures expected: 

No signals for a significant storm outside of additional rain for the West with a signal for below average precipitation across the Eastern US: