ON LEAVE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE....

With the official start of winter just a week away, temperatures are going up instead of down. In fact, with the mild weather and the overall dryness of the pattern, the next 6-10 days should be one of the best sustained periods of weather in nearly 2 months.

The CPC (Climate Prediction Center) has this for temperature departures the next 6-10 days.

The CFSv2 has this for 10 day departures.

Here's the 10 meteograms for some some select Midwest cities showing highs and lows the next 10 days. Highs are generally 10-20 degrees above normal. The city is shown top center of the meteogram.

Precipitation from the Climate Prediction Center looks like this the next 6-10 days.

The GFS indicates this for total precipitation the next 10 days.

Needless to say, warm dry weather is not good for snow production. Here's the 10 day snowfall forecast off the GFS ending the morning of December 23. It's going to take a Christmas miracle to get a white Christmas this year over much of the central Midwest.

Not much more to say other than the weather (make that winter) is currently on leave until further notice. To be blunt, I hate this type of pattern. Roll weather...TS