It worked out mostly by accident, but today is the beginning of the NBA season, featuring the reigning champions, the LA Lakers, and their star, LeBron James, from Akron. It was meant to be.

At 851PM, ET, Akron was reporting a temperature of 37 degrees with overcast skies. Winds were light across the region, but generally southerly in response to a warm front over the northern Great Lakes right now. The warm front is attached to a rapidly strengthening area of low pressure that promises to ruin the end of the week in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes.
The clouds over Akron right now are chaff found across the Eastern Great Lakes, which will shunt off to the northeast as warm air advances in ahead of the cold front coming through later this week. Wednesday should be warm, but increasingly windy and cloudy, with the front arriving on Christmas Eve, near dawn. It should be warm enough that it will start with rain, with a secondary circulation rising from the Tennessee Valley towards eastern Ohio. This advance will stall the cold air, which will dlay the transition to snow until much later, perhaps until the evening on Christmas Eve.
Tomorrow – Mostly sunny, increasingly windy and cloudy, High 50, Low 32
Christmas Eve – Rain starting early, intensifying and then turning to heavy wet snow around nightfall. 2-4″ by midnight. High

TWC: Tomorrow – Cloudy skies (Late rain). High 51, Low 33
Christmas Eve – Rain early with snow in the afternoon. High 51, Low 27

AW: Tomorrow – Mild with sun through high clouds; breezy in the afternoon (Late RAin) High 50, Low 30
Christmas Eve – Rain mixing with, then changing to snow late, accumulating 1-3 inches; watch for a rapid freeze-up High 47, Low 25

NWS: Tomorrow – Mostly cloudy, High 49, Low 31
Christmas Eve – Rain before 2pm, then rain and snow between 2pm and 4pm, then snow after 4pm. High 46, Low 24

WB: Tomorrow – Mostly cloudy (late rain) High 48, Low 34
Christmas Eve – Rain, Snow in the afternoon. Light snow acumulation, High 49, Low 27

WN: Tomorrow – Mostly cloudy with isolated showers, High 49, Low 31
Christmas Eve – Cloudy with a wintry mix, High 47, Low 39

FIO: Tomorrow – Windy overnight and in the evening. High 50, Low 32
Christmas Eve – Rain (with a chance of 2–4 in. of snow) throughout the day. High 48, Low 22

It’s too bad that the forecast couldn’t come in the midst of wet weather. The NWS has rolled out new radar imagery and I could have used it. Alas, here is a look at Akron, on the cusp of clear skies. Don’t get used to them.