9:14AM: Happy New Year, everyone! It’s day two of 2026, and it is a quieter start to the year than 2025 ended. There is a little bit of precipitation around Arkansas, as well as mountain snow in the northern Rockies, and ongoing snow in the Great Lakes, but no major headline grabbing features. My most important note for most of you is probably this: It’s Friday, today. I know it is a murky situation for everyone this time of year, the calendar.

11:28PM: A rule of thumb: When the Jacksonville WFO is issuing frost and freeze advisories, try to post something on the website.

9:14PM: Take a look at the HRRR’s latest run. The snow is going to build very quickly from Montana to South Dakota. Head’s up, Pierre, things are going to go downhill pretty rapidly tonight.

9:04PM: Perhaps you have seen the headlines, but south Asia is recovering from a significant flooding event that afflicted parts of at least 5 countries. It started with a slow moving typhoon in the Molucca Strait, and after it moved out of the region, there was a succession of other rain storms that stretched from Sri Lanka to the Philippines. The rain led to flash flooding, and the deaths of over 2000 people across the region. The constant drum beat of news in the US has kept this disaster out of the headlines, but so too has the slow burn of this catastrophe. I encourage you to spend some time reading up on this storm, and sparing a thought for the souls that couldn’t escape.

11:43PM: I don’t know if you caught much NFL action today, but there were some wet and marshy fields out there, and plenty of snowy turf as well. The snow and rain is really tapering off in the New England area, but rain looks like a good bet for Georgia tomorrow.

9:45PM: Lake effect snow is possible on either side of the Great Lakes, we just here about it more frequently to the east of the lakes, because that is the the prevailing direction of air flow in the Northern Hemisphere. Every once in a while, you get a northeasterly wind off of Lake Superior, and you suddenly have heavy lake effect in the Minnesota Arrowhead. The area is bound by a little bit of terrain, so the snow isn’t even showing on radar, and it is seeing some orographic forcing as well. This could be a pretty good dumping.

11:21PM The next system to batter the East Coast is, well, starting to batter! Look at the coverage on this rain!

12:03AM I know this is absolutely at the top of everyone’s mind, but the precipitation has not reached Raleigh before midnight, and I am just now realizing that it hasn’t reached there by 1AM, either. Raleigh is in the eastern time zone. Maybe I should go to bed?

10:10PM The troublemaking system at the end of the holiday weekend is still causing problems. There are winter storm warnings across New England, right up to the coast in New Hampshire and Maine. No waiting around for winter this year.

5:39PM: We await the next system in North Carolina. This one is a very interesting storm, as it is working into a region where the air is already cool, and bringing even colder air further south. It’s only 41 in Raleigh right now. It’s 32 in Little Rock, where sleet is falling at this hour. Is anyone ready?

10:32PM: It’s snowing everywhere in the northern US, generally east of the Rockies. There is more persistent snow in the Plains from South Dakota to Iowa, but also downwind of the Great Lakes. In New England, the amount of snow is limited, but whatever comes is coming with very blustery wind. Drive home safely!

9:12PM: Happy Thanksgiving everyone! If you are planning on returning home from your destination over the weekend, it looks quite a bit dicier than it did getting there. A significant snow fall is coming for the Great Lakes. At least nobody travels through Chicago, right?