DC Weather: Cloudy, cool Friday

Well, start calling me Touchdown Mike because things are looking halfway decent for the Commanders here as we're going to get you through your forecast. Now, let's not write the book yet. There's still some time left in the game, but we'll keep you up to date with what might happen there. In the meantime, let me get you through. You know, we're in a special time here on Fox Local, where we're between your news and some special post-game, hopefully victory post-game, Commander's coverage that we have coming your way here. So, we're in what we call Thomas' Talking Time. And speaking of this, they happen to be kicking an extra point as we speak, and it's up and it's good. So, just like that, we are screaming for joy here in the D.C. region, and we'll hope. That the commanders can hang on for the better part of another minute or so. Let's talk fall temperatures. Let's talk fall colors. Those trees, they actually held on. I mean, it is almost, I mean, essentially now the middle of November. Typically by this time, we are well past peak here in the D.C. region. But we kind of hit a dry stretch and a very... quiet stretch of weather here in the D.C. region. In fact, and this kind of is complicated to say, but between October 17th and today, we've had less than two tenths of an inch of rain, 0.17 inches of rain. That doesn't include what fell this morning. So we'll have to wait on that a little bit here. But that stretch up until today was your driest stretch or top. Four, I believe, is the driest stretch of weather in D.C. history in terms of the middle of October to the middle of November. So usually you have storms this time of year that come across, and I saw that knock all the leaves off the trees, right? Because as pretty as they are, when those leaves start changing colors, they're very weak on the trees. So we've been able to hold on to some decent color here in Washington. I do think this weekend does put an end to that, though, as we're going to see a lot of wind and some very chilly air. across the D.C. region as we head into this upcoming weekend. So we'll get ready for that. I'm going to update you on the drought monitor here. This was last week across the area. And this might actually surprise you. It did get a little worse last week. But here's the updated one. And you'll see it got a little bit better up towards Baltimore and across parts of central Virginia there. They did pick up a little bit more rain than we did late last week. But plenty of dry conditions still across the area. Good news is the drought that we dealt with for much of the second half of the summer and into the early fall. We have seen vast. improvements in that in this area up towards Washington County, Frederick County, Carroll County, over into northern Baltimore, still a moderate drought here. And I have had folks write me from up there that have said, hey, we could really use more rain and much of the area could. I do want to mention, though, that this yellow area abnormally dry is not a drought designation. So officially, D.C., Baltimore, even down through central Virginia, where they had up to, I believe, a level four extreme drought. There are level three extreme drought. At its worst, we have seen vast improvements in those categories here, and we expect that improvement will continue. We'll bubble up and down a little bit here with the drier periods that we've had. However, as we get a little deeper into the fall and through winter and even into early spring, the big El Nino we've been talking about, that typically is pretty wet here in the D.C. region. Temperatures, we have been spoiled for much of this November. In fact, only one single day. The second of this month has had a high temperature that was not even below average. It has had a high temperature that was average, 63 degrees back there on the second. Every other day since then has been above normal here in the D.C. region. So just really, really incredible stuff as far as the temperatures are concerned. Now, today, let's get through what's to watch for first. A passing shower was possible this afternoon and even this evening. Tomorrow, not so much. Earlier guidance was certainly showing the potential for a couple of showers tomorrow here in the D.C. area. Mountain zones, yes. Extreme northern areas near the Mason-Dixon line, yes. I will leave that in the potential forecast for you. Chilly temperatures for everybody, though. But I do think that D.C. stays on the drier side. We're then dry, we're breezy, and we're chilly. through the course of the weekend. So that's something that we're certainly going to keep you informed of. We are looking at our coldest temperatures probably so far this fall, including D.C. likely getting into the. 30s, maybe even middle 30s during some of these overnights that we have coming up. Probably Sunday night into early next week will be when some of our coldest temperatures are. We then moderate. I mean, it won't be as big of a warm-up in terms of 70s, but after you go through a big cool-down like what we're going to have this weekend and into early next week, even middle 60s, which is what we could see later on next week, will feel rather pleasant. Given the cold mornings that we're going to have to that is a live look where we are watching and waiting to see if that National Harbor wheel will light up in Commanders gold and burgundy and gold there to celebrate hopefully a win. The game's not over yet, but we're We're keeping our fingers crossed here at Fox 5. 54 degrees at Reagan National Airport. This is what's going to annoy you the next few days. Those winds will start getting gusty. Dew points already starting to drop. That will continue as the storm system brings in drier air behind it. Big picture showing you that 50s really aren't so bad when you see what's coming our way. 54 D.C. and Richmond now as we pass the 11 o'clock hour. New York City sitting at 50 degrees. 32 Binghamton where guess what? Well, you'll see it in a minute. It is snowing up that far to the north. As we take a peek at Columbus at 41, so is Pittsburgh, 42 at Detroit, Chicago at 39 degrees, Raleigh's at 52, Hatteras 62 degrees, and a little bit of breaking news here at Fox 5, it looks like your commanders are on their way. To victory. So some great news there, Commanders fans. Sadly, I don't think there were any missed field goals tonight, so we'll have to check on that McDonald's offer for you. But 38 Buffalo, 42 Detroit, 39 for Chicago. And look at this wall of blue, right? This invasion of blue Arctic air coming down from Canada. It is early winter, so we're not talking like. Big time extremes in terms of cold air, but certainly the chilliest air of the season so far and hard to believe that a number of our zones have not even hit freezing yet. And yeah, I know it's only the middle of November, but typically we'll get a lot of overnight lows that are right around the freezing mark. D.C.'s average low is in the lower 40s now. And Dulles, usually by the middle to latter part of October, has at least hit the freezing mark. They have not done that yet. Out there at the airport, but I think that finally changes as we. Hit the upcoming weekend here. 52 by the 1 o'clock hour, by 3 o'clock, 49, 47 by 5 a.m. And what you're not seeing there is that the winds will be blowing throughout. So all day tomorrow, all day Saturday, a little bit on Sunday, too, but it'll be improving throughout the course of the day on Sunday, and things will get better and better for us in terms of the winds, but not so much about how things feel until later on next week. Overnight, 42. I do think the showers are pretty much done here in D.C. Don't expect any more rain in. In town, 41 Manassas, 41 Dulles, 39 Martinsburg, Winchester, and Martinsburg. Overnight, Hagerstown down to about 37. Take off, several degrees on a lot of these temperatures. Reason why? Well, that wind chill. And we'll show you that coming up here in just a moment. Wind chill's going to be down just a bit. There's the first freeze statistics that I mentioned, right? D.C. 30-year average gets our first day around freezing kind of in this territory, the 17th of November. Now, Veterans Day is when we did it last year, November 11th last year, November 30th the year after that, November 28th the year before. So D.C. has certainly seen some variability, and you can thank the Potomac River for that. That water really does keep D.C.A., which is literally right on the Potomac where we measure the temperature. That tends to keep it elevated, especially during the overnight hours. landlocked way out there to the west and that typically allows them to cool down much faster than us. Now all of the last three years they've done it behind their seasonal average of October 19th but even last year October 25th years before than October 28th and then November 1st back in 2023 and we still have not done it yet this year so certainly something that we're watching for and And by the way, Breaking news, it has gone final. Your commanders have won a very, very important game tonight against those Giants. We've got a very special postgame coming up for you soon, so please stick around. I'm sure our producer is extremely excited that we get some good news. Commanders win. All happy faces late night here on Fox 5. Snow coming down interior portions of New York. Hello, wintertime. Albany over towards Cortland. New northern portions of Pennsylvania. They're getting some snow here tonight. New York, where your commanders are getting the win done just in time as it looks like some rain is trying to stretch eastward and approach the stadium once again. Lighter amounts, but nonetheless, some more steady rain coming out near the Philadelphia area They're trying to work up towards New York, should make it there. As they head through the next several hours and in New York City, they just might change things over to a touch of snow by early tomorrow morning. Not here in Washington. Mention the snow that's fallen so far. These are radar estimates. They are never going to be perfect and they are usually going to overestimate it a little bit like you see those purples 12 to 16 inches. I doubt it so far, but I could certainly see some approaching maybe nine inches on the highest peaks. In some of these mountains up that way, most of the lower elevations a lot less, but I have seen several images on social media of covered roadways, covered sidewalks of some of these towns here in central portions of New York. So, yeah, signs of winter out there. Even Binghamton's got a little bit of a light coating of snow here this evening, with it still coming down. Big picture showing you this back to the west here. Moisture coming off the Great Lakes. They are, of course, way too early to be ice covered, But there's air. Cold winter-like in some areas, and as that works its way southward across the lakes, it is forced to rise. That causes showers, and those showers run into some of our western-facing slopes out there of the Appalachians, where air is cold enough that even in our highest peaks out to the west, they are seeing it change over to snow. And by the time things are said and done out there, the highest peaks may be three to six inches of snow up that way. Most lowlands, areas under, say, 5,000 or 1,000 feet or so, probably are not going to see all that much out there. For tomorrow, low pressure kind of wraps up and starts pushing off to the east. Some leftover rain showers across portions of New York. As I mentioned before, it may briefly change over in some of those areas. Showers, maybe one or two could pass by the D.C. region or northern zones of the D.C. region, but I think D.C. proper. Probably better odds that we stay dry than not. Temperature's very cool hanging out in the 40s. for the most part during those overnight hours. Highs tomorrow, 51 in town, 52 Quantico, 47 Frederick, 49 for Dulles, 51 degrees out there to the west near Winchester. Here's Futurecast, you'll see New York. Rain showers overnight, and then watch what happens. Well, you know what? Let's celebrate. Let's get over to the Commanders postgame coverage. We'll have that coming up right after the break.