Good Thursday, everyone. Much-needed rains have fallen in many areas over the past few days, and we have a lot more in the tank. While scattered showers and storms taper off later today, the next big system is waiting on deck for the upcoming weekend.

Showers and storms are rumbling across areas along and south of Interstate 64 early today and these are putting down very heavy rains. This action sags to the south before finally tapering off this afternoon and early evening.

Here are your Thursday tracking tools…

Friday looks like a really nice day with a mix of sun and clouds and temps in the 60s. This nice weather hangs into the first part of Saturday before our next system rolls out of the Rockies and into the Mississippi Valley. This brings more in the way of showers and thunderstorms sweeping across the state from west to east late Saturday into Sunday…

Gusty winds may reach 35mph at times as the front moves through.

As all of this is happening, we’re watching Hurricane Rafael moving away from Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico…

Rafael is slower and is likely to stay farther south in the Gulf of Mexico. This means Rafael intensifies even more, but may not pose any kind of threat to the US in the foreseeable future. Here’s teh latest information and track forecast from the National Hurricane Center…

cone graphic

The EURO was the only model to show that as an outcome with Rafael, so we have to give it more consideration than other models. Right now, we see the EURO sending another big system into our region by the middle of next week. Showers and thunderstorms sweep through here with a quick-hitting blast of cold behind it…

Notice the hint of some flakes in there by the end of next week? It’s interesting to see that because the ensembles have been showing the chance around that time frame for a while now.

The EURO also says we get a quick-hitting blast of the Barney colors…

The Control run of the EURO Ensembles is essentially a continuation of the operational EURO, but it just goes out deeper in time. The control keeps some troughs sweeping through the east past the middle of the month…

The Control run of the EURO Weeklies takes us all the way through December 19th and shows blocking going up across Canada with lower heights underneath across the US. This is the 30 day average ending on December 19…

To be fair, a lot of other guidance isn’t nearly as good looking for winter weather lovers, so you had better hope that’s on to something. I will add that a few of my analog years had some really nice winter Decembers around here. A few.

Enjoy your Thursday and take care.