Stepping out the door tonight, one would think it’s the middle of winter with the unseasonably cold temperatures and decent snowpack on the ground, but it’s fall, not even winter.

High temperatures on Thursday didn’t even make it into the 20s. Officially at the Rochester airport, a high of 17 degrees was reported… some 18 degrees below normal for this time of year. In fact, our average low temperature for December 17th is 22 degrees and we didn’t even come close to that. It makes me wonder if this general cold pattern we’ve been stuck in since Fall 2008 will ever come to an end.

Anyways, there really are not any weather headlines to speak of for the next 5-7 days besides the cold weather. Lows Thursday night into Friday morning will be brutal as most locations away from the Lake will be at or below zero degrees.

After a bitterly cold morning on Friday, temperatures will be able to rebound nicely into the mid to upper 20s under mostly sunny skies. Nearly a carbon copy day for Saturday as we’ll continue with the mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid to upper 20s. Clouds roll in for Sunday with a few flurries possible. Again, highs in the mid 20s.

Looking ahead to next week… No warmups anywhere in sight. We won’t warm above the freezing mark until at least next Wednesday. Needless to say, we’re stuck in this arctic airmass for a extended period of time. I suppose the only good news is that there are not any major storms on the radar, just a few lake flurries to contend with from time to time. Stay warm.