The National Weather Service has released its December outlook for temperatures & precipitation.  For our area, it translates to above normal temperatures and near normal precipitation.  [Clicking on the links will show maps of the outlooks]

This does not mean it will not be cold.  (In fact, current computer models suggest that December will open up on a chilly note.)  It just means when the month is totalled up and averaged, the result will be above our climatological normal.  We will still have some cold days, but some milder days will outnumber them.  Normal precip for December is 2.64″ (rain and melted down frozen precip), and the normal snowfall is 8.3″

This does line up with a previous post about the winter ahead.  During El Nino winters (and this is one of them), the winter usually averages out to have above normal temps and near or slightly below normal precip.

There will be some scattered showers throughout parts of today through Friday morning.  It will be cold enough late Thursday evening into Friday morning for a few wet snowflakes to mix in.  We should not see any problems locally for travel, other than some wet roads.  Extreme NW Pennsylvania may get a light snow accumulation Friday morning.

It  looks like a change in the jet stream will allow a storm to dip south from Canada and affect us during the middle of next week.

We will see some rainfall Tuesday into Wednesday.  Colder air will filter into the area, and highs will struggle to get out of the lower 40s for the end of next week.

The biggest concern with holiday travel at this point would just be some rain (and wet roads) Wednesday.   Ground and road temps are still quite mild, so there is no threat any icing or anything like that Wednesday.

  The latest news from Columbia Gas of Ohio:

Columbia Gas of Ohio filed its Gas Cost Recovery (GCR) adjustment for December with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO). The GCR of 49 cents per 100 cubic feet (Ccf) of natural gas will be 70 cents, or 59 percent, lower than December 2008, when it was $1.19.

The typical residential customer using 114 Ccf of natural gas would see a December bill of $92.43, according to company estimates. That bill is down $77.80 compared to December 2008, when it was $170.23.

Next month’s GCR is the second-lowest heating-season gas cost charge in the last eight years. It was 48 cents in the November 2001 through January 2002 quarter.

December is the fourth-highest gas usage month of the year for Columbia’s residential heating customers, and is typically one of the months when bills are highest.

Natural gas costs make up about 60 percent of the typical residential customer’s bill.

This year’s Leonids meteor shower peaks on Tuesday, Nov. 17. If forecasters are correct, the shower should produce a mild but pretty sprinkling of meteors over North America followed by a more intense outburst over Asia. The phase of the moon will be new — setting the stage for what could be one of the best Leonid showers in years.

“We’re predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia,” says Bill Cooke of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “Our forecast is in good accord with independent theoretical work by other astronomers.”

Leonids are bits of debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Every 33 years the comet visits the inner solar system and leaves a stream of dusty debris in its wake. Many of these streams have drifted across the November portion of Earth’s orbit. Whenever our planet hits one, meteors appear to be flying out of the constellation Leo.

“We can predict when Earth will cross a debris stream with pretty good accuracy,” says Cooke. “The intensity of the display is less certain, though, because we don’t know how much debris is in each stream.”

Skies will be partly to mostly cloudy, so viewing potential may be greatly limited in our area.

To see an animation of the meteor exploding, click here.

Source:  NASA

LIVE CHAT:  A scientist from NASA will host a live web chat from 4 to 5 pm this evening (Monday Nov 16).  He will answer questions about the Leonids meteor showers.  To participate, check out www.nasa.gov.  There will be a section to click on to join the chat.

Here is a link that will show — by state and city — when the International Space Station and the shuttle Atlantis are visible.

Here is a link detailing how to view the ISS and shuttle.

The spare parts delivered to the International Space Station by Atlantis during the STS-129 mission will mean spare years on the station’s life once the space shuttle fleet is retired.

With only one U.S. module left to deliver, the Space Shuttle Program is turning its attention to helping the space station build up a store of replacement parts. There are only half a dozen flights left in the shuttle’s manifest before they stop flying, and as the only vehicle large enough to carry many of the big pieces of equipment into space, several of the flights are devoted to the task. This is the first, however, and as the first this mission is dedicated to taking up the spares of the highest priority.

NASA isn’t nearly done investing in the station, however, and the agenda of Atlantis’ crew makes that clear. In addition to the complex robotics work required to get the spares into place, there are three spacewalks scheduled to go on outside and a complicated rewiring project planned for the crew inside.

However, even with the shuttle crew at the station, resources aren’t unlimited.  But unlike the other space shuttles, Atlantis wasn’t outfitted with the system that allows shuttles to draw power from the space station. That means that where recent station assembly missions have lasted up to 17 days, Atlantis has only 11 to get to the station and back.

Source:  NASA

0.02″    November precip so far  (1.30″ below normal)

0.00″    Snowfall  (1″ below normal)

Yes…by this point in November, climatologically, we should have had a little snow by now.

A major rock slide occurred in extreme southeast Tennessee yesterday.   It was the second rock slide of the day, and will take about one week to clean up.  The debris is covering Highway 64, which  is now closed.

Here is a link to a news report and some video.

Our normal high for this point of November is around 50°, but temps look like they will stay above normal into much of next week.

As mentioned in a blog post below, a mild November is quite common following a very cool October.