A sunny but chilly Monday and a wet Tuesday

Welcome to December, where average daily high temperatures start the month in the upper 50s and drop to 50º by month's end. Those readings sound warm compared to what this week will feature in Mecklenburg County. Today - Monday - local thermometers will climb from near the freezing mark only into the upper 40s under sunny skies, accompanied by a northerly breeze.

A cold front slipped across the county just before midnight and has pushed just off the Gulf and East Coasts this morning. Behind it cooler than average air reoccupied our region of the nation. That same boundary will stall out as a couple "wrinkles" of low pressure form along it later today into the evening hours. Those low pressure centers will ride northeastward along the old boundary, bringing abundant moisture with them. 

Clouds will thus return to the area this evening, with rain breaking out during the wee hours Tuesday morning. This round of precipitation will be wetter than the past couple of weak events, with forecast rain totals looking like this:

The bulk of the rain will occur by lunchtime tomorrow, tapering off by late afternoon. Local thermometer readings under the cloud deck Tuesday will struggle to reach the mid-40s. The clouds will clear away tomorrow night, allowing temperatures to plummet into the mid-20s by dawn Wednesday.

Another round of precipitation is expected late Friday into Saturday. At the moment the current weather pattern is looking both cooler and wetter than recent weeks.