Live Weather Updates from CWG’s Twitter Feed. Refresh page for latest.

Today: Partly to mostly sunny. Mid-to-upper 50s. | Tonight: Mostly clear. Mid-30s to low 40s. | Tomorrow: Increasing clouds. Chance of showers late. Near 50 to low 50s. | A Look Ahead | Get Express Forecast by E-mail

A somewhat subjective rating of the day’s weather, on a scale of 0 to 10


Try to get out for a bit. Plenty of sun and temps well into 50s make for nicest, warmest day we’ll see for a while. Get the Digit on Twitter | Discuss on Facebook

December in D.C. is running just over seven degrees above normal so far, and today’s highs well into the 50s will only increase that number. Today is a good day to get outside and enjoy the relative warmth. Because while we don’t see a deep freeze in the immediate future, temperatures do slip a little tomorrow, and then a showery cold front late Thursday sends them down to seasonal levels Friday through the weekend. Gusty winds accompany the temperature drop, meaning wind chills in the 30s.

Today (Wednesday): A bit of a breeze from the west-northwest keeps us on the mild side once again. Highs should make the mid-to-upper 50s with partly to mostly sunny skies, and no threat of rain or annoying fog. Enjoy it, because this will probably be the warmest day we see for a while. Confidence: High

Tonight: Mostly clear skies should stay that way most of the night, maybe giving way to increasing clouds toward morning. Lows should bottom mainly in the mid-30s to low 40s (suburbs to city). Confidence: High

For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend...

Behind a so-called cold front, temperatures surged into the low 60s today, more than 15 degrees above normal in most spots. Clearing skies tonight allow it to cool off quite a bit, but with abundant sunshine tomorrow and a notable lack of cold air in the eastern U.S., we bounce right back well into the 50s.

Through Tonight: We’ll have some partial cloud cover as well a breeze this evening, but eventually skies clear and winds diminish. That allows the atmosphere to vent some of the mild air into space, with chilly lows near freezing in the colder suburbs and upper 30s downtown.

Wednesday: High pressure overhead gives us mostly sunny skies and mild temperatures. Temperatures climb into the mid- to maybe upper 50s, with light winds from a westerly direction.

See Matt Rogers’ forecast through the weekend. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock.

Simulation showing cold fron through the region Friday morning at 7 a.m. with perhaps a few snow flurries north and west of D.C. (National Weather Service) We’re now a week from Christmas Day - within the range models begin to have some accuracy and the details of weather systems start to take shape. Yesterday, we said White Christmas odds were down. Today we can’t quite say they’re out.

Cold air bursts into the region Thursday night and someone - mainly west and north of the beltway - could see a snow flurry into early Friday morning. But that snow - for sure - won’t stick around until Christmas.

As we’ve discusssed for some time, much of Friday through Monday will be mostly dry in the immediate Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metro regions.

Could falling off the fiscal cliff harm weather forecasts? The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) projects related budget cuts at NOAA and NASA would lead to thousands of lost jobs and jeopardize satellite systems critical to weather prediction.

The job losses, 20,500 tied to NASA and 2,500 to NOAA (for all aerospace activities), would stem from an 8.2 percent “sequestration” cut across the two agencies mandated under the Budget Control Act of 2011 according to the AIA report released last week.

Related: The Fiscal Cliff and spending cuts (Wonk Blog)

One thousand jobs supporting NOAA’s weather satellite programs in the public and private sectors would be lost, the AIA report predicts.

Temperature difference from average in November around the globe. Blue shades are cooler than average, red shades warmer. Via NOAA: “....most areas of the world experienced higher-than-average monthly temperatures, including far eastern Russia, Australia, the central and western United States, northern Africa, and most of Europe and western Asia. Meanwhile, central Asia, Alaska, much of western and central Canada, and the eastern United States were most notably cooler than average.” (NOAA)

November 2012 is the latest in a seemingly endless streak of warmer than average months around the globe. We are one third of the way to 1,000 straight warm months.

The November temperature was 1.21 degrees above the 20th century average, the 5th warmest since records began in 1880.

Here are some other interesting stats from NOAA’s latest State of the Climate report released Wednesday:

* 10 of the warmest Novembers have occurred in the past 12 years

* the 10 coolest Novembers on record all occurred prior to 1920

* November 2012 marks the 36th consecutive warmer than average November

* The September-November period ranked second warmest on record.