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Merry Christmas! A cold, but less windy outlook for the holiday

Westerly wind gusts won’t be as strong today and high temperatures hit the 30s

Christmas Day planner (Copyright 2022 by WSLS 10 - All rights reserved.)

ROANOKE, Va. – Merry Christmas! We’ve been dealing with bitter cold this holiday weekend, but Santa has a nice present under the tree for us: a slightly warmer day!

Temperatures this afternoon will still be well below-average, but we’ll take the improvement from Christmas Eve.

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Look for highs in the 30s across much of the region as you’re gathering with family and friends.

Christmas Day high temperatures (Copyright 2022 by WSLS 10 - All rights reserved.)

In addition to the slightly warmer air, we expect the wind to back off some today! Look for sustained winds out of the west at 10 miles per hour, with occasional stronger gusts.

Your Sunday will feature plenty of sunshine, just like Saturday did. We are tracking more clouds by Monday, though.

A quick-moving clipper system is expected to send the clouds our way. There also could be some west slope snow to dodge.

Future Tracker - Monday 4 p.m. (Copyright 2022 by WSLS 10 - All rights reserved.)

Following Monday’s system, we expect the temperatures to warm up for the rest of the final week of 2022.

The jet stream is expected to lift to the north, allowing for more comfortable air to spill to the east. It’s not going to be “warm” or “hot”, but certainly more comfortable than this weekend has been.

Upper air pattern - Thursday (Copyright 2022 by WSLS 10 - All rights reserved.)

Highs are back in the 40s by Tuesday, the 50s by Wednesday and close to 60 by Thursday! For perspective, the average high this time of year is around 48 degrees in Roanoke.

Temperature trend - Next five days (Copyright 2022 by WSLS 10 - All rights reserved.)

We expect to stay dry throughout the upcoming warm-up, but look for showers to potentially return by New Year’s Eve.