Christmas Time is Here! Well... Almost.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas in Raleigh, NC! Today marks the 70th anniversary of the Raleigh Christmas Parade, and there is no shortage of regulars and new attendees for the Parade! The Broughton High School Marching Band is opening the Parade as is tradition, Cary High School Marching Band performs right before Santa Claus, and North Raleigh Christian Academy Marching Knights are holding down the middle of the Parade. This year though we have a new, very large addition to the parade: the larger-than-300-person North Carolina State University Power Sound of the South Marching Band! This will be the first year in the Parade for the Power Sound since the early 1960's!

It's a nice day for a Christmas Parade too! Temperatures start off cold this morning in the mid 20's, rising to about freezing by the beginning of the Parade at 9:40. The high today should be around the low 50's, and conditions will remain sunny and relatively calm throughout the day. Tonight, though clouds will move in later this afternoon, the low will still get down to the mid 30's. If you're sitting at home tonight watching some of the later NCAA football games, it might be a good idea to throw a couple of logs in the fireplace and keep the living room warm!

This is going to have to be a shorter post because I am pressed for time, but I want to bring to everyone's attention the crazy winter weather we have going on around the Great Lakes. This past week a line of Lake Effect Snow blanketed parts of up-state New York between areas just south of Buffalo over to Rochester, as some areas had over 7 feet of snow, 5 of which fell in the first 24 hours of the event. Talk about winter weather. If that amount of snow came to Raleigh, we'd be gridlocked for about 3 weeks. Check out these totals! The areas which say 70+ inches actually received 88 inches of snow!

Right now the Great Lakes region is experiencing a good deal of freezing rain due to the  lake effect moisture and biting cold temperatures. The entire region is under a Freezing Rain Advisory! Keep in touch with your local meteorologists for updated information on these storms.

That's all for now! Have a great weekend!