Tracking Christmas cold, and year’s end warmup

TODAY: Christmas morning is starting cold, but we're as warm as we've been since noon on Thursday by this afternoon. Expect highs in the 20s with a more southerly wind and abundant morning sun. Some extra clouds will find their way into mid-MO by the afternoon, and with them will come a chance at a passing snow shower Sunday night.

TONIGHT: Timing looks to bring arrival of snow shower chances just before midnight, with best chances in the early Monday morning hours. Best snowfall will come east of mid-Missouri, and so therefore best chances of any accumulation will come east of us as well. Temperatures drop into the teens by early Monday.

EXTENDED: Monday morning snow showers will have passed by sunrise for the most part, but some showers near the core of the surface low will likely pass east of HWY 63 around late morning. Currently, most of mid-Missouri will have the chance to pick up a dusting to an inch of snow. Expected totals to the east don't start to increase dramatically until close to the Mississippi River, so most locally should see rather uniformly minimal amounts, with an uptick not expected until the Missouri/Illinois border where the low itself will track. Beyond Monday, the focus is on a warm up, as temperatures climb into the upper 30s on Tuesday, and 50s from Wednesday through Friday. Chances for rain are starting to increase by Thursday as