Mother Nature remains temperamental, as a weekend warmup and chance for rain will lead into another blast of arctic air next week.

Weekend Weather Headlines 20160108
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Here are your weather headlines for Friday, January 8, 2015...

Showers Tonight

It's been a week full of cold mornings and gradually warming afternoons, and we'll close it out with quiet weather today. Frankly, if you liked Thursday's weather, you'll like the daytime hours on Friday as well.

Skies will be mostly cloudy and our weather stays dry and quiet for your Friday. Most temperatures this morning have stayed above the freezing mark. Highs this afternoon are expected to range from the mid 40s in North Jersey to the lower 50s in South Jersey.

Starting this evening around 7 p.m. we will add a chance for some showers and sprinkles to the forecast. This precipitation is going to be almost exclusively rain for New Jersey (if anything at all - this morning's models showed a pretty dry night). However, as temperatures fall to about the 31 or 32 degree mark in far North Jersey, some light icing is possible. The National Weather Service issued a Winter Weather Advisory for Sussex and Western Passaic counties from 7 p.m. Friday night through 10 a.m. Saturday morning. I am a bit surprised - tonight's rain/mix looks totally unimpressive, and the risk for snow/ice will be quite low and limited.

Warm & Wet Sunday

Our warmup continues through this weekend, with widespread 50s expected on thermometers on Saturday. We'll see cloudy skies and a light breeze. There's a chance of some more light rain throughout the day Saturday, but I'm leaning toward a dry forecast.

Early Sunday, our next storm system pushes up from the south, bringing with it some very warm air. A period of steady and even heavy rain is likely through Sunday morning, potentially lasting through part of the afternoon. A few rumbles of thunder will be possible too. Amidst the raindrops, highs will climb into the lower to mid 60s for most of the Garden State... near-record! Winds will become brisk, sustained up to 25 mph with gusts to 40 mph.

Arctic Chill Returns

Don't get used to Sunday's warmth though... The arctic air machine gets fired up again by the time you wake up Monday morning.

Monday afternoon, temperatures will be limited to the chilly 30s - about 25 degrees colder than the day before. Additionally, the brisk wind continues, so the wind chill ("feels like") temperatures will likely stay in the 20s all day. Oh yeah, it's going to feel like January again!

Temperatures should moderate a bit on Tuesday, pushing into the seasonable lower 40s. Again, a brisk wind will add a bite to that cold air.

Wednesday morning, our weather gets interesting. As we get clipped by a storm system, some "precipitation" is expected to fall between about 1 a.m. and Noon on Wednesday. With low temperatures hovering right around the lower 30s, some snow is a possibility here. It's still not a sure bet - temperatures are going to be very close to the freezing mark, and the intensity of the precipitation will dictate whether we see reduced visibilities, snow accumulation, travel issues, etc. Models show anywhere from 0.3" (south) to 2.0" (north) of snow is possible.

Wednesday's potential wintry weather will NOT be "the big one", but it's significant as it could be our first widespread snowfall of the season. Again, five days in advance, it's important to take this forecast with a very large grain of salt. We will continue to keep you updated through the weekend and early next week.

Dan Zarrow is the Chief Meteorologist for Townsquare Media New Jersey. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter for the latest forecast and realtime weather updates.

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