Forecast: A Chilly, Raw And Cloudy Day Before Rain Comes

After a very wintry feel to the air on Monday, today will feature thickening clouds and a rather raw afternoon. The morning will be dry, devoid of the snow flurries some saw Monday, and solar glare should be minimal with the clouds.

There are two storms in the offing over the next two days, and there will be a lull between them. Neither event will produce enough precipitation to cause problems nor will either event bring snow.

This morning, it's cold enough for the rain out in Western Mass. — and heading our way later — to start out with a mix of freezing rain. However, it's not extremely likely, and if any freezing rain does occur, it will not last long. There are times when pockets of freezing rain occur in the Hampshire and Franklin counties while then not happening anywhere else.

The morning commute is dry and without any extreme weather. However, a light rain will begin to overspread the region this the evening. It will keep raining through the night, lessening to showers Wednesday before picking back up again.

The rain Wednesday afternoon and overnight will be steady, and there could be a few pockets of heavier rain during the evening commute. The rain ends overnight and then Thursday is a dry, but windy day. Winds along the coast and in the higher elevations could gust near 40 miles per hour. Seasonably cool or mild weather resumes for the end of the week and the weekend.

December is of course the final month of the year, and it’s also our darkest month. We only have a bit more than nine hours of daylight each day, and the sun will set at its earliest times for the next 10 days before gaining a few seconds starting in the middle of the month.

The sunrises continue getting later until early January. The least amount of daylight occurs on the winter solstice, that’s when the time between sunrise and sunset is at its minimum.

You can follow David’s weather updates on Twitter at @growingwisdom.

Today: Raw and cool with thickening clouds and showers developing later in the afternoon. Highs in the low to mid 40s.

Tonight: Rain. Areas of fog. Lows in the upper 30s.

Wednesday: Not as cool, but still damp with rain appearing again in the afternoon and evening. Highs 45-50.

Thursday: Becoming mainly sunny and seasonable. Highs in the 40s.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 47.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 45.