You might have to pull those sweaters out of closet before week’s end

Winter is technically Dec. 21 through March 20, but meteorologists go by a different calendar that says winter is already here.

“For example, when we talk about a winter being the coldest in four years, we are talking Dec. 1 through Feb. 28,” said Stephen Shiveley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Ruskin.

By meteorological standards, winter 2017-18 is right on time because temperatures from the mid-40s in the morning to the mid-60s in the afternoon are predicted to hit Manatee County on Saturday and Sunday, Shiveley said.

“A cold front in the Montana and Idaho area is just getting its act together,” Shiveley said.

Although Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will bring more of the mild, dry and sunny days Manatee County has been experiencing with mornings in the upper 60s and afternoons in the low 80s, Thursday will dawn in the mid-60s and cloudy as the front approaches and Thursday’s afternoon warmup will only be into the 70s, Shiveley added.

On Friday, the front will actually push through Manatee County, bringing mid-50s morning temperatures and highs in the low 60s along with heavy cloud cover and a 50 percent chance of rain, Shiveley said.

Once the insulating cloud cover is gone, it looks to be sweater weather.

“Big changes will arrive by the end of the week as the pattern across the country changes drastically,” according to Josh Linker, a Bay News 9 meteorologist. “Very cold air will shift into the eastern half of the country and include the Southeast and Florida. By the end of the week and next weekend temperatures will struggle to get much warmer than the low 60s.”

Shiveley predicts temperatures Saturday and Sunday in the mid-40s inland and mid-50s on the coast with highs only in the mid-60s.

Although it’s still too early to tell, this winter has a chance to be slightly warmer and drier overall due to La Niña conditions, Shiveley said.

This story was originally published December 3, 2017 at 4:59 PM with the headline "You might have to pull those sweaters out of closet before week’s end."