Plenty Of Wind and Rain, But No Snow For Christmas Day 2009

CLEVELAND -- The weather was frightful on Christmas, but that was because of high winds and heavy rains on Friday in northeast Ohio.

Hopes for our annual 50/50 chance of a white Christmas were dashed when rain moved into the area early Christmas morning.

In the eastern counties of northeast Ohio, the rain started as freezing rain and made roads slippery in spots especially in Portage, Geauga, Lake, Ashtabula and Trumbull Counties.

However by midday, the precipitation was all rain along with gusty winds that prompted a Wind Advisory for much of the area that expired at 8 p.m. Christmas evening.

Cleveland Hopkins Airport recorded .31 inches of rain on Friday.

According to WKYC Meteorologist Betsy Kling, wind gusts peaked at 49 m.p.h. in downtown Cleveland and were above 40 m.p.h. in many areas.

Cleveland's official high temperature reached 46 degrees at 10 p.m. as temperatures rose through the afternoon and evening with warmer air sucked in to the area ahead of a cold front.

Our Christmas morning low was 37 degrees.

Here are Christmas day highs and lows for the past five years:

2008: High of 29, Low 21

2007: High of 38, Low 25

2006: High of 42, Low 32

2005: High of 44, Low 33

2004: High of 18, Low -6

Temperatures will fall early Saturday as a powerful winter storm continues moving eastward and drags cold air into northeast Ohio changing any rain over to snow overnight.

Snow showers will be possible through much of the weekend and into the first part of the week. However, no major accumulations of snowfall are expected at this time.