Winter arrives officially about noon on Saturday (Dec. 21), and at that time much of Central and South Jersey and the Jersey Shore will see temperatures in the mid-60s.
The warm weather will continue on Sunday with a high temperature that could reach 70 degrees.
Record highs of 63 degrees on Saturday and 65 degrees on Sunday could both be surpassed on the mainland, where temperatures are expected to be 5 to 10 degrees higher than on the Shore.
Clouds will dominate both days, but rain is not likely until Sunday evening as a cold front approaches.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (Tuesday and Wednesday) are expected to be sunny with high temperatures near 40 degrees — bringing no chance of a white Christmas.
A weather station in Atlantic County has seen 3.3 inches of snow so far in December (the average for December is 3.7 inches) and mean temperatures have been about 1.7 degrees below normal to date.
For many beach lovers, the winter solstice on Saturday marks the start of the countdown to summer. From here on, the days will get longer until the arrival of their favorite season.
For the record, it's 182 days until summer. And for those who count down to the start of the traditional summer season on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, the countdown is a mere 154 days.
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