Mild conditions persist on the Winter Solstice and beyond

Today marks the winter solstice: the shortest day of the year, and the official start to astronomical winter! Despite "winter" bringing images of cooler weather and more precipitation, neither of those are true for the Coachella Valley this weekend! It's pleasant and mild as Christmas draws closer.

Over the past few days, Palm Springs has broken and tied several heat records. We set new record highs on Wednesday and Thursday at 85°F and tied a record on Friday at 82°F. We were just shy of tying Saturday's record, but our highs will stay well above average for the next couple of days.

The entirety of the United States is expecting significantly warmer than normal temperatures in the next 6-10 days. There's plenty of deep red colors when we look at our temperature outlook, which, of course, includes the Southern California region.

Our temperatures drop slightly tomorrow, but highs are expected in the 80s again for Monday. A low pressure system could bring breezier and wetter weather for places closer to the coast; it means some slight cooling for us on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day looks to be one of the cooler days this week, but it looks like Santa will leave behind a warming trend for us as we head into next weekend!

A small fun fact: this is only the fifth time since 1900 that Hanukkah has fallen on Christmas Day!