A powerful system will arrive Thursday night into Friday morning, bringing with it strong wind and drenching rain. We will start to see scattered showers late Thursday night, likely by 10 or 11. This will intensify overnight to the most powerful pushing through between 3 a.m. - 6 a.m., bringing the strongest gusts and heaviest rainfall.

At its peak, gusts can blow 40-50 mph and when all is said and done, we could pick up between .75-1.25 inches of rain, leading to isolated street flooding when most of this will fall during a short period of time. Gusts this powerful could pose problems to power and bring down tree limbs.

Plan for extra travel time to work, and if you are trying to travel ahead of the holiday, anticipate lengthy delays. This system will wind down mid-morning and fully pull away from our borough by lunchtime.

Breezy conditions will linger into the evening, but they won't be nearly as powerful as in the morning. The kicker? The wind direction will adjust and will bring frigidly cold air from the north, quickly causing our temperatures to plummet.

Saturday will top out temperature wise in the high 30s , a big change from the 40s and 50s we will have seen Wednesday through Friday.

The weekend looks largely okay for last minute Christmas shopping. Colder for Saturday with a slight warmup for Sunday.

OVERNIGHT: Cold and calm. Overnight temperatures around freezing.

THURSDAY: Morning sun and clouds, late evening showers and storms. Highs in the high 40s, lows in the mid-40s.

FRIDAY: STORM WATCH Morning gusty thunderstorms. Drier and much colder in the second half of the day. Highs in the mid-50s, lows in the higher 20s.

SATURDAY: Big drop in temps. Highs in the high 30s, lows in the low 30s.

SUNDAY: WINTER BEGINS! Clouds and sun. Highs in the high 40s, lows in the low 30s.

MONDAY: Breezy with partly sunny skies. Highs in the high 30s, lows in the high 20s.

TUESDAY: Sunny and breezy. Highs in the high 30s, lows in the low 30s.