Looks like the area will end the year slightly warmer than normal, with daytime temperatures in the 40s and 50s.

According to the National Weather Service, Floyd Countians — after waking up to temperatures in the low 20s this morning — can look forward to a sunny day with a high of 44.

Friday’s high is expected to hit 48 and then rise to 53 Saturday before dropping back into the 40s for highs on Sunday and Monday and down to 36 on New Year’s Eve.

Then the thermometer will start rising a bit as 2014 arrives, hovering the lower 40s for the rest of the week.  Lows for the periods will be in the 20s and 30s.

As always, that outlook could change under certain conditions.

Writes weather guru Kevin Myatt at The Roanoke Times:

Snow lovers are not going to like this. Neither are dreary winter day dislikers. It appears rain is creeping back into Sunday, which had looked dry, as a low-pressure system develops along the Gulf Coast and moves northeastward (0Z GFS depiction at upper left, for Sunday late morning). It would not be bad at all for a snow track — except the cold air departs before it gets here. By the time precipitation arrives, models show no significant below-freezing air any closer than southern Pennsylvania. Temperatures will likely be in the 40s to greet this rain — can’t entirely rule out some mid-upper 30s and maybe some mixed-in sleet to start, but it looks like it would be minimal. There simply is no mechanism in place to hold this cold air in as the moisture approaches. The GFS has been pretty robust with the rain totals of the approaching system. We’ll see how this plays out over the next few days in terms of amounts. I could see some potential for rain to change to snow on the backside of this system — mostly west of I-77 and in West Virginia, as we know well that cold air seldom catches up with a rain shield as far east as Roanoke to change it to snow.

We’ve found that Kevin is correct more often than the “official” forecasts so we will continue to monitor what he has to say.