White Christmas forecast: Outlook not so good

Our next weathermaker is poised to deliver heavy rain, but no snow. We're right in the bullseye for the heaviest rainfall, with 4+ inches projected for parts of Southeast Missouri.

The computer models have been trending much warmer with this system, squashing the speculation that this could be a rain-changing-to-snow scenario that would deliver enough white stuff to last until Christmas.

That now appears unlikely, and would require the system to make a drastic shift to the south. Stranger things have happened (see: Blizzard of '79), but the prospects for a White Christmas at this point are not great.