Fishel: Saturday will be best day of next 7

The bitter cold that braced the Triangle abates a bit for Friday and Saturday, then settles back in for the first week of 2018, WRAL Chief Meteorologist Greg Fishel said.

"Saturday will definitely be the best day of the next seven," Fishel said.

Friday will be about 10 degrees warmer than Thursday, with highs in the mid-40s across central North Carolina. By Saturday, temperatures will jump another 10 degrees, into the mid-50s

"But the warmer it gets on Saturday, the more difficult it will be to take what happens on Sunday," Fishel said.

That is when cold air from the west and northwest blasts across the central part of the country, straight into North Carolina. Although skies will be mostly clear Sunday and through New Year's Eve celebrations, the high temperature won't get out of the 30s. It could be as cold as 17 when the acorn drops in downtown Raleigh to ring in 2018.

In Holden Beach, organizers have already canceled the polar plunge scheduled for Monday. They say it will simply be too cold, even for the brave, to take an ocean dip to welcome the new year.

The Triangle forecast stays cold but dry through the holiday Monday, then the jet stream sinks, allowing even colder air to blow in from Canada. As the shape of the flow dips deeper into the south (a "high amplitude pattern" according to Fishel), it creates the chance for a storm to develop off the east coast Wednesday into Thursday.

"The exact location of that storm and how far offshore it forms will go a long way in determining if we get anything substantial," Fishel said, pointing out that the forecast could change by mid-week.

"You know how those things go that far out," Fishel said.