You often hear people talk about how boring weather forecasting would be in Hawaii. But I would sure prefer Hawaiian weather boredom to this. With all the really cold weather bottled up in Canada, and all the snowstorms happening in the Northwest, and the Great Plains, or in northern New England, we're left with roughly average temperatures and nothing more interesting than the underside of a lot of clouds.

The official forecast suggests we're in for a weekend of rising rain chances and highs near 50 degrees. That's about 5 degrees milder than the long-term average for BWI. No bracing wintry cold. No white Christmas. But no umbrellas in our drinks on the Weatherdeck, either. Just dull and gray.

The most wintry event we're left to think about is a slight risk of slippery driving conditions north and west of the urban centers today where colder temperatures, rain and possibly some sleet may edge east from the mountains.

After some overnight clearing tonight, we may see some sunshine tomorrow. But more significant rain chances develop as the weekend approaches with a weak low out of Tennessee. With it, they say, we'll get low clouds and drizzle Friday night into Saturday. It should stay above freezing, forecasters say. But there's always a caveat: "Will have to watch surface temperatures closely for the possibility of freezing drizzle or freezing rain." Nice.

Another cold front will bring still more rain Saturday and Sunday. Okay, so we need the moisture. It's still gloomy and boring. And lots of people will be traveling.

On the bright side? If you're traveling on Monday the weather does not appear to pose a problem. Christmas Eve looks like it will be sunny during the day, with highs in the mid-40s.  Christmas Day should be mostly sunny, with a high near 43.