Single Digits Possible Tonight!

The last time we approached single digit temperatures was early in January of this year. This morning, many locations had single digit wind chill values as seen on the map to the right. Tonight, the winds will be settling down which will allow for better thermal stratification of the air and therefore colder temperatures.

The wild card for tonight is the possibility of clouds which would act to keep temperatures from totally bottoming out. Right now, it appears that those clouds will not reach our part of the state till around sunrise on Monday. If that is indeed the case, then the normally colder valley locations will see temperatures in the single digits first thing in the morning with lower teens elsewhere.

The cloud deck should be moving on eastward during the day Monday allowing enough afternoon sunshine for temperatures to at least get above freezing. Also, our winds will be returning to a more SE direction during the day, but fortunately will be on the light side and generally less than 10 mph.

Unfortunately, that will not last long as gusty southerly winds will warm us back up by Tuesday and Wednesday, but will also create another high fire danger situation. Another, much weaker cool front will arrive by Wed night with only a slight chance of rain and just a modest cool down extending into the coming weekend.

As always, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot