Looks like the coming week will be pretty quiet with temperatures more seasonal than what we had last week and only a slight chance of rain. A disturbance aloft and a surface cool front will be crossing the state Tuesday and Tuesday night. The upper level disturbance does not appear to be very strong so the forcing will be rather weak for the production of precipitation. The surface cool front does not have particularly cold air to work with either so the way things stand now, we will probably only see some light rain or drizzle on Tuesday and that night. Some of the winter weather parameters suggest the possibility of snow as well. But, temperatures in the lowest layer of the atmosphere will be too warm so only rain or perhaps a brief period of a rain/snow mix is expected and therefore no accumulation. Most of us will see at least a brief period of drizzle or sprinkles, but measurable rainfall is not very likely either.
Barring any surprises, that is the only chance we will have for precipitation this coming week. Compared to last week, temperatures will be quite cool, but actually only back to near their seasonal values. The clouds will continue clearing out this evening leaving fair skies, light winds, and a cold start to Monday morning. Lots of sunshine with just some high level cirrus clouds along with light southerly winds will make for a pleasant day on Monday.
Then, that next cool front arrives on Tuesday with southerly winds and cloudy skies keeping temperatures up to start the day and the winds will be shifting back to the NW and becoming gusty after the cool front arrives. Despite the cloudy skies, we should still moderate back into the 50s before the cooler air arrives.
Another weak boundary looks to be arriving by early Friday which will not do much more than shift our winds back to a northerly direction for the day. Light winds and fair skies early Saturday will get us off to a chilly start but southerly winds will return and become rather gusty by Sunday to get a brief warming trend started.
As has been mentioned several times, we continue to monitor the cold air up north but there are still no indications of an arctic outbreak heading our way anytime soon. It still looks like we will continue to get occasional glancing blows for at least the next week or two as the really cold air stays further east.
Of course, that can always change so stay tuned and check back for updates.
Dick Faurot
