Windy and Colder.

As you can see from the minimum temperature map on the right, our day is starting off very mild once again as we would normally be at or below freezing for an overnight low. The colder air behind a stronger cold front is just now moving into the NW counties on the heels of gusty northerly winds. That will keep temperatures fairly steady through the morning hours until the much colder air settles in later this afternoon through the evening and overnight hours.

Notice also how warm the extreme SE counties were this morning. That is the most likely place that some storms could develop as the front surges through that area during the day. For the rest of us, there remains a chance for some patchy light rain or drizzle at times today, but it will be very light. Also, as the colder air at the surface and aloft moves in overnight, there could be a brief wintry mix of sleet/snow with at most a light dusting if even that. Therefore no travel problems are anticipated.

However, the combination of colder conditions and gusty northerly winds will bring wind chill values down into the 20s by this evening and perhaps into the teens by early Monday morning. This will easily be the coldest so far this season with morning lows in the low-mid 20s to start the day Monday, wind chill values in the teens and perhaps even some single digits, and daytime highs only in the 30s for Monday afternoon. At least we will have lots of sunshine on Monday.

Those gusty northerly winds will be subsiding by Monday evening with light winds, clear skies and the cold surface high pressure ridge sitting on top of us that night. That all adds up to Tuesday morning likely seeing temperatures in the teens which will be the coldest we have been since back in the middle of February.

After that, a gradual warming trend sets up with sunny skies and light southerly winds returning Tuesday afternoon and gusty southerly winds by later in the week. Another system looks to be moving across the state by late Friday or Friday night, but most of the rain with it will likely also be well east of us and will only carry a slight chance of showers at this time. Also, the air behind this system does not look to be very cool and with a more westerly wind component temperatures will not cool off much and may even be a bit warmer behind it.

Perhaps more importantly, our prospects for any significant moisture with this system or any others that look to be headed our way in the foreseeable future continue to be rather dim. Keep in mind, the winter months are typically our driest time of the year anyway, so the ongoing drought situation is not likely to see any improvement any time soon.

In the meantime, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot