A Cold, Windy Day Today, Warmer Air on the Way.

As the map on the right illustrates, at least some rain fell across most of the state over the last 24 hours and the more E and SE counties received quite a soaking. The yellow colors indicate 3 inches or more of rainfall. Too bad that could not have been spread out over the entire state, but at least that will put another dent in the drought situation.

Some lingering showers over the more eastern counties this morning will gradually shift on eastward during the day bringing an end to this round of wet weather. In fact, our next chance of rain does not look to be until perhaps during the coming weekend when a weak front looks to be moving into the state.

In the meantime, the cloudy skies and a gusty NW wind up to 30 mph at times will result in steady or falling temperatures for today. Don't be surprised if temperatures are dropping into the upper 30s by the end of the day and of course the wind will make it feel even cooler. The clouds will not be clearing out till after sunrise on Monday, but we should have lots of sunshine by that afternoon. Also, a brisk NW wind through the night tonight will be gradually subsiding on Monday. Bottom line is a pretty chilly day with a low Monday morning in the 20s and an afternoon high only in the upper 40s to near 50.

Tuesday will get off to a clear, cold start with a morning low near the freezing mark but sunny skies and a light northerly wind should allow daytime temperatures to reach near the 60 degree mark. After that, things will be warming up. Wednesday looks to be close to normal with an afternoon high in the lower 60s along with a few clouds in the sky and our winds starting off from the NE but becoming more SE by the end of the day.

Southerly breezes and lots of sunshine will make for some very Spring-like conditions for Thu & Fri with morning lows in the 40s and daytime highs in the 70s.

The coming weekend is a little more uncertain now. The longer range guidance is now suggesting a cool front will be arriving as early as Saturday PM or as late as Sunday PM. The European guidance has the faster solution and the GFS the slower solution with respect to this next frontal boundary. It will probably be several days before this lack of consistency gets sorted out so will go with a slight chance of showers both days and cool things off at least somewhat by Sunday.

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

Dick Faurot