Warmer Sunday and Monday.

After a few brief snow flurries early this morning over the extreme E counties and a cold morning start, we expect enough sunshine for daytime highs to at least reach the mid 40s this afternoon. Although there will be a few clouds around from time to time during the day, generally fair skies are expected tonight and mostly sunny skies for Sunday. Light northerly winds this morning will become more southerly in direction by this afternoon followed by rather gusty southerly winds for Sunday.

The fair skies and a light wind should allow temperatures to drop back down around the freezing mark to start the day Sunday, but the sunshine and gusty southerly winds will push afternoon highs to around 60 during the afternoon. The main issue Sunday will be fire danger concerns with the warmer temperatures, humidity values dropping to near 30%, and gusty southerly winds.

Another cool front will arrive during the morning hours of Monday shifting our winds back to the NW but any chance of showers or thunder should be confined to the extreme E counties where the deeper moisture will reside. Temperatures will be milder with morning lows in the 40s and daytime highs still reaching the upper 50s to near 60 before cooler air filters in later in the day and night.

The air behind this front will not be all that cold though with morning lows on Tuesday near freezing, but daytime highs back into the low-mid 50s. Mostly sunny skies are also anticipated.

A gusty SE wind will return Wednesday along with increasing cloud cover and possibly a few showers to end the day. Temperatures will be seasonal with daytime highs in the 50s again.

Then there is Thursday. Widespread showers/storms are expected for Thursday and as the QPF map on the right shows, we could be in for some generous rains by the time it is all ends late in the day. Although the legend on the map shows it is valid through Saturday morning, all of the rain that is depicted is expected to occur Wednesday night into the day Thursday. The timing may change somewhat as better data comes in over the next day or two, but right now it appears that a stronger cold front will be pushing across the state during the day Thursday with widespread showers/storms along and ahead of it. The rains should have ended by that night leaving us with mostly sunny skies and cooler conditions for Friday into Saturday. The longer range guidance is still showing some inconsistencies for Sunday with the GFS bringing another chance of rain back over us and the Euro keeping us dry. The forecast is siding with what has been the more consistent Euro solution for now, but that is certainly subject to change.

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

Dick Faurot