Cool Sunday, Mild Next Week with a Good Chance of Rain.

Notice the QPF(Quantitative Precipitation Forecast) map on the right. This forecast product is valid through Thursday evening and clearly shows us with some decent rainfall amounts. If this verifies, widespread ½ to 1" rainfall amounts appear to be in our future. Still not a drought breaker, but on top of the rains we had at the first of last week, it will help to put at least a little more of a dent in the ongoing drought situation.

The system responsible for this moisture will be coming at us from Nrn Mexico so it will be coming our way from a more SW direction and therefore will not have any real cold air to work with. For that reason, this looks to be a rain maker and no wintry precipitation is currently foreseen. However, there are still some timing, location, and intensity issues to be resolved although the longer range guidance is in much better agreement today regarding the general evolution of this particular system. With those factors in mind, look for a slight chance of rain to be spreading from the SW to the NE late in the day Tuesday, rain more likely for much of the day Wednesday and into the day Thursday, before ending from SW to NE by Thursday night.

Between now and then, clear skies tonight and sunny skies on Sunday will result in a cool day with morning lows in the 20s and daytime highs in the 40s. Actually, those numbers are pretty close to normal for this time of year, but as the week wears on look for much milder conditions to be the general rule. Increasing mid and high level cloud cover is expected during the day Monday and little or no sunshine is then expected for Tue-Thu. Together with a more easterly wind component, that will moderate temperatures with overnight lows well above freezing for the middle to latter part of the week and daytime highs around the 50 degree mark. So, much of the coming week looks to be quite mild, particularly when compared to how the New Year has started and we also have a good shot at some more badly needed rainfall.

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

Dick Faurot