Dreary Today, Sunny Sunday.

Cloudy, cool with a chance of light rain today, but lots of sunshine for much of the day Sunday.

Saturday, February 18th 2012, 9:15 am

By: News On 6

Although we have a chance for some occasional light rain or drizzle and perhaps a passing shower or two today, it will not amount to much as you can see from the QPF map on the right which is valid through tonight. Obviously much heavier amounts of rain are expected down along the Gulf Coast and we are on the northern fringe of the precipitation shield. Therefore, the chances of rain will be greatest along and south of I-40 today with the chances tapering off as you go north. In any event, rainfall totals are expected to be only on the order of .10" or less.

However, the cloudy skies, brisk N to NE winds and some sprinkles around will make for a very short thermometer today. We started the day in the 40s and will struggle to get above 50 this afternoon.

Our skies are expected to be clearing by early Sunday morning and with a light northerly wind by then, temperatures should start off near the freezing mark. As the day wears on, our winds will gradually veer around to a more E and SE direction, we will have lots of sunshine, and temperatures should rebound well into the 50s.

Monday will see a strong south wind, increasing cloud cover and very mild conditions. A fast moving storm system will be crossing the state late in the day and that night bringing a chance of showers and possibly some thunder.

After that, the rest of the coming week looks mild with a series of weak systems moving rapidly across the state and producing some shifting wind patterns, but not having much moisture to work with so we should stay dry.

That may change by later in the coming weekend or the early part of the following week. We have been seeing a fairly consistent signal of a stronger, potentially wetter system moving through by then which would also give us another shot of cold air. Too early to say just how that will all sort out, but that time frame will be monitored in the coming days to see if the longer range guidance remains consistent in that regard.

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

Dick Faurot