Cool Air Today

A few high clouds are noted this morning across the area but mostly sunny and cool conditions will be in the forecast with highs in the mid to upper 40s.  A warming trend will commence soon.  

A large trough is located from near Hudson Bay and extends southward across the Midwest into the northern third of the southern U.S. this morning.  This cold air aloft is brushing the state today and will bring the coldest day of the week with highs in the mid to upper 40s for most of NE OK.  A gusty northwest surface wind in the range of 10 to15 mph will be common and plenty of sunshine will be expected. This trough will quickly move eastward and warmer air will replace our current air mass allowing for temperatures to move into the lower or mid 50s Tuesday and Wednesday with lower to mid 60s Thursday and Friday. 

The pattern will be somewhat active with another frontal passage Tuesday evening into Wednesday but a down sloping component to the wind will keep the temperatures Wednesday into the lower or mid 50s.  No major air mass change is expected.  Another front will arrive Friday into Saturday and could bring slightly cooler air for Saturday along with gusty northwest winds.   

The Sunday and Monday forecast is a little murky at this point.  I have elected to keep any mention of precipitation out of the forecast at this point, but the extended models have flipped around a few times with a system near the area Sunday bringing anything from rain to snow to the region.  The very latest EURO run has a cold and wet system, and a few of the GFS runs have waffled back and forth from rain to no rain.   

The pattern continues to support no intrusion of a true arctic air mass, but this may change during the next 10 days.