Cold Week Ahead.

Although there are still some issues that need to be resolved, the trend over the last two days continues to support a drier forecast with only some light flurries, if even that, now anticipated over the next couple of days. The strong storm system in the southern Rockies is still a wild card and could yet pull some surprises, but for now it appears that a significant winter storm is no longer in the cards for us. Some energy from that system has kept rain over the more SE counties through the day today and into the night tonight. However, somewhat drier air aloft continues to work its way further southward and most of that rain will be ending by morning.

The drier air aloft was evident in a few rays of sunshine this afternoon which was a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, it did not do much to mitigate the cold air in place and temperatures have remained much below normal all day long. That will be the case again on Monday with some breaks in the clouds from time to time, but not enough sunshine to really moderate temperatures much. More importantly, the drier air will be more entrenched when the storm system in the southern Rockies finally makes its move eastward along about Tue and Wed of this coming week.

All indications now point to the system being moisture starved so although we will maintain considerable cloud cover through Tue and perhaps into Wed, nothing much more than an occasional flurry is anticipated and no accumulations are expected. That should eliminate any potential travel issues during the coming week.

The storm system aloft is shown in the image to the right with one segment of energy in northern Mexico and another one dropping down through Idaho. A couple of days ago, the system in Mexico was expected to be a real trouble maker as it came out over Oklahoma on Monday. Current data now shows that it will not be strong enough to do much more than possibly wring out a few flurries. The next system that will be dropping in behind it will be stronger and have a greater chance of pulling some surprises by mid-week. But, all indications now suggest it will not have enough moisture to work with to do much more than wring out some flurries either.

These systems will also maintain below normal temperatures right on through the coming weekend. So, although it may look like snow and will at times be cold enough for snow, it now appears that not much more than a few flurries, if even that, is all that we can expect during the coming week.

Meanwhile, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot