Cool, Dry Week Ahead.

The concern mentioned this morning regarding a slight chance of a freezing mist or drizzle fortunately has not materialized. Despite the low level stratus clouds and cold conditions, the gusty northerly winds kept the air at the surface dry enough to prevent condensation from occurring. This drier air will also result in gradually clearing skies overnight.

The winds will also be settling down tonight which adds up to a clear, cold start to the day on Monday. A light southerly wind for much of the day should allow temperatures to moderate rather nicely, although still cooler than normal. In fact, much of the coming week looks to be cooler than normal with the exception of Friday. A series of weak cool front will be arriving every couple of days due to an active NW flow pattern aloft. So far, none of these fronts have had much moisture to work with so we will just see occasional changes in cloud cover and shifting winds keeping temperatures below normal.

There is always the potential that one of these systems will amplify and pull a surprise on us, but there is no evidence of that at this point.

The latter part of the week looks to be the most promising with a gusty SW wind by Friday and lots of sunshine which should allow afternoon temperatures to moderate well into the 50s. Not for long though as the longer range guidance has been pretty consistent in bringing another surge of cold air our way which should be arriving Friday night. That is expected to produce a very cold weekend and there are some indications that we may have another stretch of several days with below freezing temperatures extending into the following week. There are also some indications of another bout of wintry weather early that week, but will wait for more consistency from the longer range guidance before getting too carried away with that possibility.

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

Dick Faurot