Here Comes the Front!

The strong cold front and blast of arctic air is pretty much on schedule this morning. The initial wind shift has already just about cleared the state and as we have been saying for several days, the real deal cold air is lagging behind the wind shift by several hours. As a result, temperatures will be at their warmest this morning as we either maintain the current 40s or even moderate somewhat to near 50 before the real cold air arrives.

By this afternoon, our winds will have increased to 20-30 mph or more and temperatures will be falling into the 30s. By the time the sun goes down, look for temperatures to be near freezing and with those strong northerly winds, wind chill values will be in the teens and low 20s.

Fortunately, the deeper moisture remains east of us so there will only be a few light rain showers this morning into the early afternoon and by the time the cold air gets here the moisture will have been pretty well scoured out. Our skies will be clearing by this evening and we expect severe clear conditions for Sunday.

Sunday will be quite cold with morning lows in the teens and daytime highs only near the freezing mark. However, northerly winds will continue to blow at around 10-20 mph so it will be quite breezy keeping the wind chills generally in the teens and 20s for much of the day.

Monday looks to be the coldest we have been since back in January. The only real question mark is clouds as there are some indications that there may be enough cirrus clouds to keep temperatures from completely bottoming out. At any rate, the winds will be light, the air already cold and dry, so if we are clear, some of the colder valley locations could see single digits Monday morning and lower teens elsewhere.

That will be followed by a moderating trend through the middle of the week and another cool down, but not as severe by the latter part of the week.

As always, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot