Winter Reload...

Good Morning!

One more day of mild weather before we get back into the more seasonable conditions.  Let's get straight to it:

SAY GOODBYE TO THE MILD STUFF:  A veritable heat wave winds down with colder air pushing in here from the northwest.  Satellite imagery shows clouds in the area extending almost due southwest all the way down into Louisiana and Alabama.  Down there they have some showers and storms to worry about along the Gulf Coast.  Here, mainly clouds with maybe a shower or two.  Temperatures start coming down later this afternoon.  Temperatures around 30 are the norm in this part of the world this time of year, we see readings as much as 15 degrees above that.  As the milder air gets pushed out of the way, you can get ready for more seasonable readings, with daytime highs in their normal 23-30 degree range.

A BIT OF PRECIPITATION ON TAP:  And I use the generic term precipitation because as we transition back to more winter-like conditions, we'll also trade our rain in for snow.  I don't see a lot, maybe three inches spread between now and this weekend.  A stray shower is possible today, but the better chance looks to be tomorrow, and this will start as liquid or a mix, and quickly get to all snow as the temperatures fall.  Have a look at the 5 Day Precipitation Map from the Weather Predcition Center:

We catch a break here as we start off high enough temperature-wise that initially rain should be the precipitation mode.

Now that's liquid precipation, so the fact that we are in the half-inch category would normally mean up to six inches of snow.  Not the case here, as we start off with temperatures above freezing, so some of this falls as rain.  I expect by tomorrow night that we'll start to see some snow, with accumulations up to an inch by morning drive on Wednesday.  The thinking now is that we'll see around an inch of snow through Thursday.

LOOKING DOWN THE LINE:  I'm seeing a pattern of upper waves rotating through the area, and they look like enough to give us some brief snows roughly every 36 hours through early next week.  Now by brief, I mean events that should top out under an inch and a half in most places.  By the time it's all done you could have upwards of six inches or so of snowfall, but with it spread out, it shouldn't be any major deal.  It is winter in the midwest after all.

Here's the forecast:

Have a great day!