Clippers With A Wrinkle...

Good Morning!

I will not be able to go into serious depth today, but I can tell you what the next several days have in store, and do a forecast into the early part of next week, so let's get right into it.

SPRING IS GONE FOR NOW:  It doesn't matter what the calendar says, you won't see any spring-like conditions in the area for awhile, as northwesterly flow out of Canada dominates the pattern and gives us a look more like winter than spring.  The good news is that right now, I don't see any heavy-duty snow events on the board, just a lot of cold that will delay planting and possibly exacerbate the flooding issues that are lurking in the area.  Temperatures in the area should be right around 50 by this point, and we have to fight to hold upper 30's with any consistency!  We don't get anywhere close to seasonal again until the end of next week!

A COUPLE OF WAVES:  You saw the title of the post was Clippers with a wrinkle.  We have the weak to moderate upper disturbances that rotate through every 36-48 hours, just like your Alberta Clippers do during the heart of winter.  The difference?  Stronger sun, ground that is a tad warmer, and upper air patterns that limit the amount of available moisture for these guys to tap as they do their hit and run deals.  End result is more clouds and light precipitation than anything else, and bigger chances at rain or sleet and such as opposed to pure snow.  That's a headache for forecasters for sure.  Let's run down the suspects very quickly;

LIKELY OUTCOMES FROM THE WAVES:  #1 should be here tomorrow afternoon/evening.  That's mainly a cloudy sky affair.  I'll know more when the 18Z model runs complete.  I may end up posting that from my cell phone or via Twitter/Google +, for your information.  So check there as well.  I'm @wxMikeD on Twitter, and +Mike Estwick on Google +.  I can't rule out some flurries, but I don't see a ton of moisture beyond what will be used for clouds.

Wave #2 - Monday night into Tuesday as our Canadian high pressure kind of quietly eases off to the northeast.  Still more clouds than anything else, but this one looks like it will have a bit more organization, so a chance of a stray shower or some light snow is possible, minimal accumulation on the snow side of things right now.

Wave #3 - Early Thursday morning, enough to bring us some clouds and not much else at the moment.  Let's see what fresh data suggests later on regarding this one OK?

After that, a bona fide surface low works toward us from the southwest, and by that time, warmer air should be in the area.  That will bring us some showers and maybe a couple of buried storms.  Again - let the computers nosh on fresh data, and we can adjust the picture as needed.

Forecast:

Today - cloudy, cold, high 36, wind NW 5-10 MPH.

Tonight - still cloudy, winter like lows, temperatures dip to around 11. Wind NW 5-10 MPH.

Sunday - clouds linger, perhaps just the chance of a few snowflakes, high only 32.  Wind NW 4-8 MPH.

More for you later!  Blessings.