Cool weather now, finally some wet weather later

We saw more sunshine today around the region, but temperatures were a bit cooler, with highs around 70 degrees. A slight breeze made it feel even cooler, but overall, it was still very nice to be outside. Tonight, with plenty of clear skies and shorter days, temperatures will fall into the middle 40s in most areas, with some lower 40s in the higher elevations and upper 40s to lower 50s in the usual warmer spots.

Tomorrow will be another nice day, with mostly sunny skies. It will be a shade warmer as well, with highs in the middle 70s. The dry trend continues through the weekend as well. Temperatures, meanwhile, will rise into the middle to upper 70s and with the high-pressure center pushing off to our east, a return flow from the south and southeast will drive up the humidity levels a bit.

The dry weather will finally yield late Monday for very isolated areas as a weak disturbance will push towards the region from the southwest. Any showers that do pop up will mainly be confined to the southern areas late Monday.

Tuesday is when the chance for showers really comes back into the forecast as a front approaches from the northwest. The front will give us chances for rain on both Tuesday and Wednesday before pushing through and leaving us dry by Thursday.

The rain is good to see and some of the medium range atmospheric models are indicating that we’ll see a good amount of the wet stuff. The latest Drought Monitor is out today and while there is some very slight improvement in the southern coalfields and in parts of the state just outside of our area, we are still in dire need of rain.

Once the next front is gone, temperatures will fall off quite a bit, especially on the high side of the scale, dropping into the lower 60s by next Thursday!