After Wet 4 Days, Dry Week Coming...

As the late Bill Elder would say, "All right!" as the reporter would toss back to him at the anchor desk.  I said yesterday the sun would come tomorrow.  Well "all right", so skies weren't totally clear, we had enough blue with the sun peaking through that I found myself in a much better mood this afternoon.  Satellite views tell me some clouds will linger into early Sunday, but eventually Monday through Thursday should see lots of sunshine.

Our early morning showers have cleared most of the Florida Beaches and west winds are bringing in drier air.  Those winds will become more NW over time driving out all the higher tides of the past several days.  The upper low is pulling up across the Ohio Valley with a soaking rain shield that will send a surge of water down the Mississippi in 7-10 days.  The Carrollton gage was below 3 feet several weeks back, but now could approach 10 feet by the time we get to Mardi Gras (Feb. 13)

What is pretty remarkable for late January is the fact that there is almost no snow falling outside of mountainous locations.  Most of the country is above freezing.

Sunday will be 8-10 degrees cooler, but the air behind this morning's front is of Pacific origin & you can tell by the dew points (30s & 40s), that it isn't as strong as the past 2 fronts. I don't expect any freezes during the next 7-10 days.

So are we done with the freezes?  Hardly, as the month of February has, historically, brought us our coldest record lows (9 degrees in 1899).   Here's the upper set up now and to come.  The top view has the upper low lifting towards New England with a small clipper diving down out of Canada. That clipper will re-enforce our cool air on Thursday, but it will not deepen the East Coast trough into a Polar Vortex.

The current vortex seems to be way off the West Coast out over the Pacific bringing a SW flow to the western states cutting off any Arctic air from coming south right now.  However,

Look at the brutal cold (45-50 below) that has reformed over Alaska.  I don't see (right now) any deep trough forming over the eastern states during the next 10-14 days.  That might mean the days leading up to Mardi Gras will be mild to warm.  There still plenty time in late February to have freezing weather return, so don't give up all you cold air geeks.  Snow geeks on the other hand need to head to Colorado.  I snapped these close in views with cloudless skies indicating a heavy snowpack in the mountains.  there is some snow on the front range south of Denver, so head west young man (or woman) if you want to see & ski the white stuff.   Stay tuned!