1/12 – Rob’s Friday Morning Cloudy Forecast

A strong upper cold front is moving across the Mississippi Valley this morning, which will usher in some much colder air into the region this weekend. Most of the precipitation has ended for our immediate area this morning. A little further north they are dealing with some winter precipitation across portions of north Louisiana and central Mississippi.

The big story for us will be the cold air that is going to push into the area today and last for the next few days. Temperatures today should slowly fall through the day. We will struggle to get much above the mid to lower 40s. Tonight`s lows will dip into the 20s across the north and south of the lake we expect temperatures in the lower 30s. For this reason a FREEZE WARNING has been issued for all areas tonight. This will be the first night of several nights where we will need some sort of cold headline. I expect Hard Freeze Warnings or Freeze Warnings to be issued for the next several nights across all portions of our area.

Going into next week still expect a fairly cold regime to be in place. We do catch a small warm-up on Monday but that will be short lived as a reinforcing cold front is expected to move through the region on Tuesday. Right now, guidance does show some light precipitation with that front. If that is the case, there is an outside chance of some wintry precipitation across the extreme northern portions of the forecast area…meaning southwest Mississippi. This is a small concern and should be watched for the next several days as that small window of precipitation on Tuesday morning…based on the models soundings would be freezing rain. Again, this is several days away and with guidance showing limited light moisture the likelihood of it being a major event is very…very small. Right now, have not mentioned this in the forecast as it is still a ways away and have indicated rain as the precip type in the forecast for now as confidence is very low. It is just something to watch over the next several days. At the end of next week the surface high slips to the east, which would allow gulf flow to return with warmer temperatures and moisture.