12/29 – The Chief’s “Final Weekend of 2023” Friday Afternoon Forecast

Today will be a cool day as highs will only get into the lower to mid-50s and this will provide a decent starting point for temps to cool rapidly this evening. Winds should be able to decouple providing light and variable winds if not outright calm in some areas. This weekend will be quite uneventful with the area moderating. Low level temperatures will be back up Saturday, but more so Sunday. This would suggest highs mainly in the mid to upper 50s Saturday and then in the 60s for much of the area Sunday. Northwest flow aloft Saturday along with the surface high pressure slowly working east across the northern Gulf will keep moisture from recovering through Saturday night.

Heading into the early morning hours on New Year’s Day we will see both a northern stream system that drops down the central CONUS and a southern stream disturbance moving across the southern Plains overnight merge over the southeastern CONUS on New Year`s Day. A weak area of low-pressure is expected to develop around the Lower MS Valley and northwestern/n-central Gulf overnight and move through the area during the first half of the day. With the lack of time to fully recover there is likely no instability to work with so any rain will be in shower form and not anticipating any lightning. This will also be quick hitting so not really anticipating any impacts from heavy rain either.