Much Cooler Week Ahead

A cold front is finally going to bring an end to our string of warm and dry days. That front is situated up in the Dakotas and Minnesota this afternoon and it will continue to push southward, eventually making it to the Stateline by late tonight. Associated with this frontal boundary are some showers. While there isn't much moisture to work with, nor will there be any thunderstorms, there will be some rain showers overnight tonight and Tuesday morning as the front makes its way through the region.

It would surprise me if anyone received more than a tenth of an inch of rainfall from this. The bigger story revolving around this front is the colder air that is going to filter in behind it beginning Tuesday afternoon when highs only reach the middle 60's. This front has plenty of cooler air behind it up in Canada, and as it passes it will open up a gateway to allow that colder air to move on into the Northern Plains, Upper Midwest, Great Lakes, and Ohio Valley.

You can also picture the jet stream shifting in this scenario. When you are south of the jet stream, typically you are seeing warm conditions. If you are north of it, you are in the colder section. For the past few weeks, we have been south of it, thus we've seen warmer air. After this front passes, the jet stream will form a ridge in the west (warmer air) and form a deep trough (colder air) across the east. In fact, the dip in the jet stream looks to make its way all the way to the Gulf Coast by later this week!

So this all means cooler air will have its way with our forecast for the foreseeable future with colder than average highs expected for the area. Highs will likely remain in the middle to perhaps upper 60's throughout the period and lows will be in the 40's and perhaps upper 30's at times in the rural locations.