Sunday morning weather update

 After what's been a mostly quiet period of weather we've had this week, the next few days look to stir up the atmosphere a bit more in a few different ways. Unfortunately, wildfire smoke is expected to stick around for another day or two which will then be followed by warmer temperatures along with the chances for some thunderstorms, which may be severe at times.

Today we'll once again reach into the mid to upper 70's very with continued sunshine. High pressure positioned to our southeast will also keep us calm at the surface. However, seen in the sky behind the image above, wildfire smoke will continue to stick around which may filter out some sunshine and allow temperatures to be a bit cooler.

Wildfire smoke won't just affect our temperatures but will also affect our skies tonight which may have the Northern Lights out at times. However, viewing will be obstructed tonight with the smoke in place making any Northern Lights in the sky seem dimmer and faded out. Still though, if you have a camera, setting it to longer exposure might just be able to capture it! 

Those Northern Lights chances will stick around up until tomorrow; however, wildfire smoke looks to play spoiler once again. The good news is that tomorrow's temperatures will be even warmer as we look to get into the upper 80's!

The upper-level jet stream is then going to switch to a more active pattern heading into Tuesday as upper-level ridging and high pressure will move east allowing our next low-pressure system to move in by Tuesday morning. This will relieve us of most wildfire smoke that sticks around but it will also bring the chances of thunderstorms, which some may be severe.

As the cold front with this system approaches, instability is expected to develop ahead of the front allowing for thunderstorms to form. The big question right now is how much instability we will be able to build, if a bit more develops our severe thunderstorm chances may be a bit higher. As it stands now, we are under a slight (2/5) risk which often means a few scattered severe thunderstorms. Conditions will be monitored as we get closer but as it looks right now, a few damaging wind gusts may be possible with any severe thunderstorm on Tuesday night.