Blocking pattern brings nice weather to the area

A blocking pattern, known as an Omega block because it resembles the Greek letter Omega, has begun with low pressure in the east and another spinning off the Pacific Northwest coast.  This has basically buckled the jet stream in the middle of the country into Canada allowing unseasonably warm air to move northward.  This ridge will continue to build further east as the system in the west slowly moves onshore.  Temperatures over the next several days in the Plains and Rockies will reach the middle and upper 80s!  For us, look for highs to warm into the upper 70s by the end of this week and we may even be able to squeeze out an 80° by Saturday.

It does, however, appear as if the ridge will begin to break down sometime early next week with that system currently in the Pacific.  But even that has been slowing its progress east so we may be looking at a pretty good stretch of dry weather.