Temps Dive Into Black Friday!

Thanksgiving Day 2012 is now in the record books.  It turned out to be one of the mildest on record, but failed to set any records.  The afternoon high temperature in Rockford was 64 degrees.  That is a full 20 degrees above the normal high for the date.  The record high is 69 degrees set in 2010.  I hope you enjoyed the mild temperatures, because a cold front blasted across the area this evening, and temperatures are nosediving.  Arctic high pressure over Canada will continue to buffet the area for the rest of the night, and on Black Friday.  West to northwest winds will blow at 20 to 30 mph on Friday with higher gusts.  There appears to be just enough moisture in the low to mid levels to allow a broken deck of strato-cumulous to spit out a few flurries.  It will definitely feel  like winter with the wind chills down in the upper teens to low 20's, and a few flakes of snow swirling through the air.  High pressure will clear the skies on Friday night, and the temperature will drop to near 20 degrees.  Saturday will be mostly sunny, but it will still be cold with an afternoon high only around 35 degrees.  The temperature will make an attempt to recover on Sunday, but will only reach back toward seasonal levels around 43 degrees.  Monday will be partly sunny and a little cooler with a high in the upper 30's.  On Monday night a low pressure storm system will try to put itself together over the southern plains.  The numerical meteorological models disagree on the solution for the  storm track of this next low.  One takes it northeast up the Ohio River Valley.  If it were to verify, and move just a little to the left of that track, the Stateline could be in for some accumulation snow.  If it travels more easterly from Oklahoma, our region would not get much....  perhaps just some flurries, or no snow at all.  It will remain cold for the remainder of the week following the passage of the low toward the east coast.