Warmer temperatures may not always be a good thing

A brief pattern change next week will allow temperatures to be considerably warmer than where we've been for the past several weeks, but it could come with a cost.

Temperatures through the end of the weekend will remain below average.  Warmer than they have been, but still below average.  It won't be until next week when the highs will climb back into the middle and upper 30's.  Unfortunately, there will be a few systems worth watching during the Wednesday through Friday time frame that could bring rain and melting snow.

Over the next couple of weeks we'll need to be on the lookout for possible flooding as the mercury rises and the snow melts.  The current snow cover on the ground has about one to three inches of water content in it.  This means if we were to melt that snow it would add up in some places to three inches of water!  Now, we're not going to completely melt that off within a weeks time, but with the potential for additional rainfall next week it may only increase the rate of melting and runoff.  Combine that with the fact that the ground is pretty frozen and the rivers have a fair amount of ice on them and this could be a recipe for flooding across parts of the Stateline.  We'll continue to monitor the situation going into next week, as you should too.  Again, if we get any rain with those warmer temperatures we may have a bit of a mess to deal with before the temperatures fall back below average the last week of February.