Next Chance of Precipitation

We have seen a dry pattern establish itself across the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Northern Plains of late. No significant systems have moved through in several days, and that trend will likely continue for nearly one more week before a break down in that pattern occurs. More clouds are expected on Sunday with lake-effect snow for Chicago and Northern Indiana. That moisture is a result of northerly winds over Lake Michigan, which can lead to the formation of lake-effect snow showers. Those will stay to our east on Sunday and Monday. The clouds will move out for Monday and Tuesday with high pressure moving overhead. That will keep our skies mostly sunny.

Our winds shift around to southwesterly as the high pressure center moves to the east for Wednesday and Thursday. The high moving east will also open up the middle of the country for cyclone formation, or the development of a storm system. It will also allow moisture to stream northward from the Gulf of Mexico to feed into any low pressure system that does in fact develop. Models are suggesting a low pressure center will develop in Southern Colorado and Kansas on Tuesday before moving northeast towards the Stateline on Thursday and more so Friday.

It will tap into the moisture bank that is the Gulf of Mexico and bring a decent amount of rainfall to the region. Most of our precipitation will fall on Friday and Friday night as it looks currently. The reason why we are looking at mainly a rain event is because the low will strengthen enough to draw enough warm air northward to warm our temperatures into the middle 30's and possibly low 40's while the heaviest of the precipitation is falling. It is not impossible to see some snow showers to begin the event on Thursday and Thursday night. Snow showers are also possible to end the event Saturday morning, but little to no accumulation is expected in the snowfall department as it looks now.