Warmth Next Week, Then Cold

We received a reminder on Thursday that wintry weather can and does happen after spring officially begins. We saw everything from rain and thunder to sleet and snow within a 12-hour span on Thursday. Friday showed us that when it is spring, the weather can do a complete 180 in just a matter of 24 hours as we saw plentiful sunshine and highs near 50°. So now that we have experienced four seasons in 48 hours, where do we go from here?

Looking into Easter Weekend, it looks mild with 50's Saturday and upper 40's Sunday with a slight chance for showers on Sunday. Beyond Easter, we have three large weather stories here in the Stateline. First, we will be experiencing a significant warm up Monday through Wednesday with 60's likely on both Tuesday and Wednesday. There will be 70's just one state to our west in Iowa. This warmth will be pulled north by strong southerly winds ahead of a powerful cold front that will swing through here late Wednesday night. That cold front will bring the region back to reality on Thursday and Friday with highs in the 40's.

That cold front will bring with it the opportunity for showers and thunderstorms as there will be sufficient warmth and instability available for storms to develop along the front. Is severe weather a possibility? It is a little too early to answer that question with high levels of confidence, but as it appears now, it looks like we will not have a large threat for strong or severe thunderstorms.

Then we look even further ahead into early April to find our third big weather story: unseasonably cold temperatures. The gates to the arctic will be open through the first week of April. This will allow very cold air for this time of the year to surge south into the Midwest and Great Lakes. In fact, temperatures are expected to be anywhere from 15° to 30° below average. That translates to high temperatures in the 30's and low temperatures in the teens and 20's. Don't let the 60's we see next week catch you off guard just yet!