Cold Front Brings Blustery Winds and Scattered Showers for Thursday

We can call the forecast for our Thursday a "mixed bag" if you will. Today features a little bit of everything from sunshine early on, to windy conditions, to wind whipped scattered showers. Winds were quick to pick up this morning as an strong pressure gradient developed between a low pressure system in Minnesota and a high pressure near the Ohio River Valley. Along with that low pressure system is a cold front that is draped over eastern Iowa, and the western portion of the Stateline. This frontal boundary cold going is also going to bring in blustery winds for Thursday, but it could also bring in a few scattered showers during our afternoon.

Sustained winds have already climbed into the range of 20-25 mph, with gusts closer to 30 mph. A narrow band of light shower activity is currently progressing through the Stateline. This will bring a quick passing shower or two to the area between 10 AM and noon. Surface winds as this band sweeps through are forecast to steadily increase, leading to gusts closer to 35 miles per hour late this morning into the early afternoon. 

This cold front should make it's way through between noon and 2 PM, allowing colder air to spill into the region. Another round of spotty shower activity will develop this afternoon behind the front, starting out a patchy drizzle and light rain showers. As cold air filters in, this will help change thing to more of a mix of rain, snow, and even a type precipitation we call graupel. If you haven't heard of graupel, this type of precipitation first forms as snow. These snowflakes will then be rimed in layers by supercooled water droplets from rising air in the showers. Graupel is also known as "soft" hail because it forms and grows in the same way small hail does.

Precipitation should wrap up before midnight as drier air quickly rushes in behind our exiting low pressure. Following the cold frontal passage, our surface winds will change to the west, and could approach 40 mph at times. Blustery conditions are expected to persist through the first half of Friday, calming down by tomorrow evening. High temperatures will climb into the low 40s due to the cooler air that filters in behind the front, but feel more like the low 30s at times. An area of high pressure that settled over the central plains will bring plenty of sunshine for the end of the work week. The good news is, this dry pattern looks to last into the weekend.