Saturday morning weather update

 It has certainly been a cool stretch of weather the past few days however in some ways this has given much relief for many over the state line. After Monday's 90-degree heat, we have been in the 70's here for most days since which has given comfortable and cooler weather for much of the state line as fair season and other events are well underway.

Now that the weekend is upon us, much of the same is going to continue through these next few days. With an upper-level low pressure system to our north cold northerly surface winds behind the low-pressure system has helped keep temperatures seasonably cool for much of the week. This pattern will continue the next few days keeping us in the 70's and dropping temperatures in the night to the low 50's which have come close to some records so far!

But as that low pressure system moves east increased moisture and high pressure will begin to move west helping bring temperatures up as well as precipitation chances. After the cold front passed on Tuesday moisture has been very low which has kept us dry in terms of humidity and precipitation but expect that to change later this week. With a ridge of upper-level winds approaching by Monday combined with increased moisture, daily shower and thunderstorm chances look to return by the middle and end of next week.

Looking beyond next week though, high pressure continues to move east and stalls out near the Ark-La-Tex region by the end of next week. This will bring slightly warmer than average temperatures to the Midwest which will bring us back into the 80's with a more summertime feel.

In terms of rainfall, this high-pressure system will help increase our moisture content slightly but upper-level winds and forcing look to weaken towards the third week of August. This will keep us dry through most of that period as seen by the Climate Prediction center where nearly all of the Midwest is forecasted to stay drier than average for the middle of August.

 Although an extreme warming event is not forecasted expect temperatures to return to normal or slightly above for August in the next two weeks. Precipitation looks to stay dry but with any changes in upper-level wind patterns those chances may rise as long as moisture is present.