Note: Due to travel schedule there will not be a Weather Xtreme Video today. I hope to be able to do one from some place in South Dakota tomorrow morning. But even without the video, here are some forecast notes.
The weather map this morning showed a frontal boundary along the Alabama-Tennessee border, but rain associated with the front was well north in Kentucky. The front is expected to trek southward bringing some cooler air to Central Alabama after one more day with highs in the 80s. Since moisture is limited, I do not expect to see many showers as most of us remain dry. Sunday through Wednesday we should remain dry and see highs dip back into the 70s.
In the upper atmosphere there is general troughiness over the eastern half of the country which sticks with us into the first part of the week. A strong closed low coming into the West Coast will beef up a ridge over the Mississippi River Valley Wednesday and Thursday. The closed low ejects out of the Southwest as an open wave Friday and should bring some rain chances to the area Friday through Sunday. With the ridge over the Southeast holding strong the rain should come in the form of scattered showers. Temperatures will continue in the latter part of the week to hold mainly in the 70s for highs and 50s for lows.
Peeking further out, the GFS continues to paint a progressive pattern of a series of troughs and ridges. Timing this far out is almost never exactly right, so monitoring the trends is the best thing to do in the long range.
My daughter and I head out of Chicago this morning for South Dakota. Our ultimate destination in the Mt. Rushmore area. The digital cameras and charged up and ready to go. It’s going to be fun just to get away for a few days. More pictures and notes can be found here as the adventure unfolds. Have a wonderful day and Godspeed.
-Brian-
PS I forgot to mention it was shorts weather in Chicago yesterday when I was out and about. Bit cooler today so the shorts get packed away for now. Southwest South Dakota forecasts indicate highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s – nice!!
