Roses are Red, The Sky is Blue, Happy New Year, To All of You

NEW YEAR BEGINS: The first few days of 2016 will feature plenty of sunshine and near seasonal readings in the 20s and 30s for highs and lows in the upper single digits and teens. A disturbance will drop through the Great Lakes late Saturday night into Sunday with a chance of some snow showers there. The only thing it would bring us is a bit cooler temperatures and a northerly wind on Sunday and perhaps a few more clouds in our northeastern counties.

BACK TO THE GRIND: As everyone heads back to work and school, the weather still remains quiet with sunshine Monday and Tuesday and readings in the 20s and lower to middle 30s across the state. The quiet period looks to come to an end on Wednesday as clouds will be on the increase ahead of a storm system that will be coming in from the west. We could see some rain/snow showers as early as Wednesday afternoon in the western counties but the best chances of precipitation look to hold off until Wednesday night and Thursday. The GFS shows a lull in the activity Thursday night into early Friday morning except in our southern counties where some light precipitation could be ongoing. A low pressure center is then shown to track from near Dallas Friday morning to near Evansville Indiana Saturday morning. The precipitation is shown to increase in intensity especially in our southern and southeastern counties Friday into Saturday with the precipitation type being snow. It’s too early to determine possible accumulations at this time, but it is a storm we’ll continue to watch over the coming days for any changes in track and intensity.

YEY JANUARY: As we look from next weekend onward, colder air comes in behind the departing system. The GFS shows some continued snow activity albeit light across the state as the colder Arctic air filters in. Another storm is shown moving across the Central and Southern Plains at the same time. This storm looks to miss the state well to the south and east but it looks to dump the Arctic air into the state as we near the middle of the month. The GFS shows another shot of cold air at the end of the period but not as cold as the previous one.