Spring is in the air!

Spring has finally arrived in the Northern Plains! ;)

Temperatures on Tuesday reached the 60 degree-mark for the first time since November 3rd, 2008, when we hit 66° F.

The official high at the airport Tuesday hit 64° F and even at this late hour (2:00am) we are still sitting at 45°.

It's been great enjoying the mild temperatures and they should continue through, at least, through the next few days as this ridge slowly slides east across the plains. Slightly cooler temperatures will come this weekend, but a broad ridge will build across the plains again next week which will continue temperatures in the 50's and 60's.

Our next target is to get our dewpoints into the 50's and 60's! Some thunder would be nice, as well.

Temperatures in flux

We've had some wild fluctuations in temperatures over the past few weeks across the Northern Plains. While we remained rather cool through a good chunk of December, January has begun rather cold.

An arctic outbreak entrenched much of the central and eastern parts of the country the last two weeks and with a slight moderating the last few days, another shot of cold air seems to be on it's way.

By this time, tomorrow night, we'll likely see temperatures in the double-digits below zero once again here in the Valley with even colder temperatures expected over northern Minnesota. The NAM shown to the left has the H50 heights near 522 over us, with even lower heights to the east and northeast.

So, we'll see another cold, January weekend.

Looking ahead, the GFS doesn't really show much in the way of any major pattern shifts, with several troughs pushing east-southeast out of Western Canada through, at least, the next couple of weeks. February could start out rather cold, as well, with the extended GFS showing this early in the morning on Feb. 3rd:



Yes, that is a 516 isoheight over the northern valley!

By the 7th, however, a decent ridge begins to build over the west and I'm hoping this will slowly translate to the east, bringing moderating temperatures and warmer temperatures. That would certainly be welcome...

Ice coats Hoosier-land

The major winter storm that was forecast to sock the Midwest and Ohio Valley certainly lived up to it's billing last evening and through early this morning. Not only did areas of Southern Iowa receive all sorts of ice and sleet accumulations, but northern areas of Illinois and Indiana did as well.

In fact, the following image from Decatur, Indiana clearly shows a quarter-inch or better accrual. And given the image is from Southeast Elementary, it's pretty clear there was no school today for the kiddies back in the Hoosier state. At least, not in Decatur. Unfortunately, my home town of Bluffton doesn't seem to offer any webcams whatsoever, so I have to accept the Decatur AWS cam as my local look into my hometown.



It can't be so much different of a look in Bluffton given there is only about 15 miles separating the two towns.

Either way, I'm sure glad the ice and sleet is occurring there and not here. We will have Winter Storm Watches up for the Valley for this next system. Yes, the active pattern continues to wreak havoc across the Northern Plains. The inverted trough and upper-level wave will bring the threat for moderate to heavy snows across much of the area possibly as soon as tonight, with activity likely continuing through tomorrow evening. What this means is that another 5-9 inches will be possible here by then and that strong winds will once again bring Blizzard-like conditions to the area.

Granted, there are some chasers out there that are suffering through SDS so badly this time of year, they're more than willing to go out there and chase these systems. I'm definitely not one of these types... I may have let you all know that already. If I have, I apologize. I think it's worth saying again!

I have the weekend off again, and as with Blizzard Ali, I'll be staying inside where it's warm to watch. If I feel brave enough, I may get out in the elements at some point tomorrow to possibly get some photos. We'll see how motivated I am to do just that. ;)

In the meantime, stay safe everyone. No matter where you are, I'm sure you have some sort of winter weather to be concerned about.