Where Is The Sun?

After an extended break from the blog, I'm back in the saddle for daily updates now that the spring semester has begun. The fire hydrant-like rain fall that fell for the past couple of days has exited well to the east of us this morning. The main upper air trough associated with the rain will swing through the area this morning and could cause some drizzle at times to our north, but we should remain dry in Starkville. The talk of the day will be the return of sunshine late this morning and early afternoon. In fact, broken clouds are visible outside this morning, but full sunshine will occur later today. It seems like eons ago that the sun shone, but I can promise the sun will make an appearance today. The timing of the sun makes the high temperature forecast a little tricky because an earlier return could allow for warmer temperatures. Judging from infrared satellite imagery, it appears the back edge of the cloud cover is near Greenwood, MS and this would suggest a return of the sun later this morning. Therefore, I'll be optimistic and forecast a high of 54 this afternoon.

High clouds will quickly approach the area tonight in advance of another upper air disturbance and this will play havoc with morning lows. Timing the exit of the clouds will determine we drop into the upper 30s or stay in the 40s. Guidance suggests that the clouds may exit just before sunrise and this may allow us to drop to 38 tonight. A warming trend is in store for the remainder of the week before another cold front arrives for the weekend. A big blast of arctic air is poised to affect the area next week, and I'll have more on this later.