High Clouds Return, Chilly

A nice but chilly day is on tap as a cold dome of high pressure will be entrenched over the region. The sunny skies this morning won't last long as a band of high clouds associated with the southern branch of the jet stream will stream into the area throughout the day. It won't be cloudy, but there will be clouds overhead just about all day. Northwest winds flowing out of the surface high will be crossing a snow pack to our north, so temperatures will be chilly today with an afternoon high around 45. Winds will not be as strong as yesterday, but we may still have gusts up to 20 mph at times today. Additional high clouds will stream in overnight in advance of our next weather maker out in the Desert Southwest. Lows tomorrow morning will be near 27.

Now that the storm system in the Southwest U.S. has entered the North American upper air network, the majority of the models have come into agreement to suggest a very slight northward shift of the surface low. However, there is still not good agreement on the placement of the surface low. What is good news is that there is better agreement that the leading edge of the precipitation shield will extend further north. Regardless of which solution will be correct, the wetter solution suggests some precipitation will be possible on Friday. I think a compromise of the consistent Global Canadian and European models remains the best way to go. Based on this, I still think light snow is a possibility on Friday for our area, but the best chance will remain to our south. If I had to pinpoint exact totals at this time, I would forecast a dusting to a half inch. I'll have more thoughts on this again tomorrow.