Another shot of cold air to deal with Saturday

Not only has Friday been special because it is a holiday (Happy St. Patrick’s Day!), but we’ve seen some interesting features weather-wise all day. Towering cumulus have scattered throughout the state with a lot of moisture and instability associated with them, that if we were warm enough, they may produce a few pop-up storm clouds. A picture (below) was captured this afternoon from our ABC Seamless cam at these features.

At times, snow showers from these clouds have been heavy and reduced visibility. On the backside of the towering cloud below, the lower hanging parts are those heavy bursts of snow at times. But sporadic in nature, you could drive a block and go underneath one of these clouds for a time before coming back out to a lot of sunshine.

Another special feature that comes into play tonight is a cold front. Usually, cold fronts move from west to east, but this one comes from the northeast and moves to the southwest. We call this type of cold front a “back door” cold front. Behind it, temperatures by Saturday morning will be falling into the lower teens and single digits across the state.

Wind chill values *could* be as low as a few degrees below zero. Winds could still be gusting 30-35 mph at this time, giving us these bitter temperatures to start the weekend.

Highs struggle Saturday afternoon, with partly sunny skies and daytime temperatures only reaching the upper 20s and low 30s. But the colder air doesn’t settle for long. We’ll see warmer weather yet this weekend.

The second half of this upcoming weekend looks better temperature-wise. A lot more sunshine, too, as highs bump up to the 40s then 50s by Monday. Just in time for the start of spring!

And the pattern of Thursdays with precipitation continues next week with models showing rain chances next week. This time, a lot warmer as highs soar back to the 60s again.

Meteorologist Jessica Blum 
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