Icy Prospects for Tuesday AM

(Saturday, December 20, 2009) – On this eve of winter, the weather is quickly taking it’s place on the stage to welcomewinter’s arrival. The first day of winter promises to be the coldest day of the meteorological winter (December-

January-February). Check out the incredible temperature gradient from the 9 PM reports.

9PM Sfc Temps

For us, this will translate to lows in 20s and highs will also be in the 20s. This is what we’ve been going with since Thursday and feel it still looks good.

Clearing skies are noted back in SW MO and NW AR. This should work its way into our area after midnight. Sunday promises to be mostly sunny but temperatures will be 20 degrees below normal. The dozen predicted for sunday night looks reasonable!

Monday will be a comparably cold day with Sunday as the high pressure ridge moves across the area. Highs will likely only get to around 28 or so.

The return flow sets up Monday night and we will cloud-up and precipitation will break out after midnight. It should be light (less than 0.10″)and yet temperatures will be below freezing. 

Surface Temperature Forecast for Tuesday AM

 Feel NAM temperature guidance is the way to go as it has handled the recent arctic air events very well. The critical time for any travel problems will be between 6 and 9 am on Tuesday. GFS has consistenly indicated that the precipitation amounts will increase to between 0.10″ and 0.25″ between 6 am and noon Tuesday. Future forecasts will fine tune these temperatures and we’ll try to post on again late Sunday.