Friday 8/17 Update

It was a wet and wild Thursday night for many of us!  An intense line of storms brought high winds, heavy rains, and tons of lightning across the region last night.  Numerous reports of hail and wind damage...you can check a summary of last night's storm reports here.  The good news last night was that many spots picked up a good amount of rain.  Here's a glance at radar estimated rainfall from this system:

All of this was the result of a cold front moving across the region.  This Friday morning, the front is still making slow progress to the southeast, resulting in overcast skies.  It will take a while to clear things out, but I'm pretty optimistic that we'll see some blue skies sometime in the afternoon.  You can check the progress of the clearing line by looking at the visible satellite loop here.

By 7AM tomorrow morning, the front will be well to our south, with high pressure building in from the central Plains:

The jet stream setup for this weekend features a big time trough across the eastern U.S.:

This means a gorgeous Saturday, with below average temperatures!  We'll wake up to lows in the mid/upper 50's tomorrow and Sunday morning, with highs each day in the lower 80's...with low humidity too! 

Lots of sunshine should top off a nearly perfect Saturday forecast...however some minor changes will highlight the Sunday forecast.  Below is the 500 mb chart (mid-level of atmosphere)...notice the shades of green and yellow over MO & IL?  That is where we will find a mid-level disturbance that will lead to an increase in clouds Sunday.  This will keep things cooler that normal, and a few sprinkles or showers are not totally out of the question.

That disturbance will pass on by for the start of the new work week...and eventually more typical late summertime temperatures will return.  While it won't be any big heat wave, the long-range GFS model shows a ridge slowly expanding eastward next week, spreading hotter air back into the region:

Looks like we'll probably make a return to the lower 90's for the second half of next week and into the following weekend....and unless something changes, rain chances look pretty small over the next week.  So here's how it all looks in your 7-Day Planning Forecast:

Enjoy this nice weekend!!!