Middle 50s in early December? While not record setting, that's what we had today thanks to a mainly sunny sky and south winds. This won't be the last of the 50s in the days ahead as our temperature pattern remains rather unstable heading into the weekend.
A cold front is moving through this evening that will temporarily put an end to the warmth for Friday. Highs will struggle to get out of the 30s with a gusty north wind. We will at least see a few peeks of sunshine throughout the day.
The weekend will bring with it another nicely timed warmup as winds switch back to the south.
This will be in response to a new storm system organizing in the Midwest that promises to bring rain by late Sunday afternoon. Until then, temperatures will climb through the 40s on Saturday and then end up in the lower 50s by Sunday.
Much of the weekend does remain dry with the rain holding off until we approach Sunday evening.
Meanwhile to our north, a more potent arctic air mass will begin building.
As the map shows above, places in the Dakotas will likely not get out of the teens for highs on Sunday afternoon. While we won't get that cold here, it shows you how strong this next cold surge will be.
Tuesday and Wednesday of next week promise to be the coldest forecast we have going for the next two weeks.
Highs will remain limited in the 20s both days while areas to our north may not even escape the single digits for highs. Those areas still have snow on the ground which further enhances the cold air for that region.
Meanwhile, here in the Quad Cities, we remain snow-free which will allow us to escape those frigidly cold single digit values, for now. Wind chills, however, will likely be running in the upper single digits to middle teens at times, so be prepared to bundle up!
As for any snow prospects here closer to home, we will have a weak disturbance passing through on Wednesday that promises to bring a few snow showers. Right now it doesn't look like anything significant and we will already start to see some modest warmth return by the following weekend.
- Meteorologist Andrew Stutzke