Cold Thursday, Warmer this Weekend

From KRBC Chief Meteorologist Randy Turner ..

You are probably hearing a lot about the cold air which has plunged much of the eastern part of the nation into the proverbial refrigerator. While we get just a smidge of the cold Thursday, it's not any colder than what we've seen so far.

I spent a lot of time Wednesday afternoon studying the upper level pattern and it's not until the middle of next week that the blocking high pressure ridge situated across the Rocky Mountain west breaks down. What that means for us is a steady stream of dry cold fronts every couple of days. In fact, north and northwesterly will be the prominent wind direction around here through early next week.

But that doesn't mean it's going to be cold all the time either. Thursday
will be our coldest day, slight warm-up Friday, back into the 60's Saturday,
slightly cooler Sunday, then 60's for early next week.

The pattern shifts about Wednesday of next week flattens out the high which allows low pressure systems to drop down from the Pacific Northwest into the Four Corners of the southwest U.S. That still isn't the best place to get rain in here (we need them a little farther south, like northern Mexico) but at least we have better hope of seeing moisture work its way back into our area with a pattern change.

The long range models are trying to paint some rain in our area around January 25th or 26th. As I wrote earlier, it's about the only hope we have at this time.

Wednesday Night: Clear early, then increasing clouds late. Low near 27.
Northeast wind 10 to 20.

Thursday: Mostly cloudy, high near 38. Northeast wind 10 to 20.

Thursday Night: Partly cloudy and cold, low near 24.

Friday: Partly cloudy, high near 50.

Friday Night: Mostly clear, low near 32.

Saturday: Mostly sunny, highs in the low 60's.

Saturday Night: Clear and 32.

Sunday: Mostly sunny, highs upper 50's.

Monday through Wednesday: Mostly sunny, highs in the middle 60's.