Cold snap is here...Details below....

Here we go again right back into the Arctic deep freeze...Good news is shouldn't be as bad as the last one....Bad news is temps will remain below norms for the upcoming work week.With maybe a true Jan thaw in the longer term.

CURRENT CONDITIONS.....

Temps at this hour in the upper teens to lower 20s across the FA...Winds have picked up overnight,right now winds range from 10 to 15 MPH with gusts up to 20 to 25 MPH across the FA...Still have cloudy skies being reported in the SFC OBS with some light snow/flurries also being reported...

SFC ANALYSIS....

Arctic cold front has pushed through the area overnight.Frontal boundary is located over Far Northeast IL into Central IL,Meanwhile a weak area of low pressure is located over far Northeastern WI..Very strong high pressure is located over Northwestern Canada..How strong 1056 MBS for pressure reading......

TODAY THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT.....

High pressure building into the areas from Canada and departing low pressure and it's trof will give us some wind-chill problems as pressure gradients increase,Mainly this morning into the afternoon hours...Pressure raises of 1.0 to 2.0 MBS through out the forecast area should lead to winds around the 10 to 15 MPH with gusts up to 20 MPH..Which as been recorded her at the weather center...Light snow/flurries should becoming to end by this late morning early afternoon.....Temps today will be falling so the highs have been reached this morning already...Tonight strong 1045 MB high pressure moves into far Northwestern ND,however it effect will be felt all across the area..Winds will lighten up and skies are forecast to clear off,this will set the stage for lows to fall from the -20 to -15 range..Saturday Arctic high pressure will had made camp for the rest of the weekend over the FA..High be hard pressed to get above zero most area under sunny skies...Temps should range from the -5 to +2 or so....Saturday night temps fall even colder than tonight...Just to be on the safe side I will cut guidance temps here...run with -25 to -18 through out the whole FA Sunday we will see yet another very cold day,once again temps will struggle to reach zero..Guidance showing above zero many areas,however I don't buy into that after looking at the trend all winter so far,so once again I got out the weed whacker and did some trimming...-8 to -1 looks to be a ok...Sunday night will range the temps to -18 to -12.....Wind may be lighten up,however with cold highs/lows it won't take much wind to produce wind chill readings -35 to -20 below...

MONDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT....

WAA does slowly kick into play as the Arctic high pressure pushes off to the Southeast..This will allow for a slow warming trend through out this time frame..Highs will bounce back to above zero while lows remain on either side of zero..By the end of this period highs are forecasted to be in the lower 20s while lows by Wednesday night drop to around 10 or so...A rather dull week ahead...This warm up will be like our last warm up with forecasted temps...

Thursday THROUGH FRIDAY....

We see a chance of some light snow/flurries come into play as a clipper like system moves just North of the area..Temps not to bad but still below norms...

LONGER TERM (JAN 24 THROUGH FEB 2)

Temps through this period should remain below norms with a chance of some off and on light snows/flurries

FEB 3 THROUGH FEB 8...

We start to see a nice warm up ..The first part of this time frame still rather cold..However by Friday the 6 th temps could warm close to 0C...Looks like temps from the 7 th , and 8th should be in the upper 20s to low 30s...As far as precip goes...We will have to watch a clipper like system for the 3rd it arrears like a strong one attm...If it is we could be dealing with a better chance of accumulating snows,models showing QPF around .25 to .50 across much of my central and Northern areas...Could this be another Dec 30 snowstorm?? To early to tell..Also will have to watch a system moving in from the West Southwest for late in this time frame...This could bring a mess of precip to the area....however once again this is so far out there it is nearly impossible to say what will transpire...We will watch though....