Forecast: Cool start to work week

Beautiful late week warm-up

Today's Daily Digit

 

A somewhat subjective rating of the
day's weather, on a scale of 0 to 10.

 

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Bright sunshine beckons, but a bit brisk.
 
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Today: Mostly sunny. 49-54. | Tonight: Mostly cloudy. 35-40. | Tomorrow: Chance of light rain. 45-50. | A Look Ahead | Get Express Forecast by E-mail

The week ahead is a tale of two halves. The first half is cool, with crisp sunshine (Monday) followed by dreary rain shower possibilities Tuesday into Wednesday. But the second half is a thing of a beauty, with temperatures trending sharply upward with 60s on Thursday and well into the 70s Friday. The weekend turns a bit a cooler, but few will complain about sunny 60s.

Snow Potential Index: 0 (↓) - Think it's almost time to retire the SPI. Maybe Groundhog Phil was right.

 

The SPI is a daily assessment of the potential for accumulating snow for the next week on a 0-10 scale. Get the 'SPI' on Twitter

 

Today (Monday): A little cold front pushed south through the region yesterday, and we feel its effects today. The sunshine is sparkling and the air is fresh, but winds from the north hold in the chill, and afternoon highs only reach the upper 40s to low 50s. Confidence: Medium-High

Tonight: A weak area of low pressure approaches from the southwest tonight, increasing cloud cover. Light rain showers that could develop late probably remain south of the metro region. Overnight lows range from the mid-30s in the cooler suburbs to near 40 downtown. Confidence: Medium

Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend...

Tomorrow (Tuesday): Weak low pressure very slowly edges closer to the region but there’s only a 40% chance the light rain emerges in the afternoon as a lot of the energy associated with the system hangs back. Damp winds from the east coupled with cloud cover keep high temperatures from rising much above 50. Confidence: Medium

Tuesday night: This is when we have the best rainfall potential. A wave of low pressure crosses the region, possibly dropping around 0.5” of rain (early estimate, we’ll fine tune this in future updates). Temperatures only drop back from 40-45. Confidence: Medium

We may have some light rain hanging around Wednesday morning followed by mostly cloudy skies in the afternoon. As the flow becomes more from the west, temperatures moderate a bit, with highs near 60. Skies remain mostly cloudy Wednesday night, with lows 38-43 (suburbs-city). Confidence: Medium

Thursday and Friday are probably the two nicest days of the week. After perhaps a little fog Thursday morning, sunshine and winds from the west dry us out and warm us up. Highs should reach 65-70. It’s mostly clear Thursday night with lows in the 40s. Friday may well be one of the nicest afternoons of 2011 to date. Under mostly sunny skies, it’s very warm, withs 75-80. A cold front slides through the region Friday night with just a slight chance of a rain shower. Otherwise, it’s partly cloudy with lows in the 40s. Confidence: Medium

While it’s not as warm as Friday, the weekend still looks great at this juncture. Both days probably bring sunshine with highs near 60 Saturday and into the 60s Sunday. Overnight lows are in the upper 30s to mid-40s. Confidence:Medium