If you didn't go outside until after seven this lucky morning you missed the last 50 degree weather we're going to see for a while. The temperature is well on its way down to 30 degrees by early evening as a cold air mass fills in behind this morning's cold front passage. The low pressure system that the front is attached to is wound up really tightly and that's going to bring us a windy day. A Wind Advisory has been posted. Watch out for westerly winds blowing at 25-30 mph with the occasional gust over 40 mph.
The good news with the wind is that all the mixing that it causes will prevent the temperature from falling too far overnight. Tomorrow looks to be not quite as breezy with a mix of sun and clouds and a high in the mid 30s. The coldest air arrives on Sunday. The wind and clouds disappear Saturday night so radiational cooling will let the mercury drop to around 20 degrees. Sunday's high will be in the upper 20s.
Warmer air on the back side of this high pressure system will arrive by Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Monday is expected to be sunny with a high around 40. The next chance of rain will be Monday night or Tuesday. We'll have to face that storm without any radar. The 1988 vintage National Weather Service radar at Brookhaven is being replaced by a spiffy dual polarization radar. The new system will let meteorologist better distinguish between rain, snow, melting snow and hail; more accurately detect the areas of heavy rain within storms; better estimate rainfall amounts and better track tornado debris.
