We've got two more cold days to contend with before a mid-week warming. Today will see a mix of sun and clouds and a high near freezing. An Alberta Clipper clips the region tonight. With little moisture this system won't bring anything stronger than clouds and an occasional flurry late tonight and tomorrow morning. Behind the clipper Tuesday will be breezy and again have a high near 32.
The air mass behind the clipper is a relatively mild one. Wednesday's high under sunny skies should reach the mid 30s and it looks like temperatures will be above normal, in the low 40s, Thursday and Friday. A slight cooling will arrive in time for the long weekend.
Let's look back at the temperatures of the Aughts! A plot of daily temperatures, or temperature anomalies, is a mess to look at. Instead we've graphed cumulative temperature anomalies because they smooth out the day-to-day mess. The last ten years were 0.6 degrees warmer than the 1971-2000 average at Central Park. The coldest year of the decade, 2003, was below normal almost non-stop for the first half of the year before leveling off. In contrast, the sixth warmest year on record, 2006, began and ended with sustained warm periods and not much cooling in between. Last year started out cold, warmed enough to be above average in May and June before going into a tailspin for most of the rest of the year. The takeaway being each year has its warm and cold spells and you can't really tell what the longer-term trend will be based on one of those short-term spells.
