Daily Weather Discussion

If you are getting a little tired of the cold, I have some fantastic news for you this morning. If you have the itch to do more skiing, snowmobiling, snow fort building or snow angel making, I have great news for you, too.

First let’s talk about the January thaw. Today will be sunny and quite a bit warmer than yesterday. High temps will climb into the 40s this afternoon. Tomorrow will be even warmer with afternoon temps in the upper 40s. Some places could get close to 50 degrees tomorrow. Mild weather will stick around through Saturday, and then we are in for some big changes during the last half of the weekend.

As I mentioned yesterday, we are keeping an eye on a potential winter storm system that could bring measurable snow and wind late this weekend into early next week. While much of our KSFY coverage area will likely get some snow, our latest data is suggesting that the system will have a more significant impact on the southeastern part of our KSFY coverage area… Southeastern South Dakota, southern Minnesota, western and northern Iowa and most of Nebraska. The system is still several days away, so it’s too early to pin down the track and get specific with potential snow totals, however, be aware that there is a good chance that a winter storm will impact the region on Sunday and Monday. Stay tuned for updates… We’ll get more specific with the storm track and snow forecast over the next couple of days.

In the meantime, enjoy the 40s!

Get ready for another blast of bitterly cold, arctic air. Today will be partly to mostly cloudy and breezy with high temperatures below zero. The wind will be from the northwest gusting to between 20 and 30 mph and that will keep the wind chill factor in the 25 to 35 below zero range (even colder in some places) through tomorrow morning. Wind Chill Warnings and Advisories are in effect from today into tomorrow.

While I don’t expect much more than a few flurries today, the snow from yesterday will blow around, reducing visibility at times. The wind will decrease to about 10 to 20 mph tonight, 5 to 15 mph by tomorrow morning.

By tomorrow afternoon our temps will climb back above zero. That will be the start of a slow warm-up that will take us through the work week. By Friday, highs will be back in the low to mid 40s. The 40s are only going to hang around for about a day. The weekend will be colder with areas of snow possible late Saturday and Sunday.

It is another bitter, dangerously cold morning. Once again, a Wind Chill Advisory is in effect for most of the region through this morning. Actual temperatures are colder than 20 below zero with the wind chill factor dropping to 40 below or colder at times.

Despite the cold this morning, most places will climb back above zero this afternoon. That’s after over three straight days of below zero temperatures.  If you’re keeping track, we dropped below zero at midnight on December 30th… So we’re looking at about 80 to 85 straight hours of below zero temperatures by the time we creep back above zero later today.   

Unfortunately, our time above zero will be short-lived. A cold front will blast across the Dakotas later today into tonight, bringing a few scattered light snow showers later today into this evening and another below zero night tonight. While most nights this week will drop below zero, the good news is that all the high temperatures on the 7 Day forecast are above zero. By the weekend, morning lows will be back above zero with high temps in the 20s.