Dakota Storm Center: Thursday's Weather Blog

9:00pm

Happy Friday-eve, everyone!

Overview

There is a low pressure system over the Ohio River valley with a trough stretched through the Midwest. A second low is over the SW United States with a warm front stretched East, through the Southern Plains. These two systems may produce severe weather. There is a broad ridge of high pressure over Canada that is building south, over the Northern Plains & upper- Midwest.

Discussion

Across the area today we have seen cloudy skies with some isolated, light showers. Through the next couple of days, rain chances will come to an end with more sunshine and warmer temperatures. Today, the warm area on the map stretched across most of the state, North & East of the Missouri river valley. The SW corner of the state did not get out of the 30s & 40s. Minot got up to 61 & Fargo reached 62.

Across our region, there is a lot of cloud cover with scattered rain and snow moving, West. A low pressure system will continue to move East, through the Midwest and away from our area. A Canadian ridge of high pressure will expand to the South, over the Northern Plains. We will see rain chances ending, followed by gradually clearing skies through tonight & Friday. The next several days will bring little to no chance for rain with plenty of sunshine and warmer temperatures. The only exception is Saturday. We will see low rain chances along the Southern edge of our area.

Headlines include; rain chances ending followed by clearing skies and warmer temperatures. Daytime highs will climb into the 60s through the weekend and 70s next week. A very nice feel will return to the area.

Through the rest of tonight & Friday
Overnight, it will start cool off with mostly cloudy skies and a light to moderate wind out of the East & NE. Temps will fall through the 40s and into the 30s, resulting in a chilly feel overnight. By tomorrow, we will see continued clearing. Much of our area will end up seeing partly cloudy to mostly sunny conditions with warming temps and winds becoming breezy at times. Also, rain chances will be out of the forecast.

7day planner

Precip chances will come to an end, followed by clearing skies and warming temps as we wrap up the work week. By Friday, daytime highs will be close to average for this time of the year. This weekend will bring more sunshine with temps climbing into the 60s and a pleasant feel. By the end of the 7day planner we will be looking at highs in the 70s. After today out next chance for rain is not on the 7day planner.

Tonight, we will see mostly to partly cloudy skies with skies beginning to clear out for parts of the area. Lows will be in the 30s with a light wind out of the East/NE 2-10mph.

Friday will bring continued clearing resulting in partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies and a little more warming. Highs 47-61 (most of our area will top out in the 50s) with an East wind 5-15mph.

Friday night we will see partly to mostly cloudy skies with continued clearing and a cool feel. Lows 34-41 with an East/NE wind 2-12mph.

Saturday, expect plenty of sunshine with in & out light clouds and more seasonable temps. Highs 54-64 with an East wind 10-20mph, becoming gusty at times.

Saturday night we will see mostly clear skies with a cool feel. Lows in the 30s with a NE wind 5-15mph and calming.