On my last blog, Thomas commented "Not much of a Winter so far."  Thomas, you are right.  Sure we've had our cold snaps for a day or two, here and there, but as expected due to La Nina -- this winter has hardly brought down much of Old Man Winter into the Brazos Valley.  

In fact winter is hitting hard across the northern portions of the United States -- but here at home, we are actually moving towards a couple of more spring-like days ahead -- wind and warm temperatures included.

In the Deep Freeze

46°.  That was our morning low.  Did you wake up thinking that was cold?  Try this on for size -- portions of the Dakotas woke up to 50 below zero when the wind chill was factored in.  Actual air temperatures ran -10° to -15° this morning.  As I type this at 11am, Minneapolis is still reporting a wind chill of -24°, Minot, ND -33° and Billings, MT -18°.  Depending on which side of the jet stream you are on today -- it makes all the difference between a mild to warm afternoon vs. a bitter cold day ahead.

 Winds Stir Up

When you have a 80° to 90° spread in temperatures from one half of the country to another -- you're bound to kick up a little bit of wind because of it.  The National Weather Service in Bolder, CO had to close until 10am this morning due to forecast wind gusts upwards of 95mph! Looking through the observations from this morning, wind gusts were recorded up to 75mph -- if not higher in between the recording times at the top of each hour.  

While we aren't expecting near 100mph winds here at home, don't think we won't get a decent kite flying day out of this.  Winds are breezy through the afternoon from the south and southwest at 10-20mph sustained, with higher gusts upwards of 25mph.  Hope you can handle a bit of wind too...because it looks like it will stick around through a good part of the next 7 days. 

Temperature Roller Coaster / Chance of Rain?

Even with the jet stream (aka the weather super highway) staying well to our north, we'll work in a series of weak cold fronts over the next several days.  Highs topping off in the 70s today and Friday will be knocked back as our first front enters the picture by Saturday morning.  

Saturday's cool down won't last long as highs top off in the 70s once again by Sunday -- but hold on, here comes another front. Monday highs are back into the 60s yet again.

Think we are done?  We aren't done yet.  A third system slides through the jet stream, but one looks to drop a bit farther to the south.  While it is still a bit of a way off, on paper it looks like a decent chance for rain could be in store for the area Tuesday and Wednesday.  Nothing certain as of yet -- but stay tuned as we see how things play out over the next several days.