As most of the nation has remained calm this week, a low pressure system sitting over the Southwest tomorrow afternoon will bring chaos to the Rockies and Plains starting late Thursday into Friday evening. This system will cause a wide range of precipitation with blizzards and heavy snowfall anywhere from 6-14 inches effecting the Central Rockies and Plains. This low will also create heavy rainfall along the Gulf Coast and potentially powerful thunderstorms in parts of Texas and Oklahoma that will produce damaging winds and hail. Good day to be a Midwesterner!
For the Champaign-Urbana area we have seen a string of beautiful days, however somehow amazingly enough we have not managed to break any records. As the new month begins, we gear up for Groundhog Day tomorrow and we can expect a day that makes us think that the groundhog won't see it’s shadow and winter is almost over! Tomorrow, we can see a daytime high of 52 °F and an early morning low of 33°F. Most of the day will remain mostly sunny with a calm W/NW wind at 3-7 mph. For Friday, another above-normal day with a high of 52°F and a low of 35°F. Cloud cover will be partly sunny throughout the day becoming mostly cloudy overnight with a possible chance of showers in the evening hours. Winds will be mainly from the E ranging from 10-20 mph.
My forecast for Thursday and Friday were pretty accurate with both days reaching a daytime high of 54°F only 2 degrees off from my forecast. The lows for both days got down to 32°F just slightly cooler than my prediction. I was correct regarding the calm wind for Thursday with an average of 2.9 mph, but the average wind for Friday was calmer than I had thought at 10.1 mph with a maximum sustained wind of 20 mph. The cloud cover for Thursday was more cloudy throughout the day and more sunny for Friday than I had initially forecasted, but the precipitation did come as expected with some evening showers on Friday.
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