textproduct: Wilmington

SYNOPSIS

High pressure will lead to dry conditions through Saturday. A low pressure system moving through the Ohio Valley will bring the next chance for precipitation on Sunday. Below normal temperatures will continue into next week.

NEAR TERM /THROUGH TONIGHT/

Surface high pressure will be centered over the southern Great Lakes early this evening before shifting off to the east through tonight. As it does, a southern stream system will lift northeast into the eastern Tennessee Valley later tonight.

While skies have partially cleared from the north this afternoon, some mid and high level clouds will continue to stream northeastward across the area at times this evening. Clouds will then begin to thicken up later tonight across at least our southern areas, ahead of a low pressure system moving off to our southeast. The temperature forecast for tonight will be a little tricky given the light winds, snow cover and variable cloud cover. Expect to see an early drop off in areas that remain clear enough, and then a steadying or maybe even slowly rising trend later tonight as clouds increase. Will range lows tonight from the lower single digits in our far northwest to the upper teens in our far south/southeast. The current forecast keeps temperatures just above the records, but we may get close in the north depending on cloud cover: CMH 8(1976), DAY 6 (1901), CVG 9 (1886).

SHORT TERM /FRIDAY THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT/

Surface high pressure will slowly weaken across the region through the day on Friday as a weak cold front approaches from the northwest through Friday night. Skies will become partly cloudy through the day on Friday as we remain cold, with highs ranging from the upper 20s north to the mid 30s south. Lows Friday night will be in the upper teens to lower 20s.

LONG TERM /SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY/

Saturday looks to have a weak surface boundary clipping the lower Great Lakes and washing out over the CWA. Also noted with varying timing/intensity is a strongly sheared yet respectable h5 vort max found primarily during the daytime hours. Just enough information for me to add flurries to the forecast at this moment in time.

Sunday is expected to see a sfc low over MO track east into OHVly and open into a relatively broad open trough ahead of a cold front. The front looks to cross in the afternoon, bringing with it the next chance for snow. European deterministic model at this time frame stands out. Looking at the ensemble MOS at DAY, the 00Z Euro has a standard deviation of 23 in 12 hour daytime pops ranging from 78% to 13%. While not as drastic, temp standard deviation increases to 3 for the overnight lows (25 vs 12 deg) and remains at a 3 or higher going forward in time. Ultimately, this leads me to call into question the European and subsequently the NBM beyond Sunday.

Ahead of the low, east/southeast wind should prevail and quickly shift w/nw by the afternoon. NBM was adjusted wrt temps being too warm in the south/southeast CWA which naturally introduced a rain/snow mix with an unreasonable n/nwwd extension. Dropped temps on Sun which fell in line a little better with offices to the w and s, and pushed the r/s line a little higher using 35/37 sfc temps as thresholds.

Another l/w trough is being offered up for Wednesday, and the trailing surface front looks to be equally strong. Given current solutions, warm air ahead of it should keep an all-liquid ptype. I would expect a changeover to snow before it ends, but this type of detail isn't reasonable to convey this far out - let's just call it warmer with rain.

Coolest temps of the period occur on Sunday with highs in the 20s, near 30 in the far sern CWA and overnight lows in the single digits nw, mid-upper teens most other locations, near 20 in the far se.

AVIATION /16Z THURSDAY THROUGH MONDAY/

Sct to bkn MVFR clouds across the region should continue to decrease through late afternoon as some mid and high level clouds stream overhead. A low pressure system will move into the Tennessee Valley overnight and this will lead to an increase in MVFR to lower VFR cigs at the southern TAF sites later tonight into early Friday morning. High pressure will build into the region through the day on Friday with VFR conditions expected through the tail end of the TAF period.

OUTLOOK...MVFR CIGs are possible Saturday into Sunday.

ILN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

OH...None. KY...None. IN...None.