It's shaping up to be a rather pleasing week for weather in the Ohio Valley if you're a fan of sunshine and progressive warmth. According to the National Weather Service, high pressure is set to dominate the early week forecast, promising us a stretch of dry conditions and a gradual warming trend with a nice ring.
For today, Sunday, we're looking at a northwest flow aloft with surface high pressure muscling in, even with a southern stream low to remain south of the area. It's the dry air that'll be the day's main character. Despite a few cumulus clouds potentially dotting our skies, largely in southern counties where some high-level clouds from the southern low may mosey on in temperatures are heading upward, with highs expected 'from the lower 50s north to the upper 50s south,' as described in the early morning update from the National Weather Service.
Looking ahead to tonight and rolling into Monday, we're sandwiched between the southern low languishing across the Southeast and a more peppy shortwave cruising through southern Canada, with the resultant west to southwest flow helping us out on the thermo side. It'll be substantially clear overhead come nighttime, helping temperatures dip into the 'lower and middle 30s,' but don't fret, it's just setting the stage for Monday's substantial sunshine and warmth enough to coax the mercury 'to highs in the lower and middle 60s.'
The longer-term outlook continues to smile on us, with 'Above normal temperatures are expected for the long term,' a trend that sounds mighty fine to those done with winter's nip. Dry conditions are forecast 'Monday night through most of the night Wednesday night,' a slight bump in cloud cover being the only hiccup courtesy of a sneaky boundary sneaking in mid-week. Wednesday might see temperatures vary a bit—more temperate '50s near and north of Interstate 70' while regions south of the Ohio River could bask near a balmy '70 degrees.' Thursday and Friday, for the most part, seem set to serve up a slice of early summer, with the thermostat flirting with the 70s.'
But remember, nothing good lasts forever, and the weather gods seem poised to remind us of that fact come Friday night and into the weekend. The experts tell us to brace for a 'stronger storm system, ' though they mercifully don't seem to be portending anything too dreadful. Sure, we might see 'wind gusts over 40 mph on Saturday,' but it sounds like a relatively fair trade-off with temperatures still clinging to the 60s and 70s. If you're looking skyward, expect 'VFR conditions through the TAF forecast period,' with smooth sailing forecast for the aviators among us, which ain't a bad note to end on.
