January-level chill to be joined by blustery snow showers

2nd COLDEST WEEKEND OF 2023

The coldest weekend in 8 weeks since late January is on the way with near zero wind chills by Saturday morning

Snow showers to develop late Saturday morning and afternoon in an atmosphere rendered explosively unstable by unusually frigid temps aloft

Strong winds are being driven by a tremendous pressure gradient across the Plains and Midwest. A HUGE change in barometric pressure between a powerful storm (989 mb=29.20”) near James Bay at the south end of Hudson Bay in Canada and a formidable late season Canadian high pressure over the Dakotas by Saturday morning (central pressure 1040 mb=30.71”) is to be in place. This pressure imbalance leads to strong winds as nature attempts to bring pressures into balance. It’s an effort which is only slowly achieved—thus winds are to remain elevated well into the coming weekend.
Marry thermometer temps predicted to drop to the mid teens by morning to strong west winds sustained around 18 mph but gusting at times as high as 35 mph Saturday morning—and the result is WIND CHILL TEMPS due to drop to NEAR ZERO as Saturday dawns. This is impressive any time of the year but even more so past mid March, and we’re going to do that with NO snow on the ground! That’s not an everyday occurrence this late in the season. We’ll have what amounts to early January-levels temps Saturday—only they’ll be occurring past mid March.

THURSDAY NEXT WEEK—though rains, some possibly thundery, are likely to arrive at the same time with a new storm system’s SOUTHERLY WINDS. And, it appears the “warmth” will be transient—in other words, temporary! While temps turn down again beyond that system, we’re getting to the time of year when visits by warmer temps will be on the upswing—a wonderful prospect! AND REMEMBER—The VERNAL EQUINOX—the ASTRONOMICAL start to the SPRING SEASON arrives at 4:26 pm CDT this coming Monday (March 20th)!