Tracking spotty showers, slightly warmer Friday

TONIGHT: Mostly cloudy with lows in the upper 40s. Rain staying south of the Lake of the Ozarks.

TOMORROW: Partly to mostly cloudy with highs in the upper 60s to low 70s. Spotty to scattered showers for parts of the area late in the day. Most areas end up with trace amounts of rain or less.

EXTENDED: Tomorrow will start off a bit warmer with temperatures in the upper 40s. A light southwest breeze will help get temperatures up to about 70 in the afternoon with a chance for scattered showers across western and southern portions of the state by afternoon/evening. Unfortunately this won't make much of a dent in the growing drought area. Scattered showers are possible through about midday on Saturday for areas along and south of Highway 50. Winds start to pick up on Sunday from the northwest, keeping temperatures in the lower 60s. An upper level blocking pattern sets up next week with upper high pressure centered right over the Plains, keeping any active weather from heading our way. We'll gradually warm back up into the upper 60s to low 70s by mid-week. Some of the forecast models are hinting at a strong enough low pressure system to ripple through the jet stream Thursday into Friday that could potentially bring rain, but there's much variation in temperature toward the end of the week too, lowering confidence that far out. We'll likely end the month almost 4" below average on rainfall.