Tracking another chance of a wintry mix with dangerously low temps into weekend

TODAY: Afternoon highs warm to near 40 degrees helping melt frozen slush on roadways with partly cloudy skies. Winds remain from the south at 8-12 mph and gusts up to 25 mph.

TONIGHT: Overnight lows cool to the mid-20s as skies become mostly cloudy. Winds remain out of the south at 10-15 mph.

EXTENDED: Thursday will likely start bright, with continued south winds. Temperatures are likely again capped in the upper 30s, to near 40. Clouds moving in through the afternoon and evening will precede our next chance for precipitation, which likely arrives late Thursday, into Thursday evening. This will likely start as rain and then transition to a rain snow mix. Depending on the track of this next system, we may keep the rain/snow transition line in the area through the night and well into Friday. This means we may not see everything switch to snow until well into Friday. Details are fuzzy surround accumulations, but they are possible. Current probabilities of at least an inch are high in mid-Missouri, but increase to our north and east as the storm strengthens significantly as it moves into the Ohio River valley/Great Lakes region. Another impact from this system, will be the dangerously cold air that it ushers into mid-Missouri. We expect highs in the teens over the weekend, with lows in the single digits. Early next week, the cold looks even more serious, with highs forecast in the single digits on Monday, with lows possibly below zero Monday and Tuesday mornings. While there is some uncertainty in exact temps these days, the best odds for morning lows spread a range from -7 to 2 degrees, signaling dangerous overnight cold becoming very likely. We expect to issue ABC 17 Stormtrack Weather Alert Days to message the seriousness of this cold. This will likely span the weekend and early next week.