Tracking persistent warmth ahead of widespread rain chances late in the week

TODAY: Monday is the first of more prominent warmth in the forecast. Highs are near 60 by the afternoon thanks to a warm front lifting across the region. South winds are sustained around 5-10 mph with gusts to 15 mph this afternoon. Skies are partly cloudy but bright.

TONIGHT: Temperatures may linger in the 50s until nearly midnight with continued south winds until a cold front passes overnight. Winds from the west will allow temperatures to fall into the 40s.

EXTENDED: Tonight's cold front will only bring in slightly cooler air, with a mild airmass sliding in from the west. Temperatures are expected to reach well into the 50s Tuesday afternoon under partly cloudy skies. More sunshine and broad south flow will lift highs likely to near 60 again on Wednesday. This warmth persists into Thursday as another warm front lifts across the region, this time with a chance for rain alongside it. Showers and some weak elevated thunderstorms may attend the warm front as it lifts through the region Thursday morning into the afternoon. Rain chances are greatest in the afternoon and evening, as continued showers and thunderstorms look likely south of the warm front and ahead of a cold front to the west. The cold front is forecast to stretch out to the southwest, where another low will form and move northward along the front into mid-Missouri by Friday morning. This keeps rain in the forecast through Friday morning, but as it passes, drier and cooler conditions are expected to filter in by the weekend. While track and intensity changes will impact these numbers, it currently looks like we could see widespread rain amounts greater than a half an inch between Thursday and Friday.