Tracking a cold front that does just enough
TODAY: Much like Monday, Tuesday starts in the upper 60s with abundant sunshine. With more of a south wind element in today's forecast, expect temperatures to climb 5 to 10 degrees warmer. Officially, today's forecast for Columbia sits at 97.
TONIGHT: Late Tuesday night cloud cover will increase, and a wind shift will occur as a "cold" front passes through the region. By early morning Wednesday, this will have largely passed through the area. Not much change comes from the front.
EXTENDED: It doesn't do much, but just enough. The biggest impact from Wednesday morning's front is the air mass shift that follows. We will still be hot on Wednesday, but the most extreme heat (105-110 degree heat index) gets shifted to our southeast. The timing of the front makes it so that the worst of the heat falls to our west today, and to our east tomorrow. Expect highs in the mid 90s and feels like temperatures in the upper 90s on Wednesday. Thursday we start to climb back into the upper 90s, feeling like low triple digits. Starting on Friday and into the weekend, we have two scenarios setting up. Our upper level high pressure is close to mid-Missouri, keeping highs in the triple digits a possibility. With that said, we're very close to the edge of that high pressure, which will open us up to the possibility of passing upper level waves that tend to ride the edge of these high pressure bubbles. This gives us a chance for rain, and if we see rain, we may get a break from the worst heat. This is the biggest variable in this week's forecast. Either way, temperatures remain hot through the weekend, with ever so slight rain chances ticking up Friday through Monday.
