Tracking warmth and rain chances

TODAY: Thursday is partly cloudy and cold, at least at first. Temperatures this morning falling into the teens, with wind chills a few degrees cooler amid a light east breeze. A warm front moving in tonight may arrive soon enough to climb temperatures into the 50s along I-44, while highs only reach mid-to-upper 30s in Columbia and 20s near Macon.

TONIGHT: Winds remain easterly most of the night, and temperatures stop warming. We'll see another northward surge of the warm front on Friday, so we fall into the 20s and 30s by Friday morning.

EXTENDED: Friday is warmer, with highs reaching the 40s across most of the region. Rain showers are still expected Friday, but the low pressure system responsible is starting to slow down in the forecast, pushing arrival of rain into the afternoon at the soonest, with most seeing rain hold off until overnight into Saturday morning. This means that rain is now expected to linger further into Saturday with less dry time expected. This now makes Friday a better day to get out and get chores done, with Saturday becoming more of a soggy day. Sunday still looks dry, but another system is quick to arrive by Monday morning, bringing a chance at rain and possibly Thunder if you're lucky. We'll be mild through all of this with 50s forecast Saturday through Monday. Behind Monday's rain we trend cooler into next week. These rain chances could bring a total half inch to one and a half inches of rain with highest totals in the east.