Tracking a mild Wednesday, bitter cold sets in by Friday

TONIGHT: Increasing clouds with a few flurries east. Lows in the upper 20s.

TOMORROW: Partly to mostly sunny with highs in the lower 40s.

EXTENDED: A cold front moves through the region tonight, bringing more clouds overnight into early Wednesday, and perhaps a few flurries especially east of Highway 54 this evening. Wednesday will be the last day near or above 40 for the week, with another cold front approaching on Wednesday night, shifting winds a bit from south to west. Thursday will be a bit cooler behind that front, albeit dry with highs in the mid-30s. We'll start to feel the effects of an arctic high pressure system sliding in from the north on Friday, with morning temperatures dropping to the single digits. Highs only reach the low teens, setting the stage for a bitter weekend. Wind chills on Friday look to be below zero, and the coldest morning will be Saturday as lows could fall below zero with wind chills between -10 and -15 degrees. With cold air locked in for the weekend, we'll be watching a low pressure system slide across the Mid-South over the weekend, potentially bringing winter impacts stretching from Texas into the Southeast. If this system were to take a more northerly track, the northern bands of the system could bring accumulating snow to the region. If it tracks across northern Louisiana and Mississippi, we may be too far north to get any accumulation at all for our area. Forecast model solutions have not been in agreement, while ensemble (the mean solution of all model runs) guidance has consistently painting around 1-2" along and south of I-70. Even if precipitation trends farther north into Missouri, it will have to overcome some very dry and extremely cold air, potentially limiting amounts from reaching the higher end. This type of snow will be powdery given the lack of moisture, potentially causing visibility issues Saturday into Saturday night. The best potential for snow accumulation will lie across areas along and south of I-44, closer to the center of low pressure. If we do see snowfall, precipitation looks to move out of the area by Saturday night, leaving us with a cold Sunday morning in the single digits with highs in the low 20s. Next week still looks cold to start, but we'll finally get closer to freezing again between Monday and Tuesday.