On and off showers for Veteran’s Day

MACON, Georgia. (41NBC/WMGT) – Cloudy skies and scattered showers will stick around Middle GA during the daylight hours of Veteran’s Day.

Today

Cloudy skies moved in overnight, and it wasn’t long before showers joined them. Some scattered showers began to pop-up around Middle GA as early as 4 am, and they will remain possible around the region through tonight. The cloud cover will remain overhead for the most part as well, though a few small windows of sunshine will be possible this afternoon. Despite this, temperatures will remain warm topping off in the mid to upper 70s. Southerly wind is playing a large roll there along with the overnight cloud cover; temperatures out the door this morning were close to 30 degrees warmer than they were Monday morning thanks to the excess insulation and moisture.

Tonight the cold front will arrive, and it’s bringing a line of thunderstorms and heavy rain with it. The only thing is the storms are expected to peter out as the front arrives in Middle GA. Where exactly that will happen is unknown, but locations further west in the region are more likely to see higher rain totals. There is no severe weather threat with the thunderstorms tonight either, so you can relax and use the stormy sounds to help you sleep. A few strong gusts of wind will be possible with any thunderstorms that move through, however. Once the cold front passes the wind will begin to shift out of the northwest. Cloud cover will clear heading into Friday morning as drier air from the northwest fills in. Low temperatures will still be quite warm, however, bottoming out in the mid 50s.

Tomorrow

More pleasant conditions will return quickly on Friday with most of the cloud cover clearing out by sunrise. Temperatures out the door will be rather warm as the wind will just have completed its shift out of the northwest, kicking the day off in the mid 50s. The high temperatures in the afternoon however will only climb into the upper 60s and lower 70s despite the fact that there will be almost no clouds in the sky. The northwest winds will play a large roll in that as they continue to bring cool and dry air into the area. The wind will return briefly to the west-southwest overnight Friday, limiting how far temperatures overnight will fall. It will still be rather cool come Saturday morning as low temperatures will be in the lower 40s for most of the region. The northwest winds will return ahead of Saturday morning as well.

The Weekend

The temperatures heading into the weekend will actually continue to cool despite the fact that sunny skies will be prevalent all weekend long. The system that brought rain and a cold front Thursday will have petered out, however the jet stream will still have a nice dip over the southeastern US, keeping the northwesterly winds at play. These will continue to feed the Georgia atmosphere with cool and dry air, topping temperatures on Saturday off in the lower to mid 60s and on Sunday in the upper 50s and lower 60s. The overnight low temperatures will also be colder as the humidity levels continue to plummet. Saturday’s lows will be in the low to mid 30s (should remain above freezing) and Sunday’s in the mid to upper 30s.

The clear and cool conditions will carry into next week as the jet stream continues to hold the current pattern of ridge in the west and trough in the east. Given the fact that winter 2021 is expected to be another La Niña winter, this type of pattern will be likely throughout the winter months leading to mild and dry conditions. The wind at the surface does look to shift away from the northwest beginning on Tuesday, however, which should start to alter the pattern ahead of the next potential storm system. It is likely that will move in some time late next week or next weekend.

Follow Meteorologist Aaron Lowery on Facebook (Aaron Lowery 41NBC) and Twitter (@ALowWX) for weather updates throughout the day. Also, you can watch his forecasts Monday through Friday on 41NBC News at Daybreak (6-7 a.m.) and 41Today (11 a.m).