Good Monday everyone and welcome to another awesome weather day. Temps over the weekend were nothing short of fantastic and today’s readings should continue to tickle your fall fancy. It’s looking more and more like we are seeing a clear fall pattern trying to take shape across much of North America and it’s one that may be skewed cooler than normal around here.

Sunny skies and temps in the 70s will make today a gorgeous start to the weekend. We will slowly begin to climb the temperature ladder by the middle and end of the week as the 80s return. A system will cross the plains and work closer to us by Friday and this should be able to touch off some scattered showers and storms. The rain chances will likely hang around into Saturday and Sunday. The GFS rainfall forecast through Sunday isn’t that impressed with the totals…

Temps this weekend will start warm and end cool as a cold front slips through here. That front may set the stage for a much cooler period next week as a big dip develops in the jet stream across the central and eastern parts of the country. Take a look at the GFS 500mb forecast for next week…

Those images are 5 days apart, but look very similar to one another with a big ridge up the west coast, a trough across the east and cold air source in Canada. One of the reasons the maps above didn’t change very much over that 5 day period is because of the amount of blocking the models are forecasting. When blocking starts showing up, it can often hold a pattern in place a while.

You can really get a sense of the blocks by looking at the European Model 500mb Height Anomalies for the middle of next week…

Those are some wicked anomalies on that map and I would love to see those show up later in the fall and winter. Speaking of winter… I will be posting some more winter thoughts and model forecasts this week. Spread the word.

Have a great Monday and take care.