CHILLY

Temperatures dropped off quickly last night as winds relaxed. By 1:00 to 2:00 AM a few 30s were showing up across our area. Fayetteville was down to 39 at one point, though within the course of an hour all the cool spots rose up by some ten plus degrees. A swift breeze out of the NW brought in some warmer air and much of our northern area shot into the low 50s. Areas that remained calm, such as much of the AR River Valley, continued to cool and saw readings 10 to 15 degrees cooler than up north!

Could we see a freeze tonight at Drake Field? Air aloft (850mb) tomorrow morning looks to be roughly around 3 C in Fayetteville. Mixing this out to the surface yields a temp of roughly 52 F. Providing we're clear, which we should be, ten degrees can pulled from this number, yielding a 42. With calm winds the temp could fall possibly as much as another ten, after all we're talking about Drake Field, though with the Low to our south progged to move north we'll likely have enough of a pressure gradient to keep a N to NE wind blowing at 5 to 10 through the night. The answer: not likely but mid to upper 30s certainly are a distinct possibility.

Posted by Ted Zarras at 10:30 AM