A nearly perfect forecast will be had through this coming weekend and into early next week.  A real treat for early December, especially since it was only two years ago that the region was impacted by a crippling ice storm in early December with effects that lingered for weeks afterwards.  But not this year!  This weekend will offer a nice time for everyone to enjoy some late fall outdoor activities before the weather turns on us again.  If you’ve been putting off that fall camping trip, this coming weekend would be the perfect time to go with cool temps and virtually no rain in the forecast.  Temps overall will remain on the cool side for most of the state into next week.  With the polar jet so far north of us, and the subtropical jet pushed south across the Gulf right now along with a general lack of moisture across the region, there’s just nothing to generate any storm or rain chances for the time being.  Looks like we’ll have a cool front move in late Saturday/early Sunday with the approach of an upper level trough which will rotate across north Texas and Oklahoma, but it will not bring much in the way of precipitation with it as moisture remains too far south over the Gulf to provide much fuel for much rain development.  The cool down behind Sunday’s front is expected to be modest.

By the middle of next week, we could be seeing a pretty stout warm up across much of the state along with a return of Gulf moisture.  Rain chances will be minimal until we get late into the week…and being this far out, even that will be questionable.  We’ve included the 6-10 and 7-14 day Temperature and Precipitation Outlooks below from the Climate Prediction Center.  Both keep us on with moderate to high probabilities of temps remaining above average with rainfall probabilities not looking very healthy until we get into the middle of the month.  Not that this observation has any scientific value, but I always cringe when I see such dramatic temperature probabilities like this in the late fall/early winter.  It makes me think Mother Nature is is saving it all up to throw a nasty curve ball our way just beyond this forecast period. We’ll just have to wait and see!