Punxsutawney Phil may have gotten his “Early Spring” forecast right for the work week ahead with widespread Spring-like conditions expected today through Wednesday before our next strong cold front arrives on Thursday.  Periods of widespread cloud cover and increasing humidity each day will make it feel more like late April outside than early February.  Highs across the state are expected to climb into the 70s for most with some areas pushing 80 degrees on Monday…especially for locations across northern Texas where skies are expected to clear out temporarily and allow for additional surface heating.  It would not surprise us if we see a few record highs fall on Monday across north and western north Texas where copious amounts of sunshine will initiate a rapid warm-up by mid-afternoon.  On Tuesday, cloud cover is expected to become more widespread once again and this will help keep a lid on the daily highs through Wednesday and Thursday before our next front arrives.

Rainfall early on in the week will be mostly in the form of drizzle and scattered brief showers with more widespread rain chances returning late in the week. The graphic below depicts the amounts currently expected to fall between now and early Friday…and most of this will fall late Wednesday night and through Thursday ahead of our next cold front. At this time, no wintry weather threats are expected with any precipitation left over behind the front.  Temperatures are expected to remain above freezing behind the front while precipitation is still falling and dry post-frontal air pushing most if not all of the rainfall east/southeast before any subfreezing air arrives.  This will of course be something we continue to watch this week in case there are any changes to the forecast.  In the meantime, enjoy the t-shirt and flip-flop weather while it lasts as next weekend looks to be seasonably cold and wet with additional rain chances both Saturday and Sunday.