Today: Tuesday is the last cool day for a while in southern Wisconsin, because a weird weather pattern has developed over the Midwest. A strong low-pressure system with an attached warm front sits unmoved to the south of Wisconsin. Due to the strength of a northern high pressure holding it in place, this front, known as a stationary front, results in an overcast day. From 8-11 a.m., Milwaukee sees a 20% chance of on and off light rain showers, accumulating to less than one-tenth of an inch. These chances break by noon, leaving the Milwaukee area with overcast conditions. Temperatures rise during the rainy morning through the mid 30s and top out in the low 40s by mid-afternoon. Also, in the afternoon, the northern high pressure sneaks further into our area. Since two different systems affect Milwaukee’s weather Tuesday, winds are all over the place. In the morning, winds start out of the southeast. Then, because of the afternoon high pressure, these turn northward briefly before turning back to the southwest by the evening. All the while, winds will remain at 5 mph or less sustained.
Overnight: Skies become mostly clear in the night after slowly clearing in the late afternoon. Turning to a more southerly direction, winds overnight slow to less than 5 mph. Temperatures will drop into the mid 30s for an overnight low. Finally, the weak high-pressure dome that sneaked in during the afternoon begins moving off to the east.
Tomorrow: Wednesday starts out on a sunny note, but clouds up quickly by the afternoon. Due to the weak high-pressure dome moving off to the east and that pesky stationary front still to the south, another band of rain showers moves in the direction of the Milwaukee. This adds the chance of isolated light rain by 7 p.m. and into the overnight. Before this, temperatures rise through the 30s in the morning, reaching the low 40s for a high in the afternoon. During the day, sustained winds stay close to 7 mph from the east, but by evening, winds decrease to around 5 mph as the rain showers arrive. Overnight, temperatures fall to bottom out in the mid 30s with 5-10 mph sustained winds turning northeast. Skies remain cloudy as passing rain showers lead us into Thursday morning. Any new precipitation amounts should be less than one-tenth of an inch.
Extended: A huge warm up is on the way for southern Wisconsin. High temperatures range from the low 40s Thursday all the way into the high 50s by Friday and Saturday. This temperature increase also leads to a more active weather pattern in Milwaukee. This is made possible because of the stationary front transitioning into a warm front, which moves north towards Milwaukee on Thursday and Friday. Thursday weather conditions feature winds 10-15 mph from the northeast all day, but because of the approaching front, overnight winds begin to turn southeastern with sustained speeds around 5-10 mph. Skies are overcast for the majority of the day because of periodic rain showers. Mainly in the morning through early afternoon, Milwaukee sees a 90% chance of rain which could total around one-tenth of an inch. On Friday, southeast winds around 10 mph hold consistent throughout the day with rain chances of 40% returning again by 2 p.m. and stay into Saturday. By Friday evening, winds decrease to around 5 mph before increasing again overnight to around 10-15 mph. The overnight winds turn to the south because of an approaching low pressure from the southwest with a cold front attached to the southern end which will be moving northeast, bisecting Wisconsin. Friday night has the potential for thunderstorms, some possibly strong. The reason for the thunderstorms is because of the cold front that swings through very early Saturday when dew points values hover near 60 degrees. There won’t be many strong thunderstorms, but any storm could contain heavy downpours and gusty winds. From this system, precipitation amounts could be from a quarter inch to a half inch of rain. Saturday is another overcast day. Morning winds around 20 mph out of the southwest turn to the west in the late afternoon. Finally, winds turn to the north briefly with winds calming to around 5 mph. This happens Saturday night, but another low-pressure system with a stationary bounty attached will approach from the southwest. This turns Milwaukee’s winds back to the southwest by Sunday morning. Please stay weather aware this weekend as Milwaukee’s weather pattern looks to be abnormally active!
