It's a chilly start to the new week but there is a nice warm up in store the rest of the week here in central New York. Here's what's happening.

There is a trough of low pressure sitting over the eastern US right now. This trough is associated with some pretty chilly air and we expect our temperatures to remain about 10 degrees below normal.  Down south, where the growing season has begun, there are frost and freeze warnings out Monday morning.  However, there will be a rather dramatic change unfolding over the next few days.

That trough of low pressure will pull out and move to our east. In it's place, high pressure aloft (a ridge) will build into the east and temperatures will respond quickly, going from 40s today to near 70 by as early Wednesday. The good news is that once the ridge moves in it won't be in a hurry to leave. That's why we think most of the week will be dry. Our next chance for precipitation, and it's not a great chance, comes late Friday as a cold front approaches from the north.  That means it's going to be moisture starved. Since the ground is still pretty saturated across central New York, this stretch of dry weather comes at a good time. The April sunshine and eventually a stregthening southwest wind will combine to create ideal drying conditions.

Jim