Cold Today, Warm Tomorrow

Wow, Jesse gave you some great details on forecasting for freezing rain, so I will hold off on that subject until tonight and talk about today. Another quick cold snap for today with a cold pool of air in place. I call it a cold pool because it is literally that; a cold pool. You can see that on the 850mb temperature map that I show all the time.Look how there is literally a circle of cold air. Typically this will happen with very light winds and a strong ridge of high pressure. The high pressure builds into an area, cools off the air in one way or another, and then the winds are so light and the cold air is often so dense that it literally gets trapped near the high pressure. So wherever that high pressure goes, the cold air just follows along with it. But this high pressure doesn't stick around for long because by tomorrow morning look at the drastic change in temperatures.Many areas of South Dakota are actually above freezing at 850mb (5000 ft), I have those areas circled. So that's where the freezing rain that Jesse was talking about comes into play. Ill touch more on that subject tonight but I hope everyone has a great Christmas Eve!

~KDLT Meteorologist Cody Matz