Normal temperatures coming soon

Our ridiculous Arctic blast yielded a low temperature of 8°F Monday night at the Cape Girardeau airport, shattering the old record of 17°F set in 2000. Indeed, this tied the lowest temperature for any date in November, a record last set on Nov. 29, 1976.

Meanwhile, the high temperature today was only 29°F, which also shattered the record for lowest high temperature. The old record was 38°F set in 2000.

Yesterday and today, over 50% of the Continental U.S. had snow cover -- a remarkable amount of snow for this time of year.

The good news is that the anomalous cold weather will be leaving by the weekend, with more normal temperatures (50s) for Saturday and Sunday. However, the warmer weather will bring rain and possibly even thunderstorms, with current projections giving us 1 to 1-1/2 inches over the next five days.

Next week looks cold again, with temperatures Monday in the 40s. The 6-10 Day Outlook does foretell below-average temperatures, but that should pale in comparison to this week's weirdness.