Cloudier weather today held back the warmth a little bit, but afternoon sunshine pushed temperatures back into the 80s for the 5th straight day in Springfield. This will be a long run of warmth and when all is said and done I expect at least two weeks of 80° highs.

In the short term, we’ll find the culprit behind cloud cover and showers shifting north out of the area by Thursday night. A few spotty showers and isolated thunderstorms tonight will move out by morning with clouds following suit. A brighter day Thursay also means a hotter day with highs in the mid to upper 80s.

The fall pause will continue through the weekend as a new trough in the West helps pump up a fall version of the “summer ridge” over the middle of the country. The pattern will make for mostly clear and quiet weather with temperatures running around 10° above normal. I don’t expect records to be challenged Thursday or Friday, but we’ll get closer to record highs this weekend.

Looking ahead to next week, the trough in the West will try to knock down the ridge over the region but it may have a tough time. Storms running up against the ridge will gradually push a frontal zone into the region and this should at least lead to an uptick in rain chances starting as early as Wednesday. I don’t expect the pattern to cool off in a sustained way until the second week of October.

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