Ask the Meteorologist: Why will we see another big temperature swing, and will it last?

After we enjoy a couple of days of spring-like temperatures in the 70s, we are going to see another big temperature swing into the start of next week with highs tumbling into the 40s and lows dropping to the 20s. Why will we see such a swing, and will it last?

To best understand the overall pattern that causes this, we have to look at the upper levels of our atmosphere. We currently have an upper-level high to our south, and this is keeping warmer air in place. The upper-level jet is located further north.

The darker oranges on the map indicate higher heights meaning higher pressure in areas further up in our atmosphere. This promotes drier and warmer air. Since we are in between two systems at the surface, we will still have chances for rain through the weekend.

As troughing develops to our north and west, which is most easily seen with the bright pinks on the map, we'll see more lift ahead of the trough this weekend bringing better shower chances, and then much cooler air dives south as the trough moves over the area.

This will bring a big swing in our temperatures! We'll drop from highs in the 70s on Thursday and Friday to lows in the 20s by Tuesday morning. We are not done with the winter coats quite yet!

This does not last long, though. After a cold start to the week, we will warm back into the 60s by the end of the week, and our long-term trends show above average temperatures for the end of February and the start of March.

We will see the ridging of higher heights at the upper-levels of our atmosphere by the back half of next week.

We will see more fluctuations in our temperatures, which could be quite large at times, over the next few months as we transition seasons. Because of the tilt of the Earth, we receive more heat and sunlight at different times of the year which causes our seasons.

In the winter, we have less sun and heat, but as we start to see more heat in the northern latitudes as we head into spring, the upper-level jet will fluctuate more causing these big temperature jumps.