A cool start to the work week with frost possible

Sunday's rain totals in Mecklenburg county matched up with the NWS Wakefield forecast but were somewhat less than this Weather Blog indicated (oh well!). Today - Monday - looks to be sunny but cool, with temperatures topping out in the mid-60s after a chilly start right around 40 degrees. That's about ten degrees below average, with a northerly breeze to make things feel a bit cooler than that.

Clear skies and calm winds tonight will allow the day's warmth to escape into space through a very efficient radiational cooling process. Local thermometers will plunge to near the freezing mark as a result. The National Weather Service has thus issued a Frost Advisory lasting from 3:00 a.m. through 8:00 a.m. Tuesday. The blue shaded areas in this graphic are the counties affected:

Vegetation sensitive to freezing temperatures will need to be protected tonight until the sun has a chance to warm things up Tuesday morning. After that very chilly beginning tomorrow will warm into the low 70s around the county thanks to strong April sunshine, very dry air, and winds switching around out of the southwest. 

The warming will continue through Wednesday until the next cold front ushers in another Canadian air mass that night. The latter half of the work week looks dry but cooler than average once again.