Super Weather for Super Bowl

They picked a warm city for Super Bowl 50. The El Nino rain-train has taken a break this week on the West Coast, perfect weather for a football game later today in Santa Clara:

Just in case you were wondering, Santa Clara sits on the south end of San Francisco Bay about 40 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge:

DFW hosted a Superbowl five years ago. The weather was terrible leading up to that Sunday's showdown between Green Bay and Pittsburg. We suffered 3 rounds of snow and ice with daytime highs staying in the 20's. Nothing like that around here this week or today:

A cold front arrives around game time shifting the winds to the northwest. Monday will be colder and very, very windy:

Because of the very dry conditions since we started 2016 we have to worry about grass fires. There is ample fuel because of last year's record rainfall gave rise to a thick underbrush. Low humidity and wind gusts around 35mph will make for fast-spreading flames:

Winds will stay high most of the day but be strong early on:

As is the story of this winter so far we are only getting a glancing blow of the Arctic air. The East coast and South bares the brunt of the cold. As it slides off to the east it opens the door for very warm air to come in from the west:

We've been spared the worst of the cold all winter. Just compare the number of freezes this season with the last two. Also notice that the coldest night so far is 27°:

We only have to suffer one shot of winter's chill next week. Monday will be the worst day so we return to above-normal temperatures and mostly sunny skies. We could hit the upper 70's on Thursday before another cold front arrives. This will again be a glancing blow of the cold- we'll be in the 60's next weekend. Notice no freezes in the forecast ahead either: