Mild temperatures were the story across Alabama on Monday, but winter is set to return later this week.

The National Weather Service is expecting a cold front to move through on Tuesday, and while it won’t bring much in the way of rain (or, thankfully, severe weather) it will bring a shot of colder air.

Temperatures are forecast to be in the 60s and 70s across the state today:

But by Wednesday those highs will only make it into the 40s and 50s. Here’s the forecast for Wednesday:

Low temperatures will again dip into the 20s and 30s in parts of north and central Alabama later in the week.

But there are hints that even colder temperatures could be on the horizon.

Longer-range forecasts for mid-January have generated a lot of buzz over the past few days, with some showing epic snowstorms for the eastern U.S. and bitterly cold temperatures.

However, the weather service warns that forecasts beyond seven days are just speculation when it comes to specifics.

But forecasters can look at overall trends, and those are definitely looking colder.

The eight- to 14-day temperature outlook from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center (shown at the top of this post) continues to show a very high probability that Alabama will experience below-average temperatures through the middle of January.

The outlook for later in January (Jan. 11-24) also has a high probability (60-70 percent) of below-average temperatures for Alabama:

That’s all that’s safe to say for now.