Good Wednesday evening, everyone. As advertised, we started out on a cold note this morning. Not only did we see temperatures that we shouldn’t see this late in the month of April, we set a new record low of 28 this morning. That breaks the old record of 30 set back in 1966. Despite a good west and northwest breeze in place today, partly sunny skies sent highs back into the middle 50s this afternoon. While today’s high fell below our normal high of 72 with the normal staying the same for Thursday, we will trend a bit milder for tomorrow even with our next storm system ready to work on in.
Looking at our constantly changing weather setup, we actually have a developing area of high pressure that will keep our lighter breeze and dry conditions in place for tonight. You can see how our previous cold front is still working through the Eastern Seaboard and the Florida Peninsula. The front actually prompted some severe weather earlier today in parts of the Northeast with snow working in right on the backside of the front.
Upstairs at the jet stream level, our previous upper-level wave is continuing work over Lake Erie to keep some snow chances around for parts of the Northeast tonight. Even though that wave is gone and slight northward shift of the jet should nudge temperatures up a little for Thursday, our next wave is spinning across the Nevada/Utah border. That will change our weather up again for Thursday.
Before we get to a slightly warmer Thursday afternoon and the incoming rain chances, we have to put up with one more cold night across the area as frost advisories and freeze warnings are in place until 9 AM Thursday.
Underneath partly cloudy skies for the overnight hours and for Thursday morning, that will allow temperatures to fall back around 33 across much of the area. At the very least, we’ll have another frosty morning to contend with. On the other hand, others will have temperatures cold enough where you’ll have to make sure any sensitive plants get covered once again or brought inside for one more night.
As our area of high pressure scoots off to the east throughout the day, that will allow a southerly breeze to return and nudge our high temperatures a little warmer. While that will allow our next upper-level wave to bring the cloud cover back in for the afternoon and some scattered showers late in the day, we’ll still see highs push into the upper 50s to near 60 across the area.
After we see scattered showers through our Thursday evening, we’ll temporarily calm down overnight as lows drop back into the middle to upper 40s to get our Friday morning started.
After periods of showers through late Friday morning, we’ll switch to periods of rain and t-storms to take us through the afternoon and into Friday night. Despite that, we’ll continue to trend milder with highs ranging between the lower and middle 60s. While any severe weather is expected to stay just to our south and southwest, we can’t rule out some strong t-storms with small hail and heavy pockets of rain.
With the way our Rain Tracker is looking, we’ll be glad to dry things out by Saturday afternoon as our storm system will move on. The rain chances on the way could total between half an inch and as much as 3 inches if we can really get some heavy pockets of rain to track through parts of the area.
After we get past any remaining rain chances on Saturday morning, the departing storm system will allow partly sunny skies to return as we top out in the lower to middle 60s for the afternoon.
With a building upper-level ridge on the way for Sunday and Monday of next week, we’ll definitely see temperatures respond favorably to that. With mostly sunny skies on Sunday, we’ll have highs climbing back into the middle 70s. Even with partly sunny skies on Monday, we’ll stay dry as highs top out near 80 for the afternoon.
Once we hit Tuesday, though, we’ll see a familiar system in Doug’s pattern return. Do you remember the system that brought us severe weather in late January and another round of severe weather on March 12th? That storm system returns on a warm Tuesday with scattered t-storms likely and another shot for severe weather.
On the backside of that system, we’ll have some remaining showers on an otherwise chilly Wednesday as highs drop back into the middle 50s. As for other severe threats we’re watching within the next few weeks, we’re keeping an eye on April 30th through May 3rd. Once we get past that active weekend, we’ll watch for another good shot for severe weather on Friday the 7th. You can see down below how we’ll have other chances for severe weather lining up for parts of our May. It’s not surprising since May is usually our most active month when it comes to severe weather.
Doug has the rest of the long range forecast through much of June covered for you down below. Have a good night and a great Thursday!
Nick
April 29th-May 1st: We’ll keep mild for Thursday before a brief warm up on Friday and a return to mild temperatures on Saturday. We’ll watch for t-storms and severe weather chances for Friday and Saturday.
May 2nd-8th: Sunday is looking warm before we turn mild for Monday and Tuesday. We’ll warm back up for Wednesday through Friday before a slight cool down on Saturday. We’ll watch for severe weather chances on Sunday, Monday and Friday before we see just regular t-storms on Saturday.
May 9th-May 15th: We’ll stay mild for Sunday and Monday before a warm up kicks in for Tuesday and Wednesday. After a mild Thursday, we’ll be warm to start the weekend out. We’ll watch for t-storms on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. We’ll watch Wednesday the 12th and Saturday the 15th for severe weather chances.
May 16th-May 22nd: Except for a warm Tuesday, we’ll stay mainly mild for this week. We’ll watch for slight t-storm chances on Sunday, a severe threat for Tuesday the 18th, a severe threat for Thursday the 20th, a severe threat for Friday the 21st and additional t-storms on Saturday.
May 23rd-May 29th: We’ll go from warm temperatures Sunday & Monday to a mild stretch for the middle of the week and back to warm temperatures by the weekend. We’ll watch for a severe threat for Sunday through Tuesday, showers on Wednesday and another chance for severe weather on Saturday the 29th.
May 30th-June 5th: We’ll bounce between mild and warm temperatures to start the week before a mild stretch kicks in for Wednesday and Thursday. We should be warm for Friday and mild for Saturday. T-storms are possible for Sunday, Tuesday and Friday followed by rain chances on Saturday.
June 6th-June 12th: Temperatures look mild for Sunday before we turn warmer for Monday & Tuesday. After a mild Wednesday, we’ll be warm for Thursday before we heat up for the weekend. We’ll watch for t-storms on Monday and Tuesday before a severe threat returns on Saturday.
June 13th-June 19th: With the exception of a mild Friday, we’ll mainly be warm for this week. We’ll watch for rain chances on Sunday, t-storms on Tuesday, strong to severe t-storms on Wednesday and another shot for t-storms on Thursday.
June 20th-June 26th: The week starts hot before we back down to warm temperatures for Wednesday through Friday. We should turn hot again for Saturday. We’ll watch for t-storm chances on Tuesday and Thursday.