Sunny, breezy and mild in Philadelphia this Saturday. Increased fire danger.
After a couple cooler days across the region, temperatures will start the warm-up that will lead the area through the weekend into early next week.
High pressure will build in from the Midwest for the weekend which will promote plenty of sunshine but also provide drier air and breezy conditions for Saturday. While this will result in generally nice and mild conditions with highs in the low-middle 60s, due to the ongoing drought across the region it'll also produce an elevated risk for fire danger.
A Red Flag Warning has been issued for Saturday from 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. for most of the Philadelphia area including all of the Lehigh Valley, all of South Jersey, and the immediate Philadelphia Suburbs in Pennsylvania. The Red Flag Warning is not currently in effect in Delaware. Low relative humidity and breezy conditions with wind gusts up to 30 mph will produce the risk for fires to easily start and spread quickly through most of the day on Saturday.
Conditions won't be quite as breezy on Sunday, but due to the ongoing drought and still somewhat dry conditions a risk for fires to spread will still be possible. Otherwise, Sunday will be quite nice with unseasonably warm conditions once again as temperatures rebound from the upper 30s Sunday morning to the middle 60s Sunday afternoon.
Warmth will continue to build into Monday with high temperatures Monday afternoon approaching 70 degrees. Temperatures will then cool into the low 60s through the middle of next week before the chance for some showers develops ahead of what looks to be a fairly strong system moving in from the west.
Right now, the timing for this next shot at rain will be Wednesday night into the day on Thursday. Along with the showers on Thursday cooler air will funnel into the region with high temperatures Thursday afternoon only reaching in the upper 40s to near 50 degrees.
The NEXT Weather Team will continue to monitor this next chance of rain and continue to look ahead for a pattern shift that would begin to offer some relief to the ongoing severe-to-extreme drought across the region.
Here's your 7-day forecast:
Saturday: Sunny, breezy. High of 63.
Sunday: Mostly sunny. High of 64, low of 38.
Monday: Mostly sunny. High of 67, low of 43.
Tuesday: Sun and clouds. High of 60, low of 42.
Wednesday: P.M. showers. High of 66, low of 44.
Thursday: Showers. High of 49, low of 45.
Friday: Cooler. High of 59, low of 40.