BLOG: Dodging A Bullet
A large ridge of high pressure is still dominating the eastern weather scene early today, bringing a mainly clear sky and yielding temperatures mostly in the 30s and 40s. Actually, the infrared satellite imagery is showing that some high, thin clouds are advancing eastward. These will manage to dim the sun at times today, but it still really looks like today will be another nice day across the region.
The only way clouds of this type can "tarnish" a forecast is if they prevent the temperature from climbing any higher
than what they were on the previous day. And, during this time of year, with a lower sun angle, it may have some impact. Nonetheless, we're talking about whether or not some wispy clouds keep the temperature from reaching the lower 60s in most cases, and that's not a bad dilemma to have -- especially considering what we were confronted with last weekend!
The basic ideas which we've been addressing the past couple of days have not changed. We should see some of these clouds come into play, but no rain. The cold front that is moving across the central and eastern Great Lakes will tend to lose its source of moisture to work with.
The body of low pressure on this morning's surface map over southeastern Missouri is still going to track to the east, and all of the precipitation is going to consolidate around this feature tonight and tomorrow. Therefore, we still expect rain to occur in the Carolinas and across southern or central Virginia, but really no where farther north.
And we're still noticing that there is still going to be a distinct change in the air mass occurring tomorrow night and Saturday across the Northeast. The push of colder air behind a back-door front will be relatively shallow, but it still looks as if temperatures will still be a few degrees lower tomorrow (because of some cloud cover), and then a few degrees more on Saturday (because of that chillier air pressing southward out of eastern Canada). Despite this "cooler trend," Saturday will probably turn out fairly sunny.
We turn back the clocks on Saturday night, and then will be treated to a warming trend Sunday and Monday. Many temperatures should manage to reach the low 60s on Sunday, and then the mid and upper 60s early next week.
