Warmth and sun return Friday in Philadelphia, fire weather watch on Saturday
The system that brought cloud cover and even a few stray sprinkles to some across the southern part of the region overnight will push southeast off the Mid-Atlantic coast, allowing for drier and more mild conditions to return Friday and through the weekend.
While the direct impacts from this departing and strengthening system off the Carolina coast will move out, it will produce an onshore push that could result in some minor coastal flooding during high tides on Friday. As a result, a coastal flood advisory has been issued for all coastal and tidal river communities from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday.
Temperatures Friday morning will start off in the low 40s across the Delaware Valley and down the Shore with middle 30s expected in the Lehigh Valley. After a cool and cloudy start Friday morning, the sunshine will gradually take back the sky, giving way to mostly sunny conditions for the afternoon as temperatures rebound into the upper 50s to near 60s degrees.
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 to middle 60s, due to the ongoing drought across the region, it'll also produce an elevated risk for fire danger.
A fire weather watch has been issued for Saturday from 7 a.m. to 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 fire weather watch is not currently in effect in Delaware. Low relative humidities and breezy conditions with wind gusts up to 35 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 to develop 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.
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:
Friday: Clouds to sun. High of 59.
Saturday: Sunny, nice. High of 63, low of 43.
Sunday: Mild, more clouds. High of 64, low of 38.
Monday: Clouds to sun. High of 69, low of 44.
Tuesday: Mostly sunny. High of 61, low of 43.
Wednesday: Partly cloudy. High of 63, low of 42.
Thursday: Chance of showers. High of 57, low of 45.
