Blog: Spring warmth, storms possible Saturday

Posted: Mar 18, 2022 / 09:05 AM EDT

Updated: Mar 18, 2022 / 11:53 AM EDT

This morning we started off with some thick fog over the region.

It did slow down a lot of folks during the morning commute. However, it should burn off by later this morning. Then we’ll have some nice weather! The area of low pressure that brought yesterday’s storms has now jetted off far to our northeast. High pressure has built into the region.

We’ll have a light wind out of the southwest and then southeast. Temps will rise to the mid 70s this afternoon.

You may have noticed that the humidity has come up over the last couple of days. It’s not muggy, but the dry air that we’ve enjoyed for so long is going to start getting replaced by more humid conditions as we go through the rest of March.

There may be a stray shower in the whole region today, but the chance of actually seeing it is only 5-10%. By early tomorrow morning there will be a few showers in the area as a warm front comes up from the south. There may be some isolated thunderstorms as well. After that the forecast gets a little tricky. The GFS model keeps a decent chance for rain through the midday, afternoon, and early evening.

However, our model only has a few showers tomorrow morning. Then it has isolated showers/storms in the evening.

What’s more confusing is to see our model, and then to also know that the Storm Prediction Center has a slight risk for severe weather in the region. We will be very warm and humid tomorrow. High temps will be near 80 degrees. Plus, that area of low pressure to the west will enter our region. So I do think there will be a few strong storms tomorrow evening as that cold front sweeps in from the west.

One thing I didn’t mention is the wind. There will be a strong wind out of the southwest. It will increase to 10-20mph. We will have some gusts up to 30mph at times. Then it will be breezy out of the northwest by tomorrow evening.

So that could possibly contribute to the severe chance tomorrow evening.

We’ll be dry and cooler on Sunday. High temps will be in the mid 60s. Plus, the humidity will drop sharply. I will be a pretty nice day for the first day of Spring. We’ll have more nice weather early next week, but rain returns by Wednesday.

The pollen got knocked down pretty good yesterday from the rain. At least over some parts of the region. It will increase again today, and tree pollen will be up to high levels tomorrow.