Looking back at the month of March I was a little surprised that we were a little above average for the year for temps. We’ll probably finish out the month about 1 degree above average after today and tomorrow’s numbers come in.
I was not surprised that we are about 1.6″ below average for rainfall.
We did have some rain showers through the month, but most of the time they were very light and scattered. We won’t have any rain today, but we may have some storms on Saturday.
Today we have a cold front sinking south and falling apart. However, it is reinforcing the dry chilly air that is in place.
High pressure will build in behind the dying front. This and the dry air will create a lot of sunshine through the day.
While we will have a lot of sun today, we will also have a steady northeast wind. It will run at 10-15mph solid with a few gusts to 20mph near the shore. This will keep the temps down about 10 degrees below average. Highs will only be in the low-mid 50s this afternoon.
By tomorrow the high pressure area will slide east. This will let the winds pick up out of the south. Gusts will be up to 25mph. That will push the high temps up to the low 70s during the afternoon.
The south winds will up the moisture through the day. Clouds will also increase through that time. Most of the day looks rain-free. However, a few scattered showers will sneak in by the early evening.
There will be a batch of showers tomorrow night. They will move out after midnight. Then we’ll start with a mix of sun and clouds Saturday morning with only some isolated showers in the region.
As we go through Saturday we’ll have a very strong wind increasing out of the southwest. Winds could gust to over 35mph for a time. This will push up the temps and the humidity even more.
Despite increasing clouds our temps will likely push up to the upper 70s to near 80 degrees.
The higher heat and humidity will be some fuel for scattered thunderstorms Saturday afternoon. The models disagree on the coverage, but they agree that there will be some instability.
It’s possible that there will be a few strong to severe storms. The winds will already be gusty. This will be ahead of a cold front that will cool us down quite a bit on Sunday. High temps will return to the upper 50s, but at least we’ll dry out. We’ll warm up again to near 70 by Monday. Stay tuned for updates!
Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler