Our weather will feel like late Spring or early Summer over the next couple of days. Then temps are going to crash, and it will feel almost like late Winter this weekend.
Yesterday was as nice as expected. We had fair skies for most of the day. High temps made it into the upper 70s with a few 80s inland.
We started off cool in the morning, but temps still warmed up nicely. Today we started off in the 60s, and we’ll warm solidly into the 80s this afternoon.
High pressure is offshore. There is a warm front well to our north with a cold front off to the west.
We’ll have a south breeze through the day with partly sunny skies. It should be nice out, but it will be pretty warm and humid for early April. There will be some strong to severe storms again over the Ohio River Valley today.
That will be just ahead of that strong cold front.
Tomorrow we’ll have more warm temps. The cold front will still be off to our west, but it will get a little closer to the region. Ahead of it the humidity will rise even more and the winds will increase.
We’ll have some southerly winds gusting up to 20mph. This will push the high temperatures back up to the mid 80s.
Most of the day will have partly cloudy skies, but clouds will increase late. There will only be some isolated showers or storms popping between midday and the late afternoon. By the evening there will be a line of showers and storms entering the region.
Some of these could contain some brief heavy rain and gusty winds. There may be some isolated severe storms.
Some large hail will also be possible. This will be along the cold front. The front will dip to our south by Friday morning. There will be some scattered showers at that time.
The rain may drop to our south for a bit Friday, but then it will likely return late Friday into Saturday.
Temps will definitely crash! We’ll drop to near 50 degrees Friday morning, but temps will only rise a few degrees through the day. Winds will pick up out of the north/northeast.
The front will sink to our south. We’ll have high pressure to the northeast. Surface winds will be out of the east/northeast. There will be a long fetch (distance that winds flow over the water). That cool/marine air mass will likely deliver lots of clouds, scattered to occasional showers, and a chill in the air.
This pattern will likely continue into Saturday. We’ll be mostly cloudy with scattered rain showers. Highs will be in the 50s. Keep in mind that southeast Virginia will be on the edge of the rain. Coastal North Carolina will have a higher chance for rain through the weekend.
I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll dry up by Easter. I’ve got some isolated showers in the morning, but drier conditions in the afternoon. Some scattered showers could linger even longer over the Outer Banks. High temps will be near 60. Check back for updates on all of that. I’ll have more confidence in that forecast by tomorrow.
In national news… the U.S. government is going to put a ban on less efficient light bulbs soon. The ban on most incandescent bulbs will take effect in July. These are typically the ones that are less efficient that are used in homes. It is a good move in the right direction as the efficiency will really add up when you factor in the amount of homes that still use these older type bulbs. However, the article that I found this in seemed to also bury the lead. Apparently, halogen and compact fluorescent light (CFL’s) will also be banned due to their mercury content. There are many of those out there right now. Especially the halogens for decorative lights. Here is the article with more information: Some light bulbs banned soon.
Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler