We had a couple of chilly mornings lately, but it has been dry. Today it was both wet and chilly.
We had light rain for most of the morning commute, and it caused some slowdowns. Most of the showers were light, but any wet roads can cause problems. A area of low pressure has moved offshore. However, it is merging with another low, and it is strengthening.
There are also 2 cold fronts offshore. They will be dropping to the south through the day as the low pushes farther offshore. The low is wrapping moisture around into our region, and it is pushing that moisture into a colder airmass. There was some wintry mixes to our west with some snow over the Appalachians. We may have had a couple of sleet pellets in southern Suffolk for a time based on the radar. The rain showers will break up later this morning.
They will become isolated to scattered by midday, and then they will move out during the afternoon.
Despite any clearing it is going to stay chilly and breezy through the day. Temps will basically stay stuck in the mid 40s through the afternoon.
The winds are picking up out of the north. They will gust to 25mph at times.
Tonight we’ll clear out with gradually weakening winds. Low temperatures will be in the 20s and 30s overnight. Wind chills will be in the teens and 20s for a time. Tomorrow we’ll have a lot of sunshine with a light southwest wind. High temps will pop up to near 50 degrees.
You may notice that the temps will be unseasonably mild tomorrow over the central U.S. and the Midwest. That heat will keep sliding east. So we’ll make it close to 60 degrees on Friday. We’ll be in the mid 60s Saturday and then near 70 on Sunday.
We’ll be dry tomorrow through Saturday. However, we’ll have rain moving on on Sunday. It may even be heavy for a time.
This will be some warm and humid air streaming northward ahead of a strong cold front. It may become unstable enough for some thunderstorms. It’s too early to talk about severe potential, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few strong storms happen in the region. I’ll have more on that in tomorrow’s weather blog.
In national news… A strong atmospheric river has been flowing over the western United States over the last couple of days. This has caused some dramatic flooding in that region. Here is the article with more information: Flooding in the western U.S. They are getting another round today and tomorrow.
In world news…For about 16 months a fairly new NASA sensor has been detecting methane leaks around the world. While the developers knew that it could do this, the results have surprised even them. The sensor called EMIT sits aboard the International Space Station. The sensor’s main mission was to detect key minerals on the surface of arid regions. However, the methane feature will be a huge help in determining where the largest methane leaks are around the globe. Here is the article with more information: NASA’s EMIT sensor detects methane leaks.
Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler