Wednesday, 9 a.m.
A southerly flow of increasingly moist air is spreading up the I95 corridor, where the dawn was greeted by dreary dullness and dim, drab drippiness from Maryland to Massachusetts. There are also some showers from western New York to Ohio along a cold front that will reach the East Coast this evening. When that cold front arrives, it will usher in a dry air mass that pulls back the curtain of clouds to reveal brilliant sunshine that plays off the multicolored leaves in the Northeast from tomorrow into the weekend.
In New York City and Philadelphia, typical afternoon temperatures are well up in the 60s at this time of year. Nights cool to about 50 in the cities, but well down in the 40s in many suburbs. The air masses in place from tomorrow through Saturday will bring temperatures that run about a half-dozen degrees below those long-term averages. Saturday morning is apt to be frosty in the colder suburbs from Washington, D.C., to New York City and below freezing in upstate New York and much of New England's interior. However, a strong southwesterly flow of warmer air could boost temperatures to 70 degrees in these areas on Sunday afternoon.
A strong storm is likely to cut through the Great Lakes Saturday night and Sunday, and its associated cold front will trigger showers and even thunderstorms. However, the air coming in behind that storm should not be as chilly as the air that follows this week's fronts. The reason: this week's upper air flow into the Northeast can be traced back to northwest Canada. Next week's main upper air current looks like it will be straight west to east. The video has more.
In the Northeast, a high pressure area now in control will be reinforced by another high from northeastern Canada. In the "what could go wrong?" department, a batch of cloudiness has appeared east of New England and has been spreading southwestward toward the New Jersey coast this morning.
The clouds over parts of the region are starting to break up, a sign that the predicted drier air from the northeast is making progress.
Cloudiness covers a large area. A few pockets of clearing show up where south winds ride downhill from mountains to lowlands. Air warms and dries with descent. Notice clearing downwind (northwest of) the Smoky Mts.
So, there could be more showers at times late next week as forest we can tell. For now we are stumped. But, it is our beleaf that this weekend you will like being outside. I know a dogwood. It may be a little cool for the beech, but you can take your dog for walk in the bark. What about next weekend? Don't ax.
If the pattern turns out damp as suggested by this map for Sunday, it could turn gray and drizzly from D.C. to New York City for early next week. If the high does not move offshore and no disturbance approaches from the west, it would be sunny and warm.
Two things stand out: (1) a warmup this weekend and early next week (the top graph), and (2) the overall dryness for the weekend and early next week. This graph is for Philadelphia.
Elliot Abrams
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