The end of spring will be cool from the Midwest to the Northeast, relatively speaking, as will be the case in much of the West. However, as we fade into summer, heat will be building in much of the country this weekend and beyond.
Cooler, drier air is moving into the mid-Atlantic and Northeast today in the wake of the storm that produce a lot of severe weather the past two days. That will quickly be attacked by warmer and more humid that will help trigger showers and thunderstorms through the weekend from the Plains and Midwest to the mid-Atlantic and New England.
The brutal heat over the Rockies and central Plains in recent days has combined with high humidity coming from the Gulf of Mexico to lead to an outbreak of severe weather that is not yet over. Also, some highlights from my weekend away in the Denver-Boulder area the past few days.
Andrea will cross Florida tonight with heavy rain and gusty winds, then bring its heavy rain through the Southeast all the way to New England tonight and tomorrow into Saturday morning. Behind it, western heat will steadily expand eastward this weekend out onto the Plains by early next week.
The West will heat up this week, while at the same time it chills down in the Plains. Increasing wetness is on tap for the eastern half of the country as well.
Tropical troubles highlight the late-week forecast in the East, while the rest of the nation will be dominated by a penetrating chill, or blistering heat.
After a weekend of shivering in a late-winter and digging out from some snows in the mountains of the Northeast, the temperature is about to be cranked up from the Ohio Valley into the East for the rest of the week.
After the snowy weekend in the mountains of northern New England, much warmer air will begin spreading out of the Plains into the Ohio Valley, then the mid-Atlantic and England. At the same time, it will remain volatile north of this area of heat with showers and thunderstorms keeping it wet from the northern Plains to the Great Lakes at the very least.
Just when you thought cold weather and any chance of snow or frost was finally behind us, another deepening storm over the Northeast may bring it all into play over the Memorial Day weekend.
While the severe weather will weaken in the next 36 hours, the weather pattern remains dynamic and will lead to more extremes in the coming days.
Joe Lundberg
