Friday Friday Friday! I don’t know about you guys but I am ready for the weekend. Unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to be a fairly nasty weekend for the most part.
Currently, the same stationary front is STILL situated over the southern Appalachians and the same upper level ridge is STILL hovering over the east coast. Both of these features will begin to move off to the east today. In the meantime, a couple of upper level disturbances are expected to ride up and along the western side of the ridge today. The combination of upper level forcing, the frontal boundary at the surface, and VERY moist air is expected to produce showers and thunderstorms beginning this afternoon. While the past couple of days haven’t seen the formation of the forecasted storms, it’s a good bet that they will form this afternoon. Some of these storms could see heavy rain with very gusty winds and even some localized hail. Expect them to last into the nighttime hours.
Showers and storms will continue into tomorrow as a cold front approaches the region. Unsettled weather will last all day and into the night with some storms being quite severe, capable of producing hail and very gusty winds. I wouldn’t be surprised to see flash flood watches issued at some point as well. Temperatures will be a good 6-8 degrees cooler than today.
The front passes through Saturday night, and showers should taper off by mid-morning on Sunday. Breaks in the clouds should produce intervals of sunshine in the afternoon, with high temperatures generally in the low to mid 60’s.
A strong upper level low moves over the area for the first half of next week. Temperatures will be much cooler and a chance of showers exists everyday.