Breezy & Milder Today, Cooler Air Pours in Tonight, Winter Blasts In This Weekend!

Today: Drizzle & Fog This Morning, Then Sunny Breaks & Windy  High: 54 Winds: West 10-20mph.

Tonight: Clearing, Brisk & Colder  Low: 38   28 in Suburbs.

Tomorrow: Sunshine, Breezy, and Cooler High: 49.

Good Morning,

Today is starting off much like yesterday did, with a soaking rain that is wrapping up rather quickly from southwest to northeast... As of this writing, most of western and central New Jersey was starting to dry out, while areas from the City on north and east were still encountering steady rain...

In all likelihood, there will be nothing more than a bit of drizzle and fog leftover as the morning rush gets underway... Temperatures are in the process of slowly rising in most places, and there'll be some sunshine breaking through the clouds by the middle or later portion of this morning... Most temperatures should reach the lower and middle 50s this afternoon, assuming there is enough sunshine... In retrospect, we probably overestimated the magnitude of the wind today...

It is going to be out of the northwest, and averaging 10-20 mph this afternoon, There should be patchy clouds tonight, and it will be chillier than recent nights... Most temperatures will wind up in the 30s... Tomorrow and Thursday are expected to offer no less than partial sunshine (actually, tomorrow looks like it'll be mostly sunny, then sunshine early Thursday will begin to fade behind increasing clouds)... Most temperatures will be in the mid and upper 40s both days.

The next weather system to have some impacts on our weather late this week is going to be taking shape in the Plains over the next 36 hours... And, as it eventually dumps several inches of snow on the Upper Midwest and the Great Lakes region (by the way, it has been more than 288 days since Chicago has seen measurable snowfall), this same area of low pressure will tap into some relatively mild and moist air originating in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean...

Therefore, we're expecting rain to spread from southwest to northeast late on Thursday and Thursday night... This scenario will bring yet another slug of rain, which will soak most of the big cities along the I-95 corridor... Based on the quantitative precipitation forecasts being made by both the European and U.S. global forecast models, there could be between 0.75" and 1.25" of rain, most of which will occur on Thursday night and very early Friday morning... In the wake of that departing storm, it will become windy on Friday, and temperatures that will be starting off mostly in the 40s will begin to slowly fall along the coast (but these temperatures should drop more precipitously farther inland).

There's still a chance that all of the rain well inland (at least 40 or 50 miles away from the coast) can briefly change to snow before precipitation ends on Friday morning... However, the primary focal points on Friday will be on the arrival of some colder air, and winds gusting to near 35 mph.

Have a great day.