Another Round of Rain Chances Arrive Thursday

Good morning everyone, and happy Wednesday to you all! Yesterday’s temperatures sure did give us a little taste of fall, but we’re not quite there yet weather-wise. It may officially be Fall, but it sure doesn’t feel quite like it. We’ll see mild temperatures today, and another round of rain chances arrive Thursday.

Mild Wednesday, But Still Warm

High pressure from yesterday is quickly moving off to the East Coast, but it’ll keep us dry and sunny for today. However, this high pressure will continue to move out, and another cold front will move into our neck of the woods.

Under sunny skies, expect the afternoon temperatures to reach 85ºF. Winds will remain light as well, mostly under 10 mph and from the southwest. While the mid 80s are not terrible, we are still slightly above normal for being in late September. Normal high temperatures are in the upper 70s.

As we work into the evening hours, clouds will be increasing as the cold front approaches. Showers are expected to be ahead of the front, so we could easily start seeing increased chances late tonight, and continuing into the overnight hours. We could begin to see some showers by 10 PM tonight.

Besides the arriving showers, our minimum temperatures will be around 65ºF. Showers and maybe a storm or two will increase in coverage overnight.

Much Needed Rain For Thursday

Thursday morning will be the most active time period we’ll have seen all September. Rain showers from this evening will carry over into the early morning hours tomorrow.

Models are agreeing on more widespread showers for Thursday morning, mostly between 4 AM and 7 AM. We should see some lingering showers throughout the morning hours, but rain chances begin to diminish around early afternoon (1-2 PM).

While showers should be more widespread, they’re not expected to be heavy dumpers. We could see anywhere between 0.10 to 0.75 inches. While any rain helps, this round won’t be enough to take us out of drought conditions.

After the cold front passes, skies will slowly begin to clear. Expect partly cloudy skies for most of the day, and for the overnight hours. Afternoon temperatures are only expected to reach the upper 70s to low 80s, most likely around 80ºF. Temperatures stay close to normal tomorrow because the rain showers (thank goodness).

Friday Heating Up

Skies will continue to clear early Friday morning, eventually leading to mostly sunny skies. However…high pressure quickly moves back into the Ohio Valley after the cold front passage.

We’ll see temperatures ramp back up to the upper 80s, somewhere in the 87º-89º range. Friday will also get quite breezy, with strong winds out of the southwest. Expect wind gusts to be in the 10-20 mph range.

As we get into the Friday night hours, expect those gusts to die down. We’ll still have winds out of the south-southwest, but they’ll be under 10 mph for the evening. A few clouds may stick around, but any Friday night plans won’t be ruined by rain. Temperatures dip to around 67ºF, so we are getting into temperatures where a light jacket might be needed.

Weekend at a Glimpse

Over this weekend, an upper level ridge will amplify over the eastern two-thirds of the US. A trough (pronounced “trof”) is over the western US, which will help amplify, or strengthen, the ridge. When this happens, strong high pressure sets up at the surface under the ridge. This can easily be seen in the graphic below.

With a strong high pressure set up, expect our temperatures to once again ramp up into the 90s. This is expected for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

For now, Summer looks to not want to give up and go away. We will have to wait a little bit longer for Fall to arrive.

That wraps up today’s forecast. Hope you have a great Wednesday and rest of the week! Make sure to look for the Afternoon Video Update on Facebook and the Afternoon Weather Story on Twitter, only at @wxornotBG.

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