Wednesday Forecast: Milder air pushes north

Autumn like weather, including a variety of days featuring cool and brisk temperatures as well as (most recently) damp and raw conditions with rain, has generally been in place throughout the area over the past few weeks. However, Wednesday and Thursday will bring a bit of a reversal towards a more late-summer like pattern, with temperatures increasing into the upper 70’s and humidity rising once again. The culprit? A ridge in the Western Atlantic which is building back west towards the East Coast during the middle of this week. You can blame the clouds and showers on a gradient between that ridge, and a trough off to our west. A strong cold front eventually looms for late this week, which will bring the autumn weather back into the picture (and perhaps well-below normal temperature departures next week). But until then, temperatures averaging above normal..and generally more humid and warm conditions are expected on Wednesday and Thursday. It won’t be a full-fledged summer-like day, though, that’s for sure. Fog and clouds should hang around early on Wednesday to keep temperatures low to start, before they rebound a bit in the afternoon with a chance of showers and storms. Much of the same is possible on Thursday.

Latest Temperatures through the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast courtesy of Rutgers Weather Net. Click to enlarge.

Today (Wednesday): Warmer with high temperatures in the upper 70′s to possibly 80 in some locations by afternoon. Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms are expected to develop in the late afternoon and continue through the early evening before tapering off with the loss of daytime heating. South winds throughout the day — again, the biggest story will be the warmth and increasing humidity and dew points. Fog and clouds early in the day, we could see some breaks in the clouds by afternoon.

Wednesday Night: Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers continuing through the night. Much warmer with low temperatures in the 60’s throughout most of the area. A bit cooler inland — and a bit warmer in the city. Showers should mostly be isolated to scattered.

Thursday: Warm once again, with high temperatures in the upper 70’s to near 80 in some locations. Clouds are forecast on most models — but there should be some breaks during the day. We’re again looking at a chance of isolated showers during the afternoon hours. However, not a wash out by any means — so enjoy the warm temperatures before they’re gone!