Thursday Overview: Unsettled start, nicer finish

The long stretch of sunshine and pleasant weather has ended! Well, sort of. A disturbance passing by this morning will bring periods of rain to the area, especially areas south and west of New York City. While clouds and showers will stick around for parts of the morning, clearing is expected as the day progresses.

Forecast models show the cloud deck meandering near the city itself, with partly to mostly cloudy conditions over Long Island and Connecticut. Meanwhile, much of Central and Southern NJ will battle showers until the late morning or afternoon hours. Once this disturbances slides seaward, however, clearing is expected throughout the area.

The good news doesn’t stop there! The cutoff low we have been discussing for several days (Opinion: you should sign up for Premium Membership, but we can’t force you) is expected to drift south  of the area during this weekend. For us, this means a high likelihood of pleasant weather as high pressure builds around to the north of this upper level disturbance.

Here are the highlights for the next few days:

• A few showers and maybe a rumble of thunder are possible on Friday with storms moving north to south (fairly unusual) as a cutoff low builds to our south. These should be quick-hitting and not very impactful.
• A cutoff low forms off the Southeast US coast this weekend, with strong high pressure building into our area. Pleasant weather is expected (break out the jorts).
• The next chance for impactful precipitation may be on Tuesday of next week, when a cold front approaching the area could bring strong thunderstorms rolling through the area.