We’ve been spoiled so far this month with comfortable temperatures and brilliant sunshine for much of the first half of May. As we often do, we’re going to swing hard in the other direction with summerlike heat returning for the second half of the month.
One More Fine Day: Friday and Friday Night
We continue the slow recovery from our latest front as we head into the second half of the week, high pressure will keep us warm and sunny as we head through the day on Friday.
As the high pressure starts to scoot slowly to the east, that will allow our prevailing wind direction to turn back out of the south and west. That should add together with our sunshine to boost temperatures a few more degrees from where they’ve been the past few days.
Highs should make a nice recovery into the lower 80s during the afternoon hours, despite clouds starting to scoot back in thanks to a weak disturbance approaching late. Those clouds are the leading edge not only of our next rain chance, but much warmer and more humid air on the way.
That more humid air will interact with a weak disturbance pushing through in the over-arching flow to provide us with an opportunity for scattered showers and thunderstorms as we head through the overnight hours. The more humid air will prevent temperatures from falling much overnight, with lows only back into the lower 60s.
The Heat is On: Saturday and Sunday
Typically, we consider Memorial Day the unofficial start of Summer, but it appears this year that Mother Nature is running about a week ahead of schedule (not that she’s really been on schedule much this year).
Well above our heads, a nice, big ol’ dome of high pressure looks to set itself up over the southeastern portion of the country. That will lead to hot and humid conditions flooding northward as we head deeper into the weekend.
For Saturday, we’ll still be watching our system from Friday night slowly working on through. Even so, we would still expect plenty of sunshine in the region. That should help afternoon highs soar into the middle and upper 80s into the afternoon.
That frontal boundary may get hung up long enough in the region that it may serve as a focus for pop-up, summerlike showers and storms as we head into the afternoon and evening hours. Widespread severe weather isn’t likely, but I can’t rule out the potential for any one of those pop-up storms to briefly drop some heavy rain and gust winds as they fall apart.
Those showers and storms will continue through the evening into the overnight, slowly diminishing as we lose the daytime heating. We keep things mild overnight, with lows only making it into the middle 60s. Very early summer-esque.
More of the same on Sunday, though this time with a smaller chance of a cooling shower. So not only hot, but increasingly muggy as well. We’ll be between systems during the day, which means the mercury in the afternoon will yet again soar into the upper 80s to lower 90s. Far, far too early if you ask me.
We’ll continue to pump muggy air into the region as we head into the overnight hours. Despite mostly clear skies, we’ll stay quite warm with lows only into the upper 60s to near 70º. Full on summer feel as we finish the weekend.
Hot and Unsettled: Into Next Week
The heat continues as we head into the third week of May, with readings near or above 90º becoming ever more common. At the same time, however, the upper level pattern becomes more favorable for the return of some unsettled weather, especially as we head later into the week.
Monday, however, just looks hot. Plain hot.
High pressure begins to scoot east of the region ahead of the latest disturbance that will be ejecting out into southern Canada. Ahead of it, we’ll continue to pump warm and humid air into the region. Highs yet again soar up into the lower 90s with plenty of sunshine in the afternoon. With dew points well into the 60s, it will feel closer to the middle 90s. Bleh.
However, that storm system we talked about will be pushing up through southern Canada, which will drag a frontal boundary through the region. That will bring first clouds into the region Monday night, with lows near 70º, and eventually the potential for showers and thunderstorms as we head later into the day on Tuesday. It remains hot and humid ahead of any afternoon storms on Tuesday, with highs yet again making it into the lower 90s.
That unsettled trend continues as we continue to feel the effect of storms mostly off to our north and west through the week. We’ll watch for perhaps slightly drier conditions to attempt to work in toward Memorial Day Weekend.
That’s it for me for now! For the latest radar, camera views, and forecasts, download the WX or NOT mobile app, available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. You can also always keep up with the latest on all of our social media platforms. Have a tremendous day and a great weekend!