WASHINGTON – If you’ve loved our recent summertime heat, don’t get used to it quite yet. Seasonable May weather will eventually make its return next week. For now, though, heavy rain is on the way.
Thursday
A backdoor cold front that dropped through the region on Wednesday will lift to the north and continue to travel to the East Coast as a warm front puts us in the warming sector once again. That will spread more clouds into the region and breezy southerly winds will move into the area with speeds of 10 to 20 mph. Given that set up, expect a cloudy day on Thursday but temperatures will be in the lower 80s, a slightly warmer day than Wednesday. Rain showers and storms should hold off until the evening hours, moving from west to east. Expect rain showers and storms to be heavy at times.
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Thursday morning surface map. Midwest cold front moving into West Virginia as the listening area is dry. More showers and storms expect late Thursday.
Thursday overnight into Friday:
The front will continue to move to the east interacting with the moisture (we will feel it in terms of humidity) streaming up from the south. This interaction will trigger some heavy showers and storms. Those showers and storms will continue into Friday morning, likely heavy and unloading lots of rain during the overnight and early morning hours. We are looking at anywhere from 1 to 3.5 inches of rainfall by Friday morning with additional rain and possible storms by Friday afternoon.
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Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) shows the possible amount of total rain accumulation from Thursday to Friday morning at 8 a.m. Although, rain will continue after 8 a.m. on Friday so these values will be higher by Friday night.
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Heavy rains predicted through the overnight hours into Friday morning. This is showing a sloth heavy rain falling (brown areas) across the listening area at 8 a.m. on Friday morning.
We will continue to watch for the flash flooding and flooding potential in our region as the event unfolds, but this is just something to keep in the back of your mind.
Good news? The weekend looks phenomenal and could compete for one of the best weekends we have seen yet this year. Temperatures will be held in the lower 70s, but we will have plenty of sunshine with very calm conditions. Both Saturday and Sunday morning will be on the cool side, so a light jacket may be warranted.
It doesn’t look like 80-degree temperatures will return anytime soon as this pattern sticks around into next week.
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