Clear & Chilly This Morning

Temperatures have fallen early Thursday morning into the 30's in much of the Commonwealth as a result of clearing skies overnight, calm winds, and drier air settling into the Mid-Atlantic from a strong area of high pressure. Here are the 6:30 a.m. temperatures:

You can see the high pressure area parked right over Virginia this morning as well:

The low pressure system you see tracking through south-central Canada right now is going to bring a cold front into our state by early Saturday, with a chance for showers Friday evening into Saturday morning. Overall rain chances are very low, but it does look like we'll have some scattered light rain showers around Central Virginia Friday late afternoon and evening into Saturday morning while the front is tracking through. This front will also bring another shot of cooler air into the Mid-Atlantic, which will drop our high temperatures back into the 60's to around 70 degrees on Saturday, and holding in the 60's Sunday.

"Back Door" Cold Front

A "back door" cold front is making progress through the Commonwealth this Tuesday, generally tracking from the north-northeast to the south-southwest (hence, the name, "back door"). Temperatures are falling behind the front with the northeast wind shift into the upper-50's and low-60's. In addition, skies are becoming mostly cloudy with this system, and scattered light rain showers are tracking south. Here is the surface map at 12:42 p.m.

And here is the visible satellite image from about the same time:

You can see how temperatures have warmed with mostly sunny skies into the low-70's ahead of the front, whereas northern Virginia temperatures have been significantly impacted by the northeast wind, the cloud-cover, and the light rain. This front will be south of the Commonwealth by early this evening, keeping us mostly cloudy and cool overnight. Showers will continue to be possible from later this afternoon through the evening. Even though cloud-cover will gradually decrease through the day Wednesday, temperatures will still be cooler as a result of this cooler air mass moving into the Mid-Atlantic. Surface high pressure over the South will expand back into the Mid-Atlantic Thursday and Friday though, returning highs into the 70's.

A Brief Shift In The Weather Pattern

Temperatures for the past couple weeks have been way above normal across most of the Mid-Atlantic.

We aren't the only ones dealing with the heat. Check out temperature departures across the United States. You can see the most of the eastern half of the U.S. has been toasty while the western half has been cooler than average.

We are still watching for a brief transition in the weather pattern during the next couple weeks. NAO will dip below zero, which typically means near or below average temps.

You can spot the impact on next week's temperature forecast. Though it looks like this might not last long. We could be headed towards another warming period by the start of May!