Our cold front crossed east-central Ohio earlier this morning and is now southeast of the region. In response, winds have shifted west and picked up quite a bit. Wind gusts of 35 to 40 mph have been fairly common this morning across the region.
The strongest wind gusts will occur during the morning hours and they will weaken somewhat this afternoon. However, winds will remain quite gusty today with 40 + mph gusts possible into this evening.
A Wind Advisory remains in effect for the region until 8:00 p.m. this evening.
Colder and drier air will rush in over the region today on the back side of our front. High temperatures for the day will occur this morning and temperatures will drop off to the 30s through the afternoon. I can’t completely rule out a spritz or two of light snow in a few spots today.
With that drier air mixing in we will see some clearing and peaks of sun late this afternoon.
Those gusty winds will back off this evening and tonight as high pressure builds. We should remain dry overnight but it will remain a bit breezy yet. Temps tonight will dip to the mid 20s but it will feel much colder with a gusty 30 mph west wind.
Thursday will bring a partly sunny day with weak high pressure in control. Breezy conditions will continue out of the west with occasional 20 mph gusts. Highs tomorrow will only reach the mid 40s – about 15 degrees colder than we should be for the first week of April.
FRIDAY AND THE WEEKEND
All computer models are on board and in good agreement of low pressure crossing south of Ohio Friday night into Saturday. This morning’s model runs place the storm center a little farther north which, if correct, spread snow showers into east-central Ohio Friday night.
Based on this morning’s modeling, this system would spread light snow showers south to north into east-central Ohio Friday night. Current data suggests little or no accumulation. The question I have this morning is will the slight shift to the north for this system continue?
Since April snow forecasts are really easy to bust, I’ll keep the chances for snow showers Friday night and Saturday morning fairly low today. I may bump the odds up a bit in the future if the trend to the north continues in subsequent model runs. This is only Wednesday and it’s a bit too early to toss around any concrete numbers but an inch or two MIGHT BE possible. Low confidence forecast for now.
Any snow showers should depart by Saturday morning leaving us with a mostly cloudy and very chilly day with afternoon temperatures in the low 40s. Not exactly what one would call a springlike day.
Temperatures will not be much better on Sunday but at least we should see more sun than Saturday. Highs on Sunday will be around 43. Still, very chilly for the first part of April.
NEXT WEEK
Still no signs of spring as system after system cross the region. Oh, there will be a day or two where temperatures tease us with a little spring warmth, but for the most part temperatures will remain below average through the upcoming week.
Ensemble trends and climate forecast models do finally show improvement toward mid month but until then, spring looks to be on hold.
