Posted by Joe on Tuesday, March 5, at 8:30 am
Expect another spring-like day across the Valley today with afternoon temperatures peaking around 72°. We should stay dry for a better part of the day but clouds will gradually increase ahead of a weak cold front that will slide through eastern Ohio later tonight. We’ll also see increasing odds for rain and thunder as we make our way through the afternoon and evening. Showers, and perhaps some thunder, will become more likely toward and after sunset.
We’re not expecting any severe thunderstorms or anything overly strong tonight. While there is a touch of instability, current guidance shows the values to be fairly weak – enough to bring thunderstorms but not strong enough to pose anything stronger than garden-variety storms. A slightly higher risk of stronger storms stays off to our west tonight.
There is a decent slug of moisture available that showers and storms can tap into, though. Given that, any neighborhood that happens to end up under an overperforming shower or storm could see a period of moderate to heavy rainfall. Generally though, expect rain amounts of around 0.50″ to around 0.75″ in the area tonight through Wednesday.
Chances for rain showers will continue into Wednesday with the highest odds for rain during the morning. Probabilities for rain gradually taper off through Wednesday afternoon. There can be rumbles of thunder at times but chances are pretty minimal. Temperatures will be noticeably cooler – roughly 20° or so – but still warmer than normal.
Thursday will bring a respite from rain showers but low pressure will develop in the Mississippi Valley on Friday. As this system lifts out and migrates east, probabilities for showers will return to east-central Ohio and remain through the weekend. Uncertainty regarding the timing and track of this system is still pretty high at this time. Regardless of the path this system ends up taking it does look fairly certain that at least the first half of the weekend will be quite damp.
While temperatures after today will be cooler we will still be warmer than average (average daytime highs for us are around 45° during this time).
