Warmer with storms to end the work week

Tomorrow is the first day of spring (officially at 10:46 a.m. EDT), and it will be an active weather day around the region. Winds will shift around to the southwest ahead of another front, which will approach the region from the northwest. The winds could become gusty at times.

The day will feature showers in the afternoon, and after a break, a potent line of storms will roll through in the evening, stretching into the early hours of Saturday morning. The front will trigger some showers and storms, some of which could be on the strong to severe side.

If any of the storms do become severe, they are most likely to contain strong winds, but large hail, flooding rains, and even isolated tornadoes are all possible.

With a strong southwesterly wind, highs will wind up in the middle 60s despite some cloud cover. Lows Friday night will wind up in the middle to upper 40s.

Even though a front will be swinging through the area, we are expecting a very nice weekend. The colder air will continue to be bottled up to our north as high pressure sits over the southwestern Atlantic and Gulf. Highs on Saturday will be in the middle 60s and in the middle 70s on Sunday. The only downside to the weather will be the gusty winds that will develop on Sunday ahead of the next cold front. Just like the one tomorrow, this one will also have some showers and possible storms associated with it, although these will not be as strong as what we’re expecting tomorrow.

Once the secondary front is gone, temperatures will fall off quite a bit, but will still be close to normal at first. Highs on Monday through Wednesday will be in the 50s. Then another warmup is in the forecast by next Thursday as another warm front pushes through on southwesterly winds driven by high pressure off the mid-Atlantic coast.