03/17 Ryan’s “St. Patrick’s” Friday Morning Forecast

Good morning, Pine Belt!

That rain we’ve been talking about all week is finally here, and will be with us for most of the day before clearing. We’re mostly just expecting rain, likely light-to-moderate with a few heavy pockets mixed in, but we can’t rule out a few thunderstorms. Severe weather isn’t a large concern, but as the front exits the area it is expected to “flare up,” leading to a level 2 severe risk for our Southeastern half. The biggest threat today is wind as tornadoes and hail will be all but impossible, but we can’t rule out a few small scale flooding issues either under the right circumstances. That means the best advice is to be “weather aware” by paying just a little extra attention as it passes by and/or tracking its position with our free WDAM “First Alert” Weather App.

Even if the storms don’t do much as they pass through, today is still an interesting day weather-wise. We were at our warmest at sunrise in the mid 60s as the rain moved, but rapid cooling will begin in the early afternoon that’ll have us falling into the low-to-mid 50s by sunset. After that it’s off to the races as cooler, drier air rushes in bringing tomorrow morning’s low down into the chilly 30s again. Afternoons through the weekend won’t be much better, with highs bottoming out in the low 50s on Sunday before working their way up next week. We’ll still be in the mid-to-upper 50s by Monday though, which is the first day of spring and ironically starts with some of the coldest, frostiest lows we’ve seen in a while in the upper 20s. Thankfully for fans of Spring and warmer weather it won’t take long to get back to average and beyond. Expect around a 10 degree increase each afternoon, culminating with a high near 83 next Thursday. That sets us up with a familiar pattern for the end of next week...which is essentially the same we’re seeing now: a front will approach on Thursday, pumping up the humidity and temperature, but we’ll see slight cooling on Friday as the clouds and rain arrives. Despite the similar timing, don’t expect similar conditions after these two fronts. Today’s will have us in the blustery 50s for the next few days while next week’s looks as if it won’t even drop us out of the 80s!

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