7:00 AM | *Quite chilly today for this time of year...even colder and very windy to start the Mother's Day weekend*
Paul Dorian
6-Day forecast for the Washington, D.C. metro region
Today
Mainly cloudy, a bit of a breeze, unusually chilly for this time of year with occasional showers, maybe be even a brief heavy shower with a rumble of thunder, highs in the low-to-mid 50’s (normal high is now 73 degrees at DCA)
Tonight
Mainly cloudy with the chance of showers in the early evening hours, cold, lows not far from 40 degrees
Thursday
Partly sunny, cool, quite breezy, low-to-mid 60’s for afternoon highs
Thursday Night
Partly cloudy, chilly, near 45 degrees for late night lows
Friday
Mainly cloudy, cool, good chance for PM showers, upper 50's; rain showers at night and snowflakes can mix in
Saturday
Partly sunny, very windy, quite cold for this time of year, cannot rule out a rain or snow shower, near 50 degrees
Sunday
A cold start to the day, but mainly sunny skies will help to boost afternoon temperatures to near 60 degrees with far less wind than Saturday
Monday
Mainly cloudy, cool, chance of showers, lower 60’s
Discussion
Showers will continue today as low pressure intensifies off-shore and it’ll be unusually cool as the thick cloud cover will combine with an easterly flow to keep highs confined to the low-to-mid 50’s. These kind of highs could very well end up being some of the lowest maximum temperatures ever recorded for the 6th of May. After a breezy and cool day on Thursday, more rain will push into the Mid-Atlantic region on Friday afternoon as an even stronger low pressure system moves in this direction from the Tennessee Valley and there can be rain and/or snow showers on Friday night. This system will intensify significantly by the time it reaches the New England coastline on Saturday morning and it’ll usher in a very cold air mass for this time of year. Not only will it be an unusually cold day for this part of the nation on Saturday, but it’ll be very unstable as well with an extremely strong upper-level low sitting right on top of the region. As a result, NW winds will become very strong and there can even be a rain or snow shower in the area. Mother’s Day (Sunday) will get off to a very cold start and it’ll stay on the cool side of normal in the afternoon; however, the PM hours should be a lot more bearable than Saturday with far less wind and plenty of sunshine. Looking ahead, a warmer weather pattern finally appears on the horizon likely beginning during the 3rd week of May and tropical season will not be far behind.
Meteorologist Paul Dorian
Perspecta, Inc.
perspectaweather.com